From galleons to schooners: deforestation, wood supply and shipbuilding on 18th century Portugal.

Summary

On November 26th 1816, the Portuguese-operated ship "Correio da Azia", while sailing from Lisbon to Macao with general cargo and 107,000 silver coins, struck a reef off Western Australia.

After a failed salvage attempt, the "Correio" quietly slipped into the History. In 1995, a manuscript detailing her loss was uncovered in Portuguese archives. In 2004, a team from the Western Australia Museum found it.

The remains of the Correio da Azia are now more than silent reminders of Portugal’s involvement in the China Trade; they are, in fact, the pretext for an intensive archival research into the ever increasing deforestation of a country that still had to operate a multitude of vessels in order to maintain, supply and trade in a global Empire. Data compiled will show how all Portuguese blue water ships of that time were, like the "Correio da Ázia", built somewhere else other than Portugal. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Legacy data from maritime archaeological sites in Western Australia   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 379