The Spanish Convoy of 1750: Heaven's Hammer and International Diplomacy

3. Shipwrecked

24 3 Shipwrecked At sea, land beckons yet threatens. All seven ships of the flota now reached the most dangerous stage of their brief voyage since leaving Havana—trying to reach safety on land. The Spanish word naufragio usually means “to be shipwrecked,” but it also has other connotations, one of which is “to experience a disaster.” After surviving the pounding dealt out by the hurricane, a majority of the ships proceeded to sink within sight of land. Five of the ships initially hit the coast of North Carolina and two the Atlantic island beaches further north along the Maryland-Virginia border. Unexpectedly, in this final struggle to survive, another Spanish ship, La Mariana, reportedly on her way from Campeche to Santo Domingo, appeared and joined the original seven. The most fortunate of the flota were the Godos and the San Pe­ dro (joined by the Mariana) which found themselves along the northernmost coast of North Carolina around Currituck. On 1 • • Shipwrecked 25 September the Godos managed to work its way into an inlet where it sounded five brazas of water.1 This was cause for celebration because, as her captain Pumarejo explained, the crew knew that they had saved their lives, at least for the moment. Amazingly, Pumarejo still had a serviceable cannon and, even more remarkably, found some dry powder aboard. The ship fired off a number of shots to attract help from shore. Disappointingly, the gunfire drew only the attention of a canoe full of so-called piratas. These pirates were really coastal scavengers who had just looted two nearby wrecked British ships, finding in the process a lone boy as a survivor . Whatever their real occupations, the distinction between pirate and scavenger could be easily blurred depending on one’s perspective. The Godos learned from her talkative visitors that nine other ships had beached nearby, that the neighboring coast was deserted, and that the surrounding waters approaching land were so shallow that large ships could get no closer than half a league before hitting bottom. This was hardly the information one would expect from true piratas hoping to loot a helpless Spanish merchantman . Furthermore, these loquacious visitors indicated that the closest port was forty-five miles away in Virginia and that local pilots could be hired at the entrance to the Chesapeake. This was all helpful information, and the piratas soon departed to look for more solitary quarry.2 While the exhausted officers took a day to discuss whether to risk striking out north, two other vessels (the San Pedro and the Mariana) entered their inlet on 2 September. Although in no better shape than the Godos, the two could still sail, and safety in numbers convinced all three to chance the short voyage to Virginia . On the way, the San Pedro lightened her weight by off-load- The Spanish Convoy of 1750 26 ing part of her cargo onto an island at the entrance to the bay. Still riding so low as to threaten hitting bottom, the crew pitched most of the remaining cargo into the sea.3 On 3 September all three vessels limped into Hampton on the north side of the Chesapeake. Because Hampton offered little security for the remaining cargoes and because no friendly offer of immediate help in manning the pumps to keep the ships afloat emerged from shore, all three Spanish vessels decided to cross the bay to the larger Norfolk and seek assistance there. Here, finally, appeared a haven for the Spaniards. Eventually, they would be joined by most of their countrymen who had survived the hurricane.4 While the struggle against the sea and weather was essentially over for these Spaniards, those who struck the Carolina coast farther south were not so lucky. Both the Salvador and the Soledad experienced a disastrous end to their encounter with the hurricane. The two merchant ships hit sandbars about five or six leagues apart north of Cape Lookout on 30 August, destroying the two utterly and completely. In the case of the Salvador, some of the crew had enough time to put a launch into the water. The sea soon swamped this last chance at escape, and only four crew (three sailors and a ship’s boy) made it ashore alive. The ship was quickly covered by seven to eight feet of sand, although there may have been time for a nearby Bermuda frigate to take off some cargo...