BC Cook
SPANISH treasure ships cruising the Pacific. Crews and investors risking everything to carry on the world’s most dangerous trade because it promised incredible wealth. Gold from one continent traded for the silver of another, with both sides believing they made out like bandits. Death, destruction, and financial ruin for the smallest mistake or lapse of judgment.
One of Saipan’s greatest treasures is right under our noses. For over 350 years it rested in the waters off the southern beaches, and now lies silent in Garapan, whispering tales of gold and silver, jewels and porcelain, daring and danger, great risk and fabulous reward. It is the Concepcion, a Spanish treasure ship that sank off Agingan Point in 1638 and was discovered by an underwater salvage team in 1987. Its’ contents are now displayed for all to behold at the Northern Marianas Islands Museum on Middle Road. For the precious artifacts, it has been a long journey.
Before there were names for any of these things, the Concepcion was the queen of an international trade route and the flagship of a multinational business empire that connected Europe to Asia by way of North America and the Philippines. Built in the Philippines according to Spanish design, the ship crossed the Pacific Ocean on regular runs. Loaded with gold, porcelain, spices and other valuables from the East, she made her way from Manila, past Japan and across the northern Pacific, slide south along the California coast and dock in Acapulco, Mexico. She exchanged her goods for those traveling in the opposite direction. The most precious cargo was silver, which was very rare in China, and their demand could not be satisfied. So American silver moved west across the ocean to Manila where it was exchanged for gold and local goods and the process started over again.
But something went terribly wrong in 1638. Most likely the result of a mutiny, the ship sailed off course and, in a violent storm, wrecked on the reefs of Saipan. Most of the crew who survived the wreck died at the hands of islanders and much of the cargo taken (thus beginning a reputation that earned the name “Island of Thieves”). The rest sank to the depths, scattered across the reef, waiting 350 years for rediscovery.
In 1987 a team led by Bill Mathers discovered the wreck and salvaged what they could of the cargo, most of the wooden ship itself having deteriorated. They labored for two summers in scuba gear to resurrect as much as they could. Eventually the divers brought up only a fraction of their first finds and they called off the search, satisfied they had recovered most of the loot. After changing hands a few times, the artifacts were donated to the people of Saipan and placed in the museum for all to see.
In what is one of the world’s greatest exhibits of underwater archaeology, a visitor can peer into the past to enjoy gold, silver, pottery, jewelry, cannons, hardware, tools, and other remnants of the wreck of the Concepcion. The craftsmanship of the gold jewelry and the pottery, even the cannon, is breathtaking. It is difficult to believe that such masterpieces of beauty and detail could be created with limited tools and technology. The exhibit would fit easily among the world’s leading museums, such as the Smithsonian or the Louvre, but it is here. We can see the incredible remains of one of the world’s first international business endeavors, priceless examples of master craftsmanship the likes of which are not seen today. There is so much to learn from even one of these pieces, it is worth spending an afternoon to gaze upon their glory.
By the way, the salvage team did not recover all of the loot from the reef. Sometimes, when my wife and I walk along the beach at Aginan we find small fragments of Chinese porcelain. Are they from the Concepcion? And if there is more porcelain there must be more gold.
Dr. BC Cook taught history for 30 years and is a director and Pacific historian at Sealark Exploration (sealarkexploration.org). He currently lives in Hawaii.
