Times of the Islands Spring 2022

Every so often, however, a wreck stands out with
a tale of transcendent irony. A voyage of the doomed
cursed by the plunder they carry. A desperate reckoning
of the soul as mortality beckons. Such is the case of
the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Pura y Limpia
Concepción, one of the richest treasure ships of all time.
On April 21, 1640 the Concepción set sail from the
Bay of Cadiz, Spain, as the Capitana (Flagship) of the La
Flota de Nueva España (The New Spain Fleet), a convoy
of 21 ships bound for Vera Cruz, Mexico. In the months
before, the Concepción had been refitted with new masts,
sails, anchors, deck space, and 36 bronze cannons. They
transformed the ship from a nao (large merchant ship)
to a formidable galeón that carried 500 passengers that
included noblemen, servants, fortune seekers, friars, and
bureaucrats. Stowaways too bribed their way onto the
ship, trying to remain invisible. Also on board were hundreds
of penned up animals, barrels of wine, and crates
of supplies—all to fortify and expand the settlements in
the colonized lands in the Americas.
The more privileged passengers took up quarters in
the lavishly decorated superstructure or “poop decks” at
the stern, towering four stories above main deck. They
included the new Viceroy for Mexico and and three bishops
who brought with them religious relics, including,
purportedly, a thorn from the crown of Jesus Christ and
the severed finger of St. Andrew. As added protection, a
magnificent statue of the Virgin Mary, the patroness of
the vessel, was fastened with bolts to the poop deck for
all to see.
The fleet kept close together during the crossing
and a sharp lookout for Corsairs or pirates who appeared
menacingly on the horizon from time to time. On June 24,
all ships made it to the port of Vera Cruz, a stifling hot
and humid town on the Mexican coast and the gateway to
what the newcomers called New Spain. Soon after arrival,
the fleet commander, known as the Capitana-General,
died, probably of yellow fever. That elevated Admiral
Juan de Campos to the new Capitana-General on the flagship
Concepción. The shuffle also promoted Don Juan de
Villavicencio to the rank of Vice Admiral or Almiranta on
the smaller galleon San Pedro y San Pablo. Villavicencio
at just 37 years old was already an experienced veteran
of many Atlantic crossings. De Campos, by contrast, was
more a businessman than a mariner.
Fateful delays
The ships stayed anchored for a year to await the arrival
of mule trains and boats carrying tons of silver mined by
enslaved Native Americans and Africans in Mexico and
Petosi (now Bolivia), along with gold bullion. They also
waited for another caravan making its way overland from
Acapulco, this one hauling jade, silks, spices, fragile porcelain
pots, and other luxuries from China brought across
the Pacific by the Manila fleet.
When the valuable cargoes arrived, haggling merchants
traded the supplies from Spain for the silver and
other valuables that were loaded onto the Concepción and
the San Pedro y San Pablo for the voyage back to Spain.
The Concepción alone took in at least 100 tons of silver,
possibly as much a 140 tons, filling it up to the gunwales.
No galleons with treasure had made it back to Spain in
1640, causing great anxiety for shipowners, merchants,
and the Spanish Crown. Spanish King Philip IV in particular
desperately needed his royal fifth (quinto real) cut of
the treasure to pay his armies to keep the wars going with
the Dutch and French. But as coffers emptied and time
dragged on, bankruptcies loomed for all.
Just before departing Vera Cruz for a stop in Havana,
de Campos switched the Capitana of the fleet from the
Concepción to the San Pedro y San Pablo. The decision
appeared to be triggered by the deteriorating condition
of the Concepción’s from shipworms that had worsened
while at anchor for a year in warm tropical waters.
Villavicencio, now in command of the Concepción, forcefully
pointed out that the ship would need to be repaired
in Havana before it could make it back across the Atlantic.
In making the switch, de Campos also made a fateful decision
to transfer the inexperienced senior pilot, Bartolomé
Guillen, to the Concepción.
The fleet set sail for Havana in late July. The leaking
and slow moving Concepción took a long 35 days to
reach Cuba’s bustling capital city on August 27, 1641.
That date put the ships a full week after August 20, the
last day Spanish shipmasters deemed it safe to depart
Havana to avoid hurricanes. The ships remained in port
another 17 days to take on more passengers and allow
Villavicencio to caulk the seams of his ship. But he still did
not feel the repairs were sufficient for safe passage. He
petitioned de Campos for a further delay, but to no avail.
De Campos, well aware of the crown’s urgent dependence
on the treasure, wanted to get underway and brooked no
more postponement.
De Campos’s anxiousness to set sail, however, was
also driven by a more self-serving motive. La Flota de
Nueva España was supposed to be joined by another fleet,
La Flota Terra Firma, on its way north from Cartageña to
Havana with its own treasure of precious metals and jew-
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