A Spanish Warship sinks off Anguilla on June 9th, 1772

It is well documented how large Spanish merchant vessel convoys ( or flota as they were called) sailed to Spain across the Atlantic laden with exotic goods from the Far East and treasure from mines in South & Central America. These convoys were targets for pirates and privateers and the Spanish responded by escorting the convoys with warships.

In late Summer 1771, King Carlos III ordered the dispatch of such a flota to the Port of Vera Cruz in the Gulf of Mexico. Don Luis de Cordoba was named commander. Thirteen (13) merchant ships were to depart in Spring 1772 accompanied by three warships. But it was realised that 13 may be too few for the cargo they intended to bring back, so the 990 ton warship El Buen Consejo was called up. The flota finally departed Cadiz on 29th May, 1772.

Hapless Captain

El Buen Consejo was commanded by Don Julián Antonio de Urcullu, an experienced (but lousy) sailor and Urcullu managed to get his ship separated from the rest of the group soon after they departed Cadiz. The boat was mainly filled with monks on their way to the Philippines, intending to cross Mexico by land and sail the Pacific. They had with them a host of religious artifacts (no pun intended).

Don Luis de Cordoba - in lighter mood

One of the religious artifacts recovered from the wreck

Wrecked
The boat got into trouble heading for St. Martin, and it was clear from the purser's account (oops) that they were fairly clueless as to how far away they were. As a result, they ran aground off Anguilla in the wee hours of the morning of the 8th July, 1772. Slowly everybody departed on board little boats (except for some individuals that stayed until 9th July drinking and generally looting the ship).

Rediscovered
In 1986 Leander "Bull" Bryan, a well-known resident of Island Harbour, Anguilla located the remnants of what appeared to be a colonial shipwreck. As time went by, iron cannons, cannonballs, anchors, rigging, pottery, brass belt buckles, glass and metal buttons, spoons & forks and unique bronze devotional medals were discovered. Unable to deal with the preservation of all these artifacts, "Bull " made sure that the site remained virtually untouched over the years that followed. From Spanish archives and historical accounts it became apparent that this was indeed the wreck of El Buen Consejo.

Anguilla has great dive sites and a number of excellent wreck dives. Anguilla's history and unique geography (being very flat) have ensured that there will be plenty of new wreck dives in the future!

Check out the dive sites here.....