MEDITERRANEAN
The Spanish galleon Santiago de Galicia (San Giacomo di Galizia) was built in Castellammare di Stabia, Naples, around 1590. The ship was owned by Giacomo di Polo, a Croatian nobleman and sailor who helped King Philip II raise a force of twelve warships.
While most of these ships were owned by di Polo relatives, they were built and outfitted with Ragusan (Dubrovnik) sailors. The Santiago served both in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. After the non-defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, a new Armada was enlisted in the Galician ports of Ferrol and La Coruña, in hopes of ending the constant attacks from England. Some of the fleet reached the English coast, but a northeastern gale disbanded most of the ships before they could reach their objective. The Santiago galleon was one of the ships that spent some time in the gulf of Biscay trying to maintain its position while awaiting better weather. After much damage, an order was released to the ships to retire to the Spanish coast, where they arrived after few days. The Santiago met three Dutch ships and an English ship on the way and was forced to retire after a fierce fight. With some merchant ships, the galleon arrived at Ribadeo, located in the ancient kingdom of Galicia.
There, crew, military forces, and some cavalry received support and help from the city council and population, but these efforts could not prevent the ship from finally sinking in shallow waters inside the sheltered port. Along with a large amount of money, the ship’s artillery was salved, the hull remains abandoned in the harbor and lost for nearly four hundred years.
The wreck was discovered during dredge operations carried out in November 2011, and subsequent research and work on the site was led by Miguel San Claudio with support by INA and the Galician Government. The study of the Santiago de Galicia highlights the best-known example of a Spanish warship of that time, a galleon recognized by its contemporaries during its prime.
Relevant Bibliography
Casabán, J.L. 2017. “Santiago de Galicia and the Illyrian squadron: Characteristics, dimensions and tonnages of Mediterranean-built galleons for Philip’s II Atlantic fleets (1593–1597).” International Journal of Maritime History 29: 238–260.
Castro, Filipe, F., A. Crespo Solana, N. Nayling, A. Miguel Martins, and M. San Claudio Santa Cruz. 2023. “The Ribadeo I Shipwreck, Galleon “San Giacomo di Galizia”—From Excavation to Interpretation.” Heritage 6: 2079–2100.
Domínguez Delmás, M., and I. García González. 2015. Dendrochronological Research of Samples from the Ribadeo Shipwreck (Galicia, Spain), Report nr: 2015005; Universidad de Santiago de Compostela Escola Politécnica Superior, Dep. Botánica, Campus de Lugo.
Eguiluz-Miranda, B., M. Domínguez-Delmás, M. San Claudio Santa Cruz, J.L. Gasch-Tomás. 2022. “Can we identify the ship through a multidisciplinary approach? The case of the Ribadeo I wreck (c.1597). In Heritage and the Sea: Maritime History and Archaeology of the Global Iberian world (15th–18th Centuries), edited by A. Crespo-Solana, F. Castro, N. Nayling, 97–119. Springer: Cham, Switzerland.
Folgueira, V., and M. San Claudio Santa Cruz. 2015. “La extracción de cloruros mediante polarización catódica. Tratamiento de tres piezas de artillería del pecio de Ribadeo.” Metalespaña 1–7.
Gendron, F. 2018. Análisis Piedras de Lastre Procedentes de Ribadeo. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Département Homme et Environnement: París.
Kerzan, M. 2017. “Don Pedro de Ivella Ohmuchevich Gargurich, Captain and Shipowner from the Republic of Ragusa at the Service of Philip II.” Chapter 7: The Galleons of ‘The Twelve Apostles,’ of the XVI Century. Essay 205.HR.17.EN.
Mason, B., C. Heamagi, N. Nayling. 2023. The Ribadeo I Wreck—Multi-Year Photogrammetric Survey of a Spanish Galleon of the Second Armada. Heritage 6: 1069–88.
Moreno-Garcia, M., M. San Claudio Santa Cruz, and A. Crespo Solana. 2023. “Meat supplies at the San Giacomo di Galizia: Preliminary results from three small faunal samples.” Heritage 6: 1118–27.
San Claudio Santa Cruz, M. 2015. “The Armadas’ wars in the Iberian Northern Atlantic, a chance for ForSEAdiscovery Project.” In The Management of Iberian Forest Resources in the Early Modern Shipbuilding: History and Archaeology, edited by R.V. Gomes, and M.V. Gomes, 39–48. Instituto de Arqueologia e Paleociencias: Lisboa.
———. 2018. “El Atlántico Norte Español, un Espacio Estratégico Para un Imperio.” Ph.D. Thesis, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain.
———. 2021. “Un lindísimo galeón para Felipe II de España. Caballos de batalla mediterráneos en el Atlántico español del siglo XVI.” Canelobre 279, 299.
———. 2022. “Archaeological perspectives in Galicia during the age of Religious wars: The Capitana and Almiranta of the Illyrica Squadron.” In Heritage and the Sea: Maritime History and Archaeology of the Global Iberian world (15th–18th Centuries), edited by A. Crespo Solana, F. Castro, N. Nayling, 73–97. Springer: New York.
San Claudio Santa Cruz, M., R. González, J.L. Casabán, and F. Castro. 2013. “The Finisterre Project. A trove of 16th-century Spanish shipwrecks.” INA Quarterly 40.1: 15–21.
San Claudio, M., R. González, J.L. Casabán, F. Castro, and M. Domínguez. 2014. “El pecio de Ribadeo, un excepcionalmente bien conservado pecio español del siglo XVI.” In Arqueología Subacuática Española: Actas del I Congreso de Arqueología Náutica y Subacuática Española Volume 1, edited by F.X. Nieto Prieto, M. Bethencourt Núñez, 208–21. Ministerio de Cultura: Madrid.
San Claudio Santa Cruz, M., F. Castro, A. Crespo Solana, N. Nayling, G. Momber, A. Cazenave de la Roche, C. Heamagi, and B. Mason. 2019. “El galeón de Ribadeo, San Giacomo di Galizia (Santiago de Galicia), 1597. Un galeón de guerra en estudio.” In La Armada Española de 1588 y la Contra Armada inglesa de 1589, 189–222. Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte: Cartagena.
ABOVE: Photogrammetry of Santiago de Galicia; Professor Nigel Nayling and Dr. San Claudio working to recover a bronze cauldron from the allegedly galleon’s galley; mast-step of the Ribadeo Galleon.
(Photos courtesy of Maritime Archaeology Trust)
