It is a testament to the nature of this rugged bit of nature that there are beautiful places to stop, historically interesting places to stop, and also grand places with no signage or suggestions whatsoever. Sometimes you’ll find a place which has a connection to global events and you wouldn’t even realize it if you weren’t looking for it.
And so we’ve come to this spot, where out there the ocean does what an ocean does, and in here we try to cast our mind’s eye back some 440 years.
After the British routed the Spanish Armada — in sea battles that reshaped naval doctrine, bolstered the legend of Elizabeth the 1st, changed the geopolitical power structure, perhaps the course of human history and maybe even influenced the religions of Europe — the surviving vessels of the Spaniard squadrons were all headed home. Some of them sailed somewhere right out there.
The sailors and soldiers who had just been taught a new way to fight at sea and were licking their wounds now had to endure gales and stormy seas. Maybe the men on the galleon El Gran Grin, served by 75 sailors and carrying 261 soldiers, felt fortunate to have survived the British. It was a 1,100 ton vessel, loaded with 28 guns, and it had anchored off the big island that fronts the bay, so they could trade with the O’Malley clan, which ran things in the area. It was all going well until the winds blew in. Somehow the ship slipped its anchorage and it wound up on the shore, with most hands lost.
Then there was the San Nicolás Prodaneli, a bit smaller, but no less prickly. She had 68 sailors 226 soldiers aboard when she wrecked on the shore, right near here. History records that maybe 16 survived. They burned the wreckage and were picked up by their countrymen.
It’s easy to think that maybe they waded ashore, because that’s what you and I would think they’d do. But probably not. The weather is bad. It’s likely dark. And it’s cold. And you don’t know the area. You don’t know there’s a road, right there, just a few steps from the waterline.
If only they’d been able to see that.
I bet they didn’t see messages like this, either.
In all, five ships of the Spanish Armada sank in these waters. Some of the wreckage has yet to be re-discovered.
There are two subtle markers here memorializing them.
