Wreck of the SAN AGUSTIN in Drakes Bay.
1595

Oil on canvas 24" x 36"


With only dead reckoning to determine their position, and a passage of up to three months accross the open Pacific, it was inevitable that ships would be lost on the coasts of North America. By the time they were approaching land they would have been low on water and provisions and weak from scurvy and hunger. A safe port on the north coast to provision and rest would have been a great benefit, and the SAN AGUSTIN was given the task of searching for one. On her return voyage from Manilla in 1595 she was ordered to close and survey the coast. She came to anchor off the beach in Drakes Bay just north of San Francisco and all but a skeleton crew went ashore. A sudden storm from the west drove the ship on the beach where she became a total loss, the first known wreck on the California coast. All but those left on the ship eventually survived and returned to Acapulco in the ships boats.