Antonio Corzo’s flotilla (1554)

In 1553, a fleet of fifty-four ships under the command of experienced Captain-General Bartolomé Carreño arrived at the port of Veracruz, having lost only one galleon in Mexican waters.

Four of the vessels of this fleet left the port and headed for Havana on April 9, 1554, under the command of Antonio Corzo, to then make their way to Spain. San Esteban, San Andrés, Espíritu Santo and Santa María de Ycíar were the four galleons which set sail carrying two million pesos in wealth, varied goods and some three hundred people on board, including merchants, soldiers, clergy, prisoners, women and children.

On April 29, the four ships were hit by a storm and there was nothing they could do against the waves and the wind. Within a few hours, three of the vessels –the San Esteban, the Espíritu Santo and the Santa María de Ycíar– ended up sinking or running aground on the sandbanks in the area that is now the Padre Island seashore, in the state of Texas. Only one vessel, the San Andrés, escaped the storm and managed to reach Spain.

Many of the three hundred people on board these three ships, including crew and passengers, drowned while trying to reach the shore; others died of hunger and thirst as they walked southward along the beaches trying to find help. A group of survivors was mercilessly attacked by the native Karankawa tribes that inhabited the coast of the Gulf of Texas, from Galveston Bay to Corpus Christi Bay. These tribes had already been in contact with Spaniards since the expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez. Only two men from this group managed to save their lives. One was Marcos de Mena, who was left for dead after being wounded by an arrow. However, he survived and managed to reach Panuco, badly wounded. The other one was Francisco Vázquez, who returned to the area of the shipwreck and hid there until help arrived.

Some thirty men from the San Esteban managed to get on a boat and, under the orders of Francisco del Huerto, arrived in Veracruz to get help. Thanks to them, the port of New Spain sent a salvage expedition commanded by Ángel de Villafañe to the area, tasked with the mission of protecting and salvaging the cargo. Later, a second rescue contingent made up of six vessels, under the command of García de Escalante Alvarado, arrived in the area with the intention of recovering ingots and coins.

According to the testimonies of the time, the masts of the San Esteban could still be seen perfectly, since the galleon had touched bottom at a depth of barely four or five meters. The Espíritu Santo, whose captain was Damián Martín, was found nearby. It had run aground a few meters deep.

The Santa María de Ycíar, commanded by Captain Alonso Ojos, was located on August 20, 1554. Her hull had split and the cargo was scattered all along the coast, north of the mouth of the Rio Grande (Mansfield Channel).

García de Escalante’s expedition was able to recover some thirteen tons of silver, some personal belongings and part of the cargo which consisted of sugar, resin, cochineal dye, skins, wood and some 22,000 pesos. At the time, it was estimated that 41% of the cargo was recovered. About 23 tons of silver and other precious metals, as well as jewelry and religious objects, remained underwater.

The discovery

In the late 1950s, workers dredging the Mansfield Channel destroyed the remains of the Santa María de Ycíar. Only an anchor and a coin could be recovered.

In 1964, a diver found some remains of the Espíritu Santo and spent two years extracting objects from the wreck until she finally reported her discovery. After that, other divers located the remains and also started removing objects from the wreck. In 1967, a treasure hunter company, Platoro, Ltd., extracted about fifty objects from the wreck, including silver bars, gold ingots and navigational instruments.

In 1969, the State of Texas passed the Antiquities Act, which states that all artifacts from wrecks located within 10 miles from shore are owned by the State. Thus, treasure hunting was banned from the Texas coast, and litigation over the ownership of what had been recovered up to that time started. A settlement was reached with Platoro to compensate the company for its work in exchange for keeping the artifacts extracted. The role played by the Archaeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin was key in this discussion of underwater archaeological methodology. They were also the ones in charge of conserving, studying and restoring the artifacts from the 1554 shipwrecks.

The remains of the San Esteban were located in 1970, by the Institute of Archaeological Research, after a survey along 20 miles of coastline. The excavation of this shipwreck was commissioned by the Texas Antiquities Committee and conducted between 1972 and 1975. The layout of some of the artifacts from this wreck clearly evidenced the shape of the hull underwater. Although most of the wooden remains were lost, fragments of the keel and sternpost were documented.

Some of the recovered artifacts can be seen at the Museum of Science and History in Corpus Christi, Texas, including concretionated coins fused together in lumps, individual silver coins, the remains of several anchors, a piece of artillery, buckles, glass fragments, crucifixes, pins, thimbles, weapon fragments, pewter plates and a gorgeous astrolabe.

Since 1974, the archaeological sites of the two Spanish ships, the San Esteban and the Espiritu Santo, have been part of the Mansfield Cut Underwater Archaeological District; as memory and testimony of a common maritime past.

Ships assigned to this fleet

San Esteban (1554)
Galleon which departed Veracruz (MEX) bound for Spain. She sunk in Texas in 1554 due to a storm. This ship captained by Francisco del Huerto carried cochineal, coins, hides and skins, sugar, eastern ceramics and riches.
Espíritu Santo (1554)
Galleon which departed Veracruz (MEX) bound for Spain. She sunk in Texas in 1554 due to a storm. This ship captained by Damián Martin carried coins, riches and gold bullion.
Santa Maria de Yciar (1554)
Galleon which departed Veracruz (MEX) bound for Spain. She sunk in Texas in 1554 due to a storm. This ship captained by Alonso Ojos carried coins, riches and gold bullion.

Antonio Corzo’s flotilla (1554)

Ships assigned to this fleet

San Esteban (1554)

Espíritu Santo (1554)

Santa Maria de Yciar (1554)