The "Correio d’ Ázia" – an early 19th century Portuguese "galera" wrecked in Australia. Preliminary findings.

Summary

In 1816 the Portuguese "galera" ´Correio da Azia´ was sailing from Lisbon to China "against weather, seas and wind, fire, shallows and coastal dangers and errors of maps".

Carrying general cargo and more than 107.000 silver coins, the ship was never to reach its destination: on November, the 26th, she struck an uncharted reef off what was then New Holland and was hopelessly lost.

After a failed salvaged attempt in 1817, the loss of the ship quietly slipped into the History until its story was first uncovered in 1987, by the acquisition of a book detailing the salvage attempt and then, again, in 1995, when a manuscript of what happened that fateful day was uncovered in the Portuguese archives.

Although the search for the ´Correio´ was on, it was not until 2004 that the ship was finally found by a team of the Western Australia Museum.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Portuguese finds in Portugal and overseas archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 643