Colonial Shipwrecks of Colombia: Cartagena de Indias
By Fritz Hanselmann From Explorers Journal
National Geographic Grantee and Texas State University Research Faculty Frederick “Fritz” Hanselmann and a top-notch team of archaeologists from Colombia and the United States are leading an expedition to locate and document historic shipwrecks off of the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Follow along with Fritz’s updates from the field.
Originally inhabited by numerous pre-Columbian cultures since approximately 4000 BC, based on evidence found in the archaeological sites of Puerto Hormiga and Monsú, numerous tribes inhabited the islands, peninsulas, and the bay of the region when Spanish explorers first noted the area in initial voyages throughout the beginning of the 16th century.
Founded in 1533, the city was given the name of Cartagena de Indias due to the fact that most of the crew hailed from Cartagena, Spain. The city soon became one of the most important ports in the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. With the discovery of gold in the pre-Columbian tombs of the Sinú Culture, the increased wealth of the already prosperous city led not only to a population increase, but also called out to pirates and privateers, such as John Hawkins and Francis Drake, who each sacked the city in 1568 and 1585. William Dampier, privateer and writer, described Cartagena as “…a city so well-known that I shall say nothing of it…”
Following Drake’s attack the Spanish Crown invested heavily in the city’s defenses and it soon became the most heavily fortified Spanish city in the colonies, which became crucial with the advent of the gold and silver shipments arriving from the mines in Potosí (modern day Peru) through the Pacific via Panamá. Cartagena was considered one of the finest ports in the world, serving the galleons of the Spanish trade fleets that annually carried the gold and silver through Havana and on to Spain. In 1741, the vastly outnumbered city withstood a massive two-month long siege by a British force of 186 ships and 23,600 men led by Admiral Edward Vernon. This would be the last foreign incursion against the city. With the decline of the Spanish Empire, Cartagena declared independence on November 11, 1811 following that of Bogotá, and, along with the rest of New Granada, won its independence August 7, 1821.
Today, modern-day Cartagena functions as an important port in modern maritime trade, a center for national and international tourism, its colonial historic center, named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, continues to entrance its visitors with a sense of history and beauty while walking the famed city walls and cobbled streets, a contrast to the modern high rises on the peninsula to the south, and its bay and coast are home to numerous shipwrecks that sank throughout its fabled history.
Funding and support provided by a National Geographic Society-Waitt Grant, the Universidad del Norte, the Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia, the Centro de Investigaciones Oceanográficas e Hidrográficas of the Dirección General Marítima, Halcyon Dive Systems, the Way Family Foundation, and The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University.
PHOTOS: Puerta del Reloj, Cartagena de Indias Credit: Fritz Hanselmann/The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University
Cannons line the walled fortifications surrounding the historic center of Cartagena de Indias. Credit: Fritz Hanselmann/The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University
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