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Shipwreck · Never found

The San Miguel, the Register Ship

Lost 1715 · never found, Off the Treasure Coast, FL (separated before the storm)
COLD TRAIL
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

The San Miguel, the Register Ship: still unexplained.

The 1715 fleet's register ship, likely the Queen's Dowry

The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
The 1715 fleet's register ship, likely the Queen's Dowry
Last known, where the trail went cold
Believed to have parted from the fleet a day out of Havana; her resting place has never been pinned, from the Keys to the Carolinas.
The account

When the hurricane of July 1715 destroyed the Spanish treasure fleet off Florida, ten wrecks were eventually located and worked. The eleventh, the San Miguel, the fleet's register ship, the one licensed to carry the richest cargo and the Queen's Dowry of gold and gems, had peeled off the day before the storm and was never found. Three centuries of salvors have hunted her. She is the great missing prize of the Treasure Coast.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • The site is documented at Off the Treasure Coast, FL (separated before the storm); the open questions now are access and what remains, not where it is.
  • Confirm the permit and ownership before any dive or visit, since sites like this are usually protected.
  • What is there: The 1715 fleet's register ship, likely the Queen's Dowry.
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
  • The site is documented at Off the Treasure Coast, FL (separated before the storm); the open questions now are access and what remains, not where it is.
  • Confirm the permit and ownership before any dive or visit, since sites like this are usually protected.
  • What is there: The 1715 fleet's register ship, likely the Queen's Dowry.
  • 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 27.550°, -80.320° (approx.) View on the Map