Мексикийн эрэг орчмоос олдсон 18-р зууны хөлөг онгоцны сүйрэл нь Карибын тэнгисийн худалдааны нууц сүлжээ болон Испанийн хяналтаас гадуурх далайн тээврийн үйл ажиллагааг гэрчилж байна.
Юкатаны хойгийн Карибын тэнгисийн эрэг орчмын далайн ёроолоос археологичид 200 метр үргэлжлэх их буу болон зангууны ул мөрийг илрүүлжээ. Энэхүү олдвор нь Испанийн эзэнт гүрний тээврийн үндсэн чиглэлээс гадуур, 250 гаруй жилийн тэртээ сүйрсэн Анимас де ла Викториа (Ánimas de la Victoria) хөлөг онгоцны үлдэгдэл болохыг тогтоосон байна. Судлаач Хелена Барба-Мейникегийн удирдсан баг уг сүйрэл нь байгалийн хүчин зүйлээс илүүтэйгээр тухайн үед Испани болон Британийн хооронд өрнөж байсан худалдааны хяналтын төлөөх нууцлаг хууль бус наймаатай холбоотой байж болзошгүй гэж үзэж байна.
Journal of Maritime Archaeology сэтгүүлд нийтлэгдсэн судалгаагаар, тус хөлөг онгоцны сүйрсэн байршил нь ихээхэн анхаарал татаж байгаа юм. Испанийн хөлөг онгоцууд тухайн үед хад чулуу ихтэй, газрын зураглал хийгдээгүй энэ бүс нутгаар зорчдоггүй байсан нь уг хөлөг онгоц ямар зорилготой явсныг тайлбарлах гол асуулт болж байна. Далайн ёроолд тархсан 19 их буу болон дөрвөн зангууны байршил нь хөлөг онгоц сүйрэхээсээ өмнө аврагдахыг оролдсон маневруудыг илтгэж байгаа аж.
Археологичид олдворуудыг сайтар цэвэрлэсний дараа их бууны гол хэсгээс “C” үсгийг илрүүлсэн нь Францын Ле Крезо эсвэл Британийн Констер цутгуурт үйлдвэрлэгдсэн байж болохыг харуулж байна. Мөн зангууны хэмжээ болон хийцэд үндэслэн уг хөлөг онгоцыг 650-700 тонн даацтай, зэвсэглэсэн худалдааны хөлөг байсан хэмээн таамаглаж байна. Энэхүү нээлт нь 19-р зууныг хүртэл Испанийн хяналтад ороогүй, харин Британийн далайчид болон нутгийн Майячуудын нөлөө дор байсан Карибын тэнгисийн баруун хойд хэсгийн түүхийг судлахад чухал ач холбогдолтой юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Off a lonely stretch of the Yucatán’s Caribbean coast, nineteen cannons and four anchors have lain scattered across the seafloor for more than 250 years, marking the final minutes of a ship that had no business sailing there. A team of archaeologists has now pieced together those minutes almost maneuver by maneuver, and the story that emerges is less about a storm than about smuggling on a coastline the Spanish Crown barely dared to chart.
The wreck, known as Ánimas de la Victoria, sits inside Espíritu Santo Bay, within the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, roughly 4.25 kilometers offshore from the fishing camp of La Victoria. It’s a remote, roadless corner of Quintana Roo, which is precisely why the site has stayed so undisturbed for so long.
According to the study, published in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, this is the only documented 18th-century shipwreck found in the bay, giving it an outsized importance for understanding a period when Spain and Britain were quietly fighting over control of Caribbean trade routes.
What makes the case genuinely puzzling is its location. Spanish vessels of the era simply didn’t sail through this stretch of reef-choked water, since it lay well outside the Crown’s normal shipping lanes through the Yucatán Channel. So researchers were left asking a fairly basic question: what was this ship even doing there?
An Underwater Trail Written in Anchors and Cannons
The site isn’t a single debris pile but a trail of wreckage stretching about 200 meters from east to west, straight toward the reef breakers, at depths ranging from 7 meters down to just 1.5 meters. Lead researcher Helena Barba-Meinicke has argued that this layout is not accidental; it reflects the sequence of a ship trying, and failing, to save itself.
The four anchors tell slightly different stories depending on their design. Anchor 1, the smallest, has straight “V”-shaped arms resembling British patterns, though its proportions line up more closely with a French plan from 1731. Researchers believe it was a small kedge anchor used for maneuvering within a bay.
Anchor 2, found stacked beneath it, has curved arms typical of the Early Modern period and was likely a stream anchor for calmer currents. Anchor 3, the largest, has a shank measuring 4.70 meters, proportions the study says are more typical of the 16th and 17th centuries than the 18th, suggesting it may have been forged decades before the wreck occurred. Anchor 4, farthest west, has a visibly bent shank, a deformation consistent with an anchor that became stuck while being hauled up.
Cannons Marked with a Single Letter
The 19 cast-iron cannons posed their own identification challenge, buried as they were under thick coral growth. After careful manual cleaning with hammer, chisel, and wire brush, researchers found a raised letter “C” stamped on the trunnions of two cannons, C8 and C10. That single letter opens two competing possibilities: it could point to the Le Creusot foundry in Burgundy, France, or to the Conster foundry in Sussex, England, which cast cannons between 1700 and 1760 and is known to have armed vessels such as the HMS Bedford in 1778.
A separate four-pounder cannon, reportedly removed from the wreck years ago by local fishermen and now sitting on private property, was also examined and appears to match British casting patterns from the mid-18th century. Based on the weight implied by Anchor 3, around 1,650 kilograms, calculated from British naval tables of the period, the researchers estimate the ship measured between 650 and 700 tons burthen. As the study concludes:
“The ship of the Ánimas de la Victoria wreck must have been larger in size, built as a merchant frigate or, more likely, as an armed merchant vessel with similar artillery.”
A Coastline the Spanish Refused to Sail
The study’s main explanation is that the ship was likely involved in smuggling. For Spain, the eastern coast of Yucatán was almost uncharted territory: there were no major ports, no settlements and little more than dense forests and dangerous reefs, with the isolated inland outpost of Bacalar serving as the only nearby Spanish presence.
The study points out that Spanish navigation guides showed this difference clearly. Even in 1810, the Pilot Guide of the Antilles Islands provided no sailing instructions north of the Belize River and warned ships to avoid the reefs. Researchers suggest that, well into the 19th century, the waters around Espíritu Santo Bay were still part of a maritime world shaped more by British sailors and local Maya navigation than by Spain.
The authors also note that research on the Ánimas de la Victoria wreck is only beginning, but the site could offer valuable new clues about the maritime history of the northwestern Caribbean, including the eastern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula and Belize.
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