Author: Douglas Armstrong
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781483906430
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
One of the worst maritime disasters in Florida's history occurred in 1715 when the Spanish Plate Fleet, bound for Spain, was trapped in a hurricane that dashed almost all of the ships against the beaches along the central east coast of the state. Spain salvaged what they could for several years before closing down operations. Today, one of the central salvage camp locations from the Spanish effort can be found where Florida has established the McLarty Shipwreck Museum on the beach just south of Sebastian Inlet.The Spaniards constructed several camps along the fifty miles of coast where the ships sank, the primary one being at the McLarty Museum site on the northern extent of the wreckage trail. However, Douglas R. Armstrong located another salvage camp, miles to the south near Wabasso where he performed an archaeological rescue survey in the late 1980's just as the site was being destroyed by homebuilders. "The Winter Beach Salvage Camp" is the report Douglas R. Armstrong prepared for Florida's Bureau of Archaeological Research in regards to his findings at that location, which was occupied by the Spanish during the original salvage operation from 1715 through 1716, as well as by British soldiers later on. The British were undoubtedly "fishing" on the wrecks themselves, looking for treasure. Armstrong's work contains a complete recount of his discoveries, by item, along with photos and maps.As a bonus, this edition also contains the first-ever publication of Douglas Armstrong's 1990 annual report to the state for the Cannon Wreck site, as it was being excavated by Steve Shouppe's group, Galleon Research. This addendum is a photocopy of the daily log sheets, along with the site files and drawings of recovered artifacts. The addendum also contains the site map as prepared by Armstrong along with a rectified section set in geographic grid coordinates suitable for use with GPS receivers.