Description
Shipwreck Artifacts for Sale |
- Spanish Shipwreck Glass Emeralds
- Cut-Glass to se in Religious Crosses
- Jewels
- Salvaged from the wreck of the Nuestra Senor de los Milafros ( Our Lady of Miracles )
- Sunk: February 22, 1741, Punta Matanceros, Mexico
- This specimen is a small .2″ GLASS EMERALD that was recovered during salvage operations. The small specimen is housed in a 1.25″ gem jar and is nicely displayed within a Mat with a Label. The whole display comes in a 4.25″ x 5.25″ Riker Mount as shown.
- These cut-glass emeralds were intended to be set in religious crosses where they would have been given or traded to high ranking native people in unexplored areas of the Spanish Empire.
- More Historical Artifacts for Sale
Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas
From August to December 1654, the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (Our Lady of Wonders) waited in Cartagena, Colombia. They were waiting for a cargo of silver that would never arrive. Unbeknownst to the ship’s crew, its supply vessel had sunk on a reef. The Jesus Maria de la Limpia Concepción, had sunk on a reef off Ecuador that October.
Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (1656)
WHAT HAPPENED?
The Concepción’s silver was salvaged and stowed on the Maravillas. In addition to the galleon’s own fresh load of silver coins and bars the Lady of Wonders began its journey home to Spain. In order to avoid British War ships and Pirate ships they had to pass through the Bahama Channel. This was a shortcut between Florida and the Bahamas’ then-unmapped reefs. There, on January 4, 1656, the galleon lost its bearings.
Sailing as the vice-flagship of the Tierra Firme (Mainland) fleet, the Maravillas was rammed by its flagship and violently collided with a reef. The vessel sank like a stone, weighed down by its double cargo—the wreck of a wreck.
CURRENT NEWS
The new Bahamas Maritime Museum will feature finds from the “Maravillas,” a Spanish galleon that sank in 1656 with a cargo of gold, silver and gems.
