Santo Domingo

The fleet was in Havana.

Sailing conditions were difficult and the captain general decided to winter in Cuba. However, apparently following a direct order from Philip III, King of Spain, the fleet set out for Spain in January 1606 with a treasure of more than eight million pesos.

Of the seven galleons in the fleet, four were wrecked by a hurricane near the Bahamas: Almiranta Santo Domingo, 600-ton Capitana San Roque, Nuestra Señora de Begoña and San Ambrosio.

Three galleons —San Gregorio, San Martín and San Cristóbal— managed to return to the Caribbean. An expedition was immediately sent from Havana to try to locate and salvage whatever they could of the cargo of the four sunken galleons, but after five months of fruitless searching, the Spaniards gave up hope of finding them.

A team sent by Historical Antiquities Resources Management Inc. conducted several surveys between 1994 and 1998, and claims to have found the remains of the Santo Domingo and the sites where the other three galleons rested.