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Shipwreck · Recovered

El Cazador

Sank 1784 · found 1993, Gulf of Mexico, off Louisiana
RECOVERED
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

El Cazador: still unexplained.

Spanish silver reales

The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
Spanish silver reales
The account

A Spanish brig carrying silver to prop up colonial Louisiana. A fishing trawler snagged the wreck in 1993.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • A Spanish brig that sank in the Gulf of Mexico in 1784 carrying silver meant to shore up Spanish Louisiana; its loss helped push Spain to hand Louisiana back to France, which led to the Louisiana Purchase.
  • The wreck was found by accident in 1993 when a fishing boat, fittingly named the Mistake, hauled up silver coins in its nets.
  • The coins, 1783 Mexican reales, are documented and sold; the scatter site in the Gulf is the lead.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • A Spanish brig that sank in the Gulf of Mexico in 1784 carrying silver meant to shore up Spanish Louisiana; its loss helped push Spain to hand Louisiana back to France, which led to the Louisiana Purchase.
  • The wreck was found by accident in 1993 when a fishing boat, fittingly named the Mistake, hauled up silver coins in its nets.
  • The coins, 1783 Mexican reales, are documented and sold; the scatter site in the Gulf is the lead.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 28.900°, -89.600° (approx.) View on the Map