NUESTRA SENORA DE LA LUZ 1752

[aukepalmhof]

The Portuguese ship in the service of the Spanish crown that was shipwrecked called NUESTRA SENORA DE LA LUZ in 1752. Where and when built is unknown.


On March 29, 1748, a limited liability company was established in Lisbon to carry out trade in the trade to and from the port of Santa María del Buen Ayre of the registry ship NUESTRA SENORA DE LA LUZ, under flag and crewed with. Portuguese and licensed by His Catholic Majesty; license granted with quite a few and generous privileges compared to those extended at the time, which was reflected in the high commercial value of said ship. The members of that company had anticipated that the cargo brought from Lisbon, valued approximately at $1,300,000, was going to be sold in the ports of Buenos Aires, Chile, Lima and Potosí. Of the totals produced by the sale of the cargo, they would pay a total of 50% to Her Majesty for the rights to trade with the Indies and corresponding taxes. After deducting all expenses, the balance of profit would be distributed in Buenos Aires. For the return, it was anticipated that cargo would be taken, from third party merchandise to the purchase on behalf of the company that owned the ship of leather and other effects to trade in Europe.
On October 21, 1748, the frigate NUESTRA SENORA DE LA LUZ arrived at the Port of Buenos Aires. A single-deck ship officially classified as a war ship. Her original design had been modified to adapt it to the needs of commercial trade with Las Indias for the transport of cargo and passengers, with no more than 15 guns, a capacity of about 217 tons of payload, shallow draft and about 30 meters. of length.
It was assumed that their arrival and stay would be normal and common to the movement of those years. Quite the contrary, although the ship was able to set sail for Lisbon again at the end of March 1749, it was inexplicably delayed until the second half of March 1752. During the course of those years, a series of strange events surrounded to the ship
From the unusual change of Captain, with a dark plot of lawsuits and trials, to the big question of why her prolonged stay.
By 1748 the Mint of Santiago de Chile had already been established. A year later, it was already beginning to make its first serial machine coinages, monopolizing the prosperous South American market; which could not mint its gold and silver if not through the Mint of Lima or Postosí. Secretly, a very important part of the total production of coins minted during the years 1749 to 1751 in Santiago, was gradually and discreetly reserved to be shipped on a ship that was anchoring in the port of Buenos Aires, awaiting such precious cargo. Of that million-dollar production, someone very important, a military officer or politician of Her Majesty, had arranged for $200,000 to be sent to him, equivalent to about twelve thousand five hundred gold coins weighing twenty-eight grams each, in an extremely reserved manner; to be embarked on that ship that would travel alone and without ships to escort it.
Towards the end of March 1752, the chosen ship sailed from Buenos Aires carrying on board passengers, records of private funds and general packages; according to the cargo manifest. In the usual manner for the return, the loaded ship should have made a brief stopover in the port of Montevideo and almost immediately departed for Lisbon, its final destination. But contrary to this, upon arriving in Montevideo she extended his stay for three more months, a fact that was neither coincidental nor unforeseen, as arises from the precaution taken by some of the passengers who took enough money with them to cover their travel expenses. maintenance in the days that the final departure will be delayed in Montevideo.
On the morning of Sunday, July 2, 1752, twelve crew members and the Captain of the ship,Felico ds Fonseca and the supercargo P de Lea along with some passengers, were on land carrying out the final details of getting ready for the departure of the ship. Surprisingly and not so much for those who know the Río de la Plata, the wind began to pick up, making it impossible to embark the members who were on land along with the live cattle and other supplies. The frigate with almost all its cargo and without its commanding officers, only with the rest of the passengers, sailors and cabin boys, was forced to anchor about three miles from the mouth of the port, the first measure customary at the time as a precaution. to the "Sudestada" that was brewing.
In the early hours of the afternoon, the wind that was already worrying those on land and sea, became a storm so strong that it made all attempts to board the ship useless. The Captain, officers and the few passengers who had not boarded, watched helplessly from the beach as the defenseless ship was punished by the sea that threatened to throw it mercilessly against the stones of the coast. The frigate moved further and further away in search of a firm anchorage, trying to anchor somehow and withstand the storm. Before the end of the afternoon, the storm became so strong that it became dark prematurely, denying those watching from the beach from following the ship's destination. When dawn came again, the ship had disappeared...
(Then is given I think a story made up by the writer of the situation on board of the ship during the time when she was sailing from the coast till she was wrecked. Not any of the crew or passengers survived during the loss of the ship.).
The frigate NUESTRA SENORA DE LA LUZ when the furious storm broke out, proudly endured the punishment of the sea and the wind that harassed it with gusts of up to one hundred kilometers per hour. She was helpless in a desperate attempt to preserve the one hundred and thirty-one souls that she harbored inside her. She did not have enough capacity to endure that storm for long. There were not many options to choose from... either you ran with the storm, weathering the storm, or you endured the situation as long as you could,... until the sea freed the prey from it.
The decision to face the storm stopped being an option and became the only resource of life. Her few experienced sailors began to drop the anchor of the ship to get away from the port, towards which they were being pushed uncontrollably, thus seeking to keep a distance from it and its dangerous hidden rocks.
There came a time when the anchor began to drag, jumping on the bottom to give sudden jerks to the ship, with a concrete threat that it would be torn into pieces. The wind and sea gave no advantages, the punishment was continuous and increasingly intense against the hull of the ship.
When the wind, now in complete control of the situation, was blowing at an average of one hundred and ten kilometers per hour, the ship's defenders decided to weather the storm. The intention was to run with it trying to find a course that would take them parallel to the coast, which they could no longer see...
The passengers were sheltered below deck, sheltered from the cruel storm and away from dangerous maneuvers. By hiding, they knew that they had left the protection of their lives in the hands of the sailors.
The anchor ropes were so wet and tight that they looked like spears seeking life clinging to the bottom of the sea. They had to bite them as they could not maneuver with them and with some very little veiled surface, they let go into the wind and began to sail along with the storm. They corrected the heeling course, by force of rudder, desperately looking for a path parallel to the coast, which they did not know exactly where it was...
They, the defenders of the frigate, knew that to the east of the Port of Montevideo there was a hidden and treacherous rock formation like a death trap, known today as the Rock of Good Voyage, which was the first obstacle they had to overcome to live...
The force of the wind and its gusts gained control of the frigate. She was sailing at the will of the storm and while she was fighting completely heeled and without complaining about the punishment of the sea, the storm broke the ropes that held her sails... The sails fell and gave the wind its space so that it could gain advantage in the unequal fight...
Desperation became an accomplice to misfortune. The sailors had to reduce the surface exposed to the senseless wind... At the risk of slipping on the hull of the ship, some brave men managed to cut the ropes and poles and let everything fall overboard, there was no way of surrender but of fighting ... Masts, rigging and entanglements of ropes fell into the sea...
The ship was now lighter and had a lower center of gravity; so he recovered the list a little, but he was still sailing at the will of the current and the wind... He was frantically riding the waves heading straight for the coast that he could not see, but that was surely waiting there...
Suddenly the ship seemed to calm down. The measure of cutting the mast had been effective. For several minutes the crew and passengers were gently rocked by the now slow rolling of the ship. The sailors continued their effort to correct course, with the only resource of the rudder. They knew that the danger had not passed. The storm did not end and the wind continued to blow furiously trying to recapture the prey that had been lost. Inside the frigate, the desperate passengers, in the midst of blind darkness, felt their souls filled with hope when they realized that the violent blows against the waves had been changed by a continuous and soft undulating wave.
On deck, the inexperienced sailors, chilled by the cold and in the midst of that calm, began to listen to the murmur of the prayers of those locked up beneath them. At a certain moment, little by little, very slowly, the frigate turned to face the storm. The sailors looked at each other astonished without understanding what was happening...
The ship, lacking a veiled surface, began to rotate on itself, making the stern castle act as a sail. The wind now ran freely along the deck and, furious and vengeful, struck the surface presented by the construction on the stern and which was the accommodation for the officers and captain. Like the worst sea nightmare imaginable, the ship began to sail backwards. The apocalypse had won them over and desperate prayers were no longer enough...
At one point, one of the sides swung by the wind and waves, in an endless list, exceeded what the frigate could withstand... The turn of the bell surprised the sailors and trapped all the passengers who were trapped under the deck. . What was below was above and what was gloom and hope became total darkness, sea and death.
The mortally defeated ship with its belly towards the sky of lightning, while it finished flooding and destroying itself, accompanying all its sailors and passengers in death, drifted at the whim of nature until submerging at some point, a place from which even after It continued drifting, crawling on the bottom, until finally becoming trapped in some corner of the bed of the Río de la Plata...
During the five days that followed, no one heard from the frigate. On July 7, the first remains of the shipwreck were found on the coast in an area of ​​almost eight leagues. The pieces of the frigate NUESTRA SENORA DE LA LUZ , a week after its sinking, told of its misfortune, appearing testimonially along the entire coast that currently runs from Carrasco to Castillos. Only thirty-two lifeless bodies left the sea for the wind and current to return and deposit on the coast. Nearly a hundred missing and no survivors.
The wreck was intensively searched for months. Only on September 4, 1752, two months after its loss, was an important part of the ship's structure found. After two months of working on it, which, according to the style of the time, was cut into pieces using gramps?? and then dived, on November 29, 1752, they managed to reach the winery and rescued it over the course of three years, until almost 90% of its declared cargo; which did not include the secret boarding of the $200,000 or the smuggling of passengers.
After a difference between Captain General Andonaegui of Buenos Aires and the Governor of Montevideo Joseph Viana, following an instruction not to divulge the contents of some packages sent on the shipwrecked ship, ADONAEGUI wrote to Viana on February 15, 1753. a letter specifically informing him that said ship was transporting $200,000 that did not appear in the cargo record, meaning that he was aware that it was contraband.
Following its discovery in 1752 and for thirty years, the wreck was officially dived, always extracting, in greater or lesser quantities, gold coins, silver, jewelry and personal objects; until due to the presentation of their remains, the extraction became extremely difficult and dangerous, due to not having sufficient means or technology to face at that time, as today, the cold and non-visible waters of the Río de la Plata. .

http://www.cibernautica.com.ar/naufragi ... os/luz.htm translated by Google
Uruguay 1996 3p20 sg 2080, Scott1616E