![]() Each ship in the convoy carried crew, soldiers, passengers, provisions, and treasures from all over South America. After still more delays in Havana, what was ultimately a 28-ship convoy did not manage to depart for Spain until 4 September 1622, six weeks late. The treasure, which arrived by mule in Panama City, was so immense that it took two months to record and load it onto the Atocha. Nuestra Señora de Atocha had been delayed in Veracruz before she could rendezvous in Havana with the vessels of the Tierra Firme (Mainland) Fleet. Although there are no existing records, she likely had a high sterncastle, low waist, and high forecastle as was typical for an early 17th century Spanish galeón. She carried a square-rigged fore and mainmast and a lateen-rigged mizzenmast. She was rated at 550 tons, with an overall length of 112 feet, a beam of 34 feet, and a draft of 14 feet. The Atocha was built for the Spanish Crown in Havana in 1620. Following a lengthy court battle against the State of Florida, the finders were ultimately awarded sole ownership of the rights to the treasure. Much of the wreck of Nuestra Señora de Atocha was famously recovered by an American commercial treasure hunting expedition in 1985. ![]() It would trail behind the other ships in the flota to prevent an attack from the rear. It was a heavily armed Spanish galleon that served as the almirante (rear guard) for the Spanish fleet. The Nuestra Señora de Atocha was named for the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Atocha in Madrid, Spain. At the time of her sinking, Nuestra Señora de Atocha was heavily laden with copper, silver, gold, tobacco, gems, and indigo from Spanish ports at Cartagena and Porto Bello in New Granada (present-day Colombia and Panama, respectively) and Havana, bound for Spain. Nuestra Señora de Atocha ( Spanish: Our Lady of Atocha) was a Spanish treasure galleon and the most widely known vessel of a fleet of ships that sank in a hurricane off the Florida Keys in 1622. Hull constructed (rather poorly) from mahogany rather than traditional oak Wrecked at sea in a major hurricane on 6 September 1622 ![]() Cannon from Nuestra Señora de Atocha at the Archivo General de Indias, Seville
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