Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 1977 Dec
Contents
cannons, probably too great a burden for a normal slaver. Most likely the ship was bound eastward, returning from a profitable voyage to the Caribbean and heading once again for the Netherlands before returning to the West African coast. Whatever the circumstances, the discovery is a major one in the continuing search for clues to America's past. Dubbed the "Manilla Wreck" by its discoverer, veteran Bermudian diver Harry Cox, the ship represents the largest known collection of slave-trade currency, in the form of barter beads and manillas. Further salvage of the wreck will undoubtedly shed valuable light on an in human but nonetheless significant aspect of New World empire. UCH DISCOVERIES paint an increas ingly graphic picture of what I call "the reach for the New World"-the period of two and a half centuries between Colum bus's historic landing on the island of San Salvador in 1492 and the decline of Spanish power in the Americas. During those turbu lent, heroic, and often brutal years the New World served as a vast arena for the Old in a struggle in which both paid a terrible price. Nowhere is the price more thoroughly item ized than among the maritime victims of that historic struggle-the countless ships whose remains are strewn across the ocean floor of the New World. Over the past 25 years I have explored a great many of those wrecks for the treasures they contain, treasures not in a monetary sense but in terms of knowledge. In many cases artifacts recovered from the sea are far better preserved than those ashore. In addi tion, they can often be more precisely dated through records of marine disasters. To have such exact dating adds immeasurably to the value of certain finds by establishing their relationship in historical patterns. I tend to think of every shipwreck as a combination lock, a unique set of tumblers to be arranged in proper sequence for access The author served as Curator of the Division of Historic Archeology and Director of the Under water Exploration Project at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C., until 1973. Educated at Vanderbilt University, Mr. Peterson is a specialist in ancient and medieval coins, and an expert in naval history. STOCKPILE of glass beads (facing page),found with the 18th-century Bermuda wreck, was the coin that delivered Africans into bondage. The ship, possibly an escortfor slave carriers,also yielded a glass intagliofrom a seal showing St. George and the dragon (above). Salvaged artifacts graphically recapture a fierce competitionfor New World trade. Spain asserted a monopoly in the Indies after the monumental voyage of Columbus in 1492, while other nations, chiefly England, France, and the Netherlands, successfully challenged her power. 727
Links
Archive
1978 Jan
1977 Nov
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page