Collection: Consolacion

Santa Maria de la Consolacion, a Spanish galleon carrying bronze, silver, and gold coins and bars, met its demise off the west coast of South America in 1681. Legend recalls that the Consolacion was violently pursued by English pirate ships, that were led by the notoriously ruthless and blood-thirty Bartholomew Sharp. The captain of la Consolacion, Juan de Lerma, is said to have commanded the ship be burned down in order to protect the treasure from being stolen by the British. Lerma and his crew fled to Santa Clara. Myth has it that the island was nicknamed Isla de los Muertos (Island of the Dead) because the pirates were so angry about the fire that they followed the crew to the island and beheaded some of them there.