[MR] 1559 Shipwreck Found Off Pensacola, Fla.

[Tracie Brown]

This is always exciting news. Archeologists have known that the ships were in the bay, and generally where, but actually locating them has taken time, even though they're in fairly shallow water. They're covered up in sand. Unfortunately they do not contain a lot of high-value artifacts because they went down in only 10-12 feet of water, and quite a lot of it was salvaged at the time.  While the good folk of St. Augustine, Florida bill themselves as the oldest settlement in Florida, several settlements in the Pensacola area predate them. (St. Augustine is the oldest *continuous* settlement in Florida.)

Tristan de Luna's 1559 settlement was quite large -- about 1400-1500 men, women and children, including imported native Americans. The earlier native American inhabitants had died off or moved away. This is about the same population as Pensacola had in 1845, when Florida became a state.  Unfortunately, this and subsequent 16c settlements could not survive hurricanes and internal dissention, and Pensacola was not permanently (re)settled until 1696.

When I lived in Pensacola, I volunteered for the Pensacola Archeological Society and I was able to help with some of the conservation projects (mostly paperwork, but the documentation's gotta get done). There was this breastplate, or rather a mass of corrosion surrounding what had once been a breastplate. It was sent though a ct scanner (or maybe it was an MRI) to reveal the details of the breastplate. The museum had a reproduction on display next to the lump of corrosion. There used to be an on-line tour of the exhibit, but I can't find it now.

Then there was this thing: http://www.flheritage.com/facts/reports/places/index.cfm?fuseaction=FullImage&id=948
It looks like one of those commuter coffee cups, but its metal and about 3 ft tall. A stew/soup pot, with a wide base for stability and a narrow opening to keep the contents from sloshing out.

Jewels and gold? A little bit, but the 1559 expedition made sure they salvaged as much as possible. Besides, these ships were carrying settlers to La Florida, not treasure back to Spain.

More about 16c Pensacola and what's left of it:
http://www.flheritage.com/archaeology/projects/shipwrecks/emanuelpoint/project_information.cfm
http://www.ipa.min-cultura.pt/pubs/TA/folder/18/296.pdf
http://www.de-luna.com/pal.html

The European exploration and settlement of the Americas during the SCA period is much overlooked in the SCA. I find it fascinating. Courageous or crazy, it was quite an adventure to sail on those little ships, tromp around in the wilderness, and try to survive and even thrive. I'm not sure what it would take to get me to do something like that. 

-- Signy (I think I'm staying home this weekend)