Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
In 1634, the galleon Los Tres Reyes was wrecked at the entrance to Cartagena harbor on Aug. 4. Local boats were recruited to do the salvage. The work was done mostly by black slaves, and even though they were clearly designated as slaves, they were paid three reales a day for their work.
Pages were the lowest paid of mariners. They were often orphans with no better choices in life, or wanting to learn and develop a career as a seaman. Above the page was the apprentice seaman and common seaman.
The highest paid of a fleet was the captain-general of the galleons, who around the year 1630 would make about 5000 reales a month. In descending order from there was the admiral of galleons, captain-general of merchant fleet, admiral of merchant fleet, joint captain sea and land, sea captain, master, master or rations, pilot, contramaestre, diver, guardian, master gunner, water bailiff, dispenser or provisions, notary, chaplain, carpenter, caulker, cooper, gunner, drummer, barber/surgeon, and then the common seaman.
That information is taken from original source documents in the Spanish archives and published in Carla Rahn Phillips' book, Six Galleons for the King of Spain. That book follows the building and life cycle of six galleons built in the early 1600s, including costs, logistics, events, etc.
I think we often forget that people of the treasure fleets. This book puts the treasure fleets into a more complete and realistic context.
I have some personal observations from the 1715 Fleet beaches that I've wondered about over the years. One is the high percentage of half reales found on some of the wreck beaches relative to the small number of small denomination cobs salvaged from the nearby wrecks. One thing I've wondered is if the half reales (and some trade goods such as silver rings, which have not been found on the wrecks) were used as payment for the salvage workers. I have no evidence to support that idea.
The lack of silver rings found on submerged wreck sites by treasure salvage crews is a bit puzzling because silver rings have been found on Spanish colonial archaeological sites.
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Google, who has cooperated with China to develop a repressive government-controlled internet for China while suppressing conservative expression in the US, says China is well on its way to developing a dominant internet to rival that of the US. US tech companies have been willing to give up their intellectual capital to have a piece of the Chinese market. China is making a serious move to be THE world leader, and a big part of that is control of the information super highway. The interenet, as you probably know, was originally developed by the US Department of Defense.
Here is a link about that.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/20/eric-schmidt-ex-google-ceo-predicts-internet-split-china.html
The internet is a indispensable tool for detectorists and treasure hunters. As someone who was into detecting before the internet was common, it has changed things dramatically.
Before the internet, research was much more difficult and there was very little sharing of information. A lot of the detectorists back in the eighties, especially those detecting for modern jewelry, were very secretive. Some of the best detectorists hunted mostly before sunrise and, were seldom seen and never told what they found. Some of that is still in me, although I've certainly opened up a lot.
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| Source: nhc.noaa.gov |
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
