Lost Asian Treasure: The Manila Galleon Wrecks of North America

  Scott Williams holds a piece of beeswax that washed up on the Oregon Coast from the Beeswax Shipwreck. 

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 Lost Asian Treasure:  The Manila Galleon Wrecks of North America
 
By Scott S. Williams, Cultural Resources Program Manager, WSDOT

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For 250 years, Spanish galleons plied the north Pacific taking the luxury goods of Asia to the European markets of New Spain in Mexico and South America.  It was the longest and most arduous ocean trade route in the world, and each year only one or two ships made the voyage. 
 
Many of these galleons were wrecked in the storms and on the reefs of the western Pacific in the treacherous waters around the Philippines, the Marianas, and Japan, but three came to rest on the west coast of North America.  Scott Williams will discuss the history of the trade and the 12-year effort to locate the remains of one of these galleons, known as the Beeswax Wreck, in Oregon. 
 
Based on extensive archaeological, geological, and archival investigations, the wreck has been identified as the Santo Cristo de Burgos, which left Manila in 1693.  At least some of her crew survived and lived with the Nehalem Indians on the Oregon coast for a time, becoming the first Europeans that Northwest Coast peoples interacted with.

RECENT ARTICLES ABOUT THE BEESWAX WRECK:
HAKAI MAGAZINE: Coastal Job: Maritime Archaeologist
CROSSCUT: 326-year-old beeswax is washing up on Oregon beaches

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  DATE: Friday, March 1st, 2019

TIME: 7 pm to 9 pm

PLACE: Mountaineers Seattle Program Center, 7700 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115 in the Cascade Room

COST:  FREE to members, $10.00 to non-members, $5.00 for Students (please renew membership for 2019 and these programs at http://www.pnwas.org  and now through PayPal)
Refreshments provided (Please bring cookies/snacks to share with the beverages).