Manila Galleon Archaeology in the American Continent

DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott S Williams.

The Beeswax Wreck Project is an all-volunteer, non-profit effort to identify and locate a proto-historic wreck locally known as the Beeswax Wreck of Nehalem, Oregon, USA. The results of the ten-year effort by a multi-disciplinary team are reported, including the identification of the vessel as the Manila galleon 'Santo Cristo de Burgos', lost in 1693. Remote sensing and dive survey efforts to locate hull deposits that could confirm the identity of the vessel will be discussed. Despite the lack...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ruben Manzanilla. Roberto Junco. Salvador Estrada.

In 2015 and 2016 archaeological work was carried out at the historic fortress of San Diego, Acapulco, in the Pacific coast of Mexico by the project "Maritime Archaeology of the Port of Acapulco". Excavation on the outer wall yielded materials from pre-Hispanic times, all the way to the XX century. Diverse ceramics such as local wares, majolica’s from many parts of Mexico and porcelains from China and Europe, were recorded. Glass, metal and a variety of animal and human bones were also collected....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Edward P. Von der Porten.

Our fourteen Mexico-United States expeditions from 1999 to 2015 to a wreck site along the desert shore of Baja California, and study of contemporary documents, have enabled us to reconstruct the story of the earliest eastbound Manila galleon shipwreck.  The results include dating the ship to the period 1574 through approximately 1578, recovering her history, and explaining her tragic fate.  We have discovered lead sheathing with iron nails from her lower hull, large amounts of beeswax from her...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Russell K Skowronek.

For two and one half centuries from 1565-1815 the Manila Galleons navigated the vast expanses of the Pacific laden with the highly desired exotica of Asia- spices, fine textiles, and glistening porcelains. Acapulco, while the terminal port for the eastward-bound vessels was in reality the starting point for the distribution of their cargoes to the Iberian motherland and to the farthest corners of their colonial New World empire.   These commodities not only captivated the imagination of Spain’s...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Peter Von der Porten.

This paper discusses the use of metal detectors in the investigation of a late sixteenth-century Manila galleon shipwreck in Baja California, Mexico. The use of metal detectors has successfully identified artifacts and structural remains from the ship, and has aided in the delineation of the boundaries of the terrestrial portion of the wreck site. This paper discusses the types of metal targets expected on the wreck, metal detecting methodologies developed over many field seasons, examples of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ronald Spores.

This presentation defines and underlines the importance of a systematic "Convergent Methodological Approach" to studies of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade from 1565 to 1820, combining archaeological, geomorphological, and historiographic methods in investigations relating specifically to the "Beeswax Wreck" of Manzanita-Nehalem Bay, Oregon, which are now progressing rapidly, and thereby demonstrating the value of this integrative approach to the study of the galleon trade and to American...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Roberto Junco.

In 2006 a survey was carried out in the north coast of Guerrero, Mexico that pointed to possible smuggling activities related to the route of the Manila Galleon. Several dozen shards of Chinese porcelain were recorded. Analysis of the Chinese porcelain determined that the collection was part of one depositional event and can be attributed to the late XVI century. In the collection are several common types such as phoenix plates, bowls and cups. Related to the porcelain was a ceramic type known...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mitch W Marken.

This paper discusses the purpose and meaning of markings found impressed into pottery vessels, beeswax blocks, or carved into silver bars and possibly other trade goods shipped aboard Spanish galleons between 1500-and 1800. The paper will discuss examples recoverd from shipwrecks from the trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific trade, archival evidence and modern correlations. 

DOCUMENT Citation Only John P Schlagheck.

Stoneware has long been held by archaeologists as a problematic artifact category.  Stoneware is troublesome to date with any precision, difficult to source, and decidedly less flashy than even the most pedestrian porcelains.  However, a study of the stonewares from the Manila galleon wreck site Baja California, in the form of sherds from large utilitarian storage jars, is an opportunity for gaining additional knowledge about the contents of a ship that, in the late sixteenth century, was in the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jack G Hunter. Brooke Basse.

The Baja California Manila Galleon shipwreck site location was established from analysis of onshore artifact distribution.  Increasing attempts have been made to investigate the offshore source of this material by utilizing magnetometry and the excavation of detected anomalies.  The magnetometer surveys went well and buried iron associated with the wreck site were buoyed and mapped.  However, investigation of the buried anomalies proved to be more difficult than anticipated, as they were found...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brian M. Fahy. Veronica Walker-Vadillo.

This paper lays out the the current archaeological findings of the Manila-Acapulco Trade route, and analyzes the navigation pattern as they travel from Manila, through the embocadero then travelling the northern trade winds over to North America. The route can take 4-6 months, and takes a heavy toll on the crew and their passengers. almost one third of this time is taken to traverse the Embocadero, a water route weaving through the middle of the Phillipine Islands. Knowing there were other...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marco Meniketti.

For over two centuries galleons carried treasure and commodities between Asia and Mexico, crossing the Pacific along established routes that took advantage of currents and winds. The voyage was difficult and the hardships endured were extreme. At least four are known to have been lost along the Pacific coast between Washington and Baja California, although none have been recovered archaeologically. In California, just north of the San Francisco Bay, the galleon San Agustin was wrecked at Pt....