Maritime record MWX1555 - Unidentified 1630 Spanish Craft

`One hundred and eighty Spaniards shipwrecked. (1)

`...ship was a total wreck off Burton, and 130 Spanish came ashore, including the captain. There was extensive looting. (2)

Source (2) contains two consecutive entries for this vessel, one for JAN-1629 and one for JAN-1630; the use of Old Style and New Style respectively would account for the apparent discrepancy in dates. [Prior to the introduction of the Gregorian [New Style] Calendar in England in 1752, the Julian [Old Style] Calendar was in use, in tandem with the custom of marking the New Year on 25th March. Thus in the Old Style calendar dates between 1st January and 24th March inclusive were a year "behind" the New Style reckoning, still in use in modern times.]

Master: Don Antonio Date of Loss Qualifier: R Additional sources cited in United Kingdom Shipwreck Index: C SP Dom Charles II Vol. CLVIII p168(No 61): Burton Bradstock Book John Eastwood p13 (3)

Spanish vessel with 180 survivors wrecked off Burton [Burton Bradstock, approximately 3km SE of West Bay]. (4)

'Jan. 20.Grant to Sir Thos. Freke and Endymion Porter, of iron ordnance, ropes and sails, by them preserved from a Spanish ship wrecked on the coast of Dorset, in satisfaction of moneys by them disbursed for 130 Spaniards, shipwrecked. [Docquet.]' (5)

The building date for this vessel is an estimate based on an average age at wrecking of twenty years. This average is derived from those vessels wrecked on the Dorset coast whose age at wrecking is known.

Calendar of State Papers Domestic. Charles I, 1629-31, Vol. CLVIII, No.61 (Monograph). SDO20501.

National Record of the Historic Environment, 900419 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<1> Larn, Richard, 1992, United Kingdom shipwreck index, Extracted 23 November 1992 (Index). SWX5030.

<2> Larn, R, and Larn, B, 1995, Shipwreck index of the British Isles, volume 1 : Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset Section 6, Dorset (AJ) Vol 1 (Monograph). SWX4541.

<3> 1975, Dorset magazine : the county magazine vol. 48, p13 (Article in serial). SWX4573.

<4> Scott, G, 2006, West Bay, Dorset. Undesignated Site Assessment, Final Report, 21 (Unpublished document). SDO15144.

Record last edited

Feb 13 2024 3:47PM