The
Nautical
Archaeology
Digital Library

Nuestra Señora del Rosario (1622)

Filipe Castro

Introduction

Country: Florida

Place: Loggerhead Reef, Dry Tortugas

Coordinates:

Dated: 1622

History of Wreck

Nuestra Señora del Rosario was a 600-ton ship, part of the 1622 fleet, which was caught by a hurricane. It was lost on shallow water, possibly on the Loggerhead Reef, together with another, smaller ship, and completely salvaged by the Spanish crown soon after the hurricane.

Team

A site corresponding to this shipwreck was found in 1971 by the National Park Service, during a survey coordinated by George Fischer.  In 1981 and 1982 the site was surveyed by a joint team from Florida State University and the National Park Service Southeast Archaeological Center. A grid was carefully inspected and sampled, and test pits were opened, revealing two 17th century shipwrecks, but it was not possible to conclusively identify Nuestra Señora del Rosario as any of the two shipwrecks located.

The supposed Rosario site was given a reference FOGE-UW-9 and the second shipwreck, named Swivel Gun Nest, received the reference FOGE-UW-17.

Site

The site surveyed covered an area of 170 x 140 m and showed two clusters of artifacts (surface finds) from the same nature, with some timber remains, fasteners and concretions, ballast stones, and ceramics, mostly olive jars and whiteware ceramic sherds.

Hull Remains

Remains of timber were reported I the test pits opened during the survey, but no part of the hull was exposed.

Guns

A cluster of six wrought iron versos was located on the second site (FOGE-UW-17).

References