Figure 4

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Andrés de Arriola inherited a settlement on Pensacola Bay that was at the epicenter of a colonial battlefield on which three great powers of Europe--France, England and Spain--struggled for supremacy. Any territory gained by France or England along the Gulf Coast posed a direct threat to Spain's power base in Mexico. From a coastal settlement, a European rival could threaten Spain's silver mines in northern Mexico or its flota, the Spanish galleons laden with Spanish silver that followed the favorable currents flowing from the Bay of Campeche clockwise along the Gulf Coast (Figure 4).

In the eighteenth century, competition for the northern Gulf Coast intensified. In this era of heightened competition, Spain's insatiable need for naval stores, tapped Mexican, Central American and Caribbean supplies of timber that were tall and straight enough to be made into ship masts. The strongest masts of the largest ships built by Spanish shipwrights in Mexico were constructed from a single piece of timber. Combining several timbers weakened the mast and, by association, the ship itself. By the eighteenth century, few areas had abundant supplies of pine trees to serve as mast timbers. Carlos de Sigüenza and others, however, had discovered vast supplies of these long, straight softwoods, which bent but did not break, along the northern Gulf Coast. A settlement on Pensacola Bay would, thus, not only temper French and English designs on the region but also tap its most valuable resource: timber for ship masts (Hunter, 2000:6-8).

The Nuestra Señora del Rosario y Santiago Apostol was an important cog in achieving these intertwined goals of protecting the northern Gulf coast from European encroachment and extracting its most valuable commodity: timber. The earliest record of a Nuestra Señora Rosario y Santiago Apostol is found in a letter from Andrés de Pez to the King, dated January 15, 1696 (Pez, 1696). According to Bibiano Torres Ramírez, author of La Armada de Barlovento (a.k.a. the Royal Windward Fleet), shipwrights along the Rio de Alvarado (located south of Veracruz) built the Nuestra Señora Rosario y Santiago Apostol for the Royal Windward Fleet prior to 1696. The frigate had a 450-ton displacement and 44 guns. The ship's massive size distinguished it as the "gobierno," the designation of the third largest ship in the Windward Fleet (Torres Ramírez, 1981: 157-158, 315).

The Nuestra Señora Rosario y Santiago Apostol's first voyage seems to have been on August 4, 1696 when the vessel, commanded by Francisco Butron, and four other ships of the Windward Fleet, the Santissima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora de Atocha, the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, the Santo Cristo de Maracaibo and a patache, set out with a flota of 26 vessels bound for Spain, by way of Havana. The Fleet typically escorted the flota as far as the Bahama Channel. On August 25, the Fleet and flota arrived to Havana. After a long delay, the five ships of the Fleet, under the command of the General of the Fleet, Andrés de Pez and Admiral Guillermo Morfi, left the flota in Havana and departed November 11 with supplies for Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo. Pez's fleet arrived to Puerto Rico on December 14 and departed for Santo Domingo December 29, capturing two French frigates en route: the St. Louis and the Americana. Historian Bibiano Torres Ramírez says that the French frigates were later incorporated into the fleet as the San Luis and Americana (Torres Ramírez, 1981 315). However, a March 1700 document indicates that the masts, spars, nails and hardware were removed from the frigates and warehoused for use by the Fleet and that the hulls were subsequently junked and sold as scrap material. Later in the voyage, Pez's fleet came upon a squadron of four French ships. Ill winds forced the general to scatter his ships. He took the second largest ship of the Fleet, the capitana Santissima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora de Atocha, to Cuba. Captain Antonio de Landeche took the frigate Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and the patache to Ocoa and then on to Cuba where he rendezvoused with General Pez. The commander of the Rosario, Francisco Butron, took his vessel to Santa Marta, then on to Santo Domingo and ultimately to Cuba where he rendezvoused with Pez and Landeche. The French captured the largest ship of the fleet, the almiranta Santo Cristo de Maracaibo, which was under the command of Admiral Guillermo Morfi. Exchanged for French prisoners, Admiral Morfi returned to Veracruz, via Campeche, on June 28, 1697 (Torres Ramírez, 1981:159-161).

On May 28, 1698, the Nuestra Señora Rosario y Santiago Apostol, along with the Santissima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora de Atocha, the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and a bilander named the San José y las Animas, convoyed another flota to Havana. On this occasion, the Windward Fleet remained in Havana the greater part of July, while crews waited to escort the flota on to the mouth of the Bahama Channel. The escort from Havana to the Bahama Channel was compromised by poor weather conditions, as the Fleet lost sight of the flota and turned back before reaching the channel. En route to Santiago de Cuba, on the southeastern end of Cuba, the Fleet captured an English brigantine. From Santiago de Cuba, the Fleet gave chase to three unidentified large ships flying Spanish flags, but the Rosario and the captured English brigantine were unable to keep pace in calm winds. General Andrés de Pez returned to Santiago de Cuba where he had the Rosario and the brigantine lightened, offloading supplies destined for Santo Domingo and disembarking the captured British crewmen. Thereafter, he reinitiated the chase, which proved futile. Afterward, the General of the Fleet dispatched the Rosario and the launch of the Santissima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora de Atocha to the Windward Islands on a reconnaissance mission. The Rosario and the launch departed Puerto Rico on September 18. At the port of Guanica on Bieque Island, crewmen captured two English bilanders, which were taken back to San Juan Puerto Rico, dismasted and burned. General Andrés de Pez used part of the salvaged masts and spars to replace the main topmast and the gaff boom on the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Pez, 1699b).

In early December, the Windward Fleet arrived to Cartagena. By this time, the Santissima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora de Atocha, a storeship, the Rey David and the Rosario were leaking water. The Rosario also had lost its fore topgallant mast. General Pez careened the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, whose crew was manning two pumps, and removed the mainmast, which he used as a fore topgallant mast for the Rosario.

While in Cartagena, General Andrés de Pez learned of the ill-fated Scottish colonization effort at Darien, in modern-day Panama. The otherwise tightfisted dour merchants of Edinburgh and Glasgow were in a frenzy to colonize Darien in southern Central America, a place far removed climatically and in virtually every other aspect from the cold foggy crags of their native lands. Upon hearing the news, General Pez left Cartagena for Portobelo, also in modern-day Panama, arriving in mid-January 1698. He probably took the Santissima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora de Atocha, the Rosario, the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and, perhaps, the storeship Rey David (Pez, 1699a, 1699b). The Santissima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora de Atocha was leaking heavily. The Rosario probably was as well (Prebble, 1978 167). By January, the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe had been junked out of the fleet. By March, the patatche had been junked as well. As a result, a contract had been drawn up for two ships to be built in Campeche: one with a keel length of 55 cubits and the other of 45 cubits. However, they were not expected to be ready before the end of 1698 and it was the end of 1703 before they were both finished (King, 1700, 1704; Moctezuma, 1698).

In July 1698, the Windward Fleet limped into Veracruz, where the crews waited for their next assignment (Moctezuma, 1699b; Torres Ramírez, 1981 315). On August 28, 1699, Viceroy José Sarmeinto Valladares, the Conde de Moctezuma and Tula, ordered General Andrés de Pez to aid in the effort to dislodge Scots from Darien. The Nuestra Señora Rosario y Santiago Apostol presumably was part of the Fleet that sailed from Veracruz for this purpose (Moctezuma, 1699b). The effort to dislodge the Scots stretched into April 1700. Thereafter, the Windward Fleet returned to Veracruz and its duties of convoying the flotas to the Windward Channel, via Havana, and delivering the annual subsidies to the Windward Islands, Cuba and St. Augustine.

In 1700, the death of the last Spanish Hapsburg king, Charles II, initiated a struggle between the great powers of Europe that culminated in the War of Spanish Succession (1702-1713). The year 1702 found the Windward Fleet in Cartagena. In March 1703, the Fleet, consisting of only three ships, limped back into Veracruz. The Rosario was now apparently the almiranta of the Fleet and the Santissima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora de Atocha the capitana. Both were sent from Veracruz to Campeche to be overhauled (Albuquerque, 1703; Labora, 1703). A new capitana and patache had been commissioned in 1698 but were not delivered until late 1703 (King, 1700 Albuquerque, 1704 #157; Moctezuma, 1698; Torres Ramírez, 1981:171-172) (Appendix A; Appendix B).

During 1703, the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y Santiago Apostol was apparently being repaired. On March 21, 1704 an overhauled Rosario departed Veracruz for Havana (Arriola, 1704a; Torres Ramírez, 1981:172-173). On July 1, the Rosario, accompanying the new capitana, the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe y San Antonio, under the command of Andrés de Pez (only recently back at the helm after charges of cowardice in the line of duty interrupted his tenure), stopped briefly in Venezuela and Puerto Rico, before returning to Havana on August 12 and, ultimately, to Veracruz that same month (Torres Ramírez, 1981:172-173). As for the condition of the Rosario by this date, one can only assume it was poor, judging from the condition of the Windward Fleet as a whole: "the vessels of the Windward Fleet were found after an extended campaign, not only badly treated but in need of extensive and expensive repairs. However, the lack of tackle, cordage and rigging, barrels (piperizia) and the rest of the equipment necessary for their navigation, made it necessary [for] His Excellency [to order] only the Capitana hastily prepared" (Misc., 1705c; Torres Ramírez, 1981 173). The poor condition of the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y Santiago Apostol may have made it especially vulnerable to the storm that wrecked the vessel in Pensacola Bay one year later, as Landeche would later remark of the wreck: "the frigate was so greatly rotten that half of it broke off and remained in the depths in such a fashion that it was buried in sand up to the beams" (Landeche, 1706).

Were there other candidates by the same name that might have sunk off Pensacola Bay in the September 1705 storm? There were, after all, other ships that bore the name Nuestra Señora del Rosario, a rather common designation for ships destined for precarious careers on open seas. A second Nuestra Señora del Rosario appears in the historical record in 1699. In June of that year, Viceroy Conde de Moctezuma ordered a survey of all the ships in the harbor of Veracruz in search of one that drew about 11 feet of water. Three ships met the criteria, one of which was the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y San Joseph. They were inspected, inventoried and a report was drawn up on each candidate. Andrés de Arriola and the Crown Attorney, Baltasar de Tovar, reviewed the three options and in late June decided on the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y San Joseph as the best and most economical choice. The owner of the ship was Alejandro Pott, a well-known merchant in Veracruz who also built ships in Campeche (Misc., 1699; Moctezuma, 1699a; Torres Ramírez, 1981; Tovar, 1699).

In early 1700, Andrés de Arriola sailed the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y San Joseph to Pensacola Bay with supplies and orders to reconnoiter the coast west of the bay in search of a French squadron. Accompanying Arriola was the military engineer, Juan de Siscara, with whom Arriola was to write up a detailed description of the Gulf coast (Moctezuma, 1699b). After depositing the supplies at Presidio Santa María de Galve, Arriola sailed this version of the Rosario west. Before Arriola could make the return voyage to Pensacola, however, a hurricane sank his ship off the "Keys of San Diego." The Viceroy explained the sinking of the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y San Joseph in a May 18, 1700 letter to the King.

He decided to return to Santa María de Galve and having made sail with a favorable wind on the 30th of March, he was becalmed in the afternoon and anchored on the coast. The wind rose up by the east at 8:00 at night and seeing that it was increasing, he raised sail and headed out to sea without being able to free up the main topsails (sin poder largar las velas de gavia) because the ship could not bear them. The wind and the sea were increasing each moment. A hurricane followed this of which he says he had not seen a greater one in his life. He sounded four brazas of water after midnight and realizing that the sea and the current was carrying him onto the Keys of San Diego without the possibility of overcoming it, he anchored with the best anchor that he had, a new hemp cable of 120 brazas in length. This broke after two jerks (estrechones) of the ship. He again put out two anchors which were dragging with the ferocity of the wind until it grounded upon a bar where it was washed over by such a great sea that it entered by the prow and left by the stern. He found himself forced to cut down the masts and cast the artillery, chests, ballast and everything of weight into the sea in such fashion that while the ship ordinarily drew fourteen palmos of water, it was lightened until it floated in eight. As dawn broke, they found themselves between two of the Keys of San Diego, passing more than two leagues from the shore and the wind and the sea rising. At noon on the 31st, it was finally submerged, bearing the people on the hull until the following day, the first of April (Moctezuma, 1700).

As Arriola sought refuge with the French at Biloxi, there was now the need for yet another ship for the Windward Fleet (Moctezuma, 1700).

Would yet another Nuestra Señora del Rosario fill that void? Bibiano Torres Ramírez suggests such. The historian, who fails to account for the fate of the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y Santiago Apostol and only mentions the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y San Joseph as purchased in 1699 (but does not list it among the vessels of the Fleet) seemingly suggests that a second Nuestra Señora del Rosario y Santiago Apostol was purchased in 1701 (Torres Ramírez, 1981:167, 315). The only difference between the first and third Rosarios--both of which share the distinction of being the Santiago Apostol--was a displacement of 150 tons. The first had a displacement of 450 tons and the third, a displacement of 600 tons. Torres Ramírez identifies the first Nuestra Señora del Rosario y Santiago Apostol as the gobierno of the Windward Fleet and the second as the almiranta of the Fleet. As the historian makes no mention of the second Rosario, the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y San Joseph, in a list of vessels in the Windward Fleet, possibly this is that ship. Or, perhaps, the 600-ton displacement he attributes to this latter version of the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y Santiago Apostol is in error (Torres Ramírez, 1981 158, 170, 315). However murky its origins, there is clarity on the demise of the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y Apostal Santiago in the shallow waters off Santa Rosa Island, within sight of the Spanish Presidio Santa María de Galve.

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