Iberian Shipwrecks

Filipe Castro

Introduction

Located on the extreme west of the Eurasian Continent, the Iberian Peninsula is an ethnically diverse region with a diverse coast, where many different boat building traditions evolved, separately or sharing influences.  By the late 14th century Spanish and Portuguese sailors traded and fished in an ever increasing area that extended from the North Atlantic to the Canary Islands.

During the following two centuries Iberian ships sailed into the North and South Atlantic, and after 1497 into the Indian Ocean, and soon into the Pacific Ocean. In 1519 the Portuguese sailor Fernão de Magalhães left Spain to circumnavigate the planet, in a voyage that he would not finish, but that would end back in Spain, three years later.

The ships of the Iberian expansion have been systematically looted and salvaged by treasure hunters, and remain perhaps the least understood artifacts of this adventure.

This page is intended to share data on the Iberian shipwrecks from which we have information:

Spanish and the New World

The 1588, 1596, and 1597 Armadas

Spanish Sips in European Routes

Portuguese India Route Shipwrecks

Other Portuguese Routes