A bored carpenter killed time at an unknown moment in the early 17th century with a knife and hand game, drawing symbols on the wood and playing tic-tac-toe. That huge oak plank ended up being used as the floor of the hold of a ship that must have been more than 50 metres long. And, at the end of that century, the enormous galleon, robust and prepared for transoceanic navigation, ended up shipwrecked at a depth of 19 metres for a still unknown reason, while it was anchored near the port of Cadiz. Until this past July 27, it emerged from the depths in a pioneering manoeuvre in Spain to carry out a detailed study of the shipbuilding systems of the time.
What was the name of the ship? When and what happened to it that it ended up wrecked? Where did it come from and where was it going? These are some of the questions that the specialists from the Cadiz Underwater Archaeology Centre (CAS) have set out to answer about the Delta Ithe name it received when it was located in 2012 while works were being carried out to expand the port of Cadiz. “It is the first time in Spain that a ship from this period has been studied out of the water,” said the Minister of Culture, Patricia del Pozo, on Monday during a visit to the tent that houses the preserved and extracted part of the wreck, some 20 metres long by seven metres wide, which correspond to its lower part, known as the ship’s plan.
But the first evidence that this large archaeological remnant made of oak wood – in addition to another clearer species yet to be identified – reveals is that it was much larger than what is seen today. “The keel is missing the seven metres of the stem (a large piece that curves until it becomes vertical), but the stern is missing another 20 metres,” explained Milagros Alzaga, head of the CAS, an institution dependent on the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage. In fact, in the rear part of the piece extracted from the water there are vestiges of the cockpit, where the main mast of the ship was located. The frames together of the structure speak of a strong and robust galleon, with a flat hold to accommodate important loads and capable of making “transoceanic voyages,” as the underwater archaeologist added.
In 2013, archaeologists found 27 iron cannons from Sweden under the sea, as well as 22 silver ingots from the mines of Upper Peru (now Bolivia), with markings dating them back to 1651. Now on land, these findings have been joined by the appearance of 10 fragments of old cannons and stones that were travelling as ballast in the hold to balance the ship, 75 cannonballs and American guaiac wood, highly valued at the time because of the belief that when infused it cured syphilis or rheumatism. However, this American cargo of silver and wood does not completely confirm that the galleon came from overseas when it sank. “Cádiz was one of the major ports with America and merchandise was unloaded here to be loaded onto other ships,” explained Alzaga.
Between now and November, the CAS specialists plan to dismantle the remains of the ship piece by piece, while documenting each phase and element with photogrammetry and three-dimensional scans that would make it possible to reproduce it on any scale. The final objective is to discover the construction details of a 17th-century galleon, given “the few examples that exist in the world,” as Del Pozo has pointed out. In the first few weeks, Alzaga’s team has already discovered that the Delta II There were no financial difficulties during its construction, “since square iron nails were used, which were more expensive”, but there was “a shortage of wood from large trunks, which meant that wood from other ships had to be reused”. On one of the oak planks already removed, on its inner face, there are cracks that are compatible with a carpenter killing his boredom, probably playing tic-tac-toe and sticking a knife between his fingers.
The ship’s arrival on land – where it is kept in constant humidity under a tent – has been an odyssey made possible by “the opportunity of the circumstances themselves,” as Del Pozo explained. The works at the container terminal at the port of Cadiz already caused the wreck to end up being displaced underwater from where it appeared to a shallower area of between six and eight metres in 2013. The straps and structure that were used then are what the technicians from the Port Authority of the Bay of Cadiz have now used to extract it, in a manoeuvre that will cost 2.6 million euros and which has been fully funded by this institution.
The missing 20 metres of the galleon introduce even more questions about what caused the ship to sink when it was anchored near the port of Cadiz. The archaeologists from the CAS do not rule out any hypothesis and the breakage could have been before, during or after the shipwreck. What does seem certain is that the galleon must have faced some kind of disruptive event, such as an attack or a great storm. Alzaga has pointed to this line when raising the question of whether a bell found in the 2013 excavation on which it read “Jesus, Mary and Joseph 1671” is linked to a strong cyclone that entered the bay of Cadiz at that time and caused several ships to sink in the area.
Whether the team can solve the mystery of the ship’s name or flag with new findings from the dismantling will depend on the studies in the coming weeks. Then there will be the dendrochronology studies—to be carried out by the IAHP and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David—which may shed light on the provenance of the wood and when it was cut. With the board-by-board dismantling completed, the cataloging done, and the sampling done, the team will be able to determine the origin of the wood and the location of the ship. Delta I It will return to the sea, anchored in a georeferenced deposit. The Ministry of Culture has ruled out its museumization for now, given that “there are no techniques that guarantee conservation,” as Del Pozo has assured. Behind it, on land, it will leave so much information that it guarantees research work for months or years. Perhaps there, in some crack in history, the puzzle of the robust 50-meter galleon that emerged from the seas of Cadiz almost 400 years later will finally fit together.
