Streedagh Strand – Spanish Armada Shipwrecks

Streedagh Strand Memorial
Photograph (c) Richard Golden

Streedagh Strand is peaceful and quiet now. The cries of those souls who tragically perished there are no longer heard and over four centuries of tides have washed away their blood.

In September 1588 three ships of the Spanish Armada were wrecked off Streedagh Strand on the coast of Sligo. They were caught in a sudden violent storm that raged over a three-day period, culminating in the destruction of the ships and the loss of over 1,000 lives. The ships were La Lavia, of Venetian origin, Santa Maria de Visóri from Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and La Juliana from Barcelona.

In 1985, a group of English divers - known as the Streedagh Armada Group (SAG) - discovered the wrecks. Following some investigative work at the time, many artefacts were recovered, including three guns from the wrecks of La Juliana and one from La Lavia.

Protracted legal proceedings involving the State and Streedagh Armada Group finally determined that ownership of the three wrecks was vested in the State.

La Juliana

Streedagh Strand
Photograph (c) Richard Golden

In 2015 the Underwater Archaeology Unit (UAU) investigating the wreck of the La Juliana identified five bronze guns and one possible iron gun lying exposed on the seabed. Five carriage wheels and two large anchors were also visible. Four more large gun-carriage wheels were also recorded, bringing the total number to nine, one of which was recovered. A partially buried bronze cauldron was also recovered which contained the remains of pitch indicating that it was used on board for repair work to the ship.

Bronze Canons from the Spanish Armada Wreck La Juliana
Streedagh Strand - photo from Flickr

Nine ornate bronze guns of various calibres were recovered from the wreck site of La Juliana. All these items were in remarkable condition with crests, embossed figures of saints, the date of production, weight details within scroll motifs and makers' symbols perfectly preserved. Seven of the guns recovered show the year of manufacture as 1570. The saints depicted, many martyred, span several centuries, from Roman times through to the medieval period.

The La Juliana was engaged as a transport vessel in several key battles. This ship took part in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, when the coalition of European Christian maritime states brought together by Pope Pius V destroyed the Muslim fleet of the Ottoman Empire off the western coast of Greece. The ship carried 32 guns during the 1588 Armada campaign with a complement of 325 soldiers and a crew of 70 men.

The Spanish Armada

 Phillip 11, the Catholic King of Spain,

In the second half of the sixteenth century many of the countries of Europe were embroiled in wars that had their origins in the religious upheavals which had followed the Reformation. A state of undeclared war existed between England and Spain at the time of the Armada. The assembling of this great fleet by Phillip 11, the Catholic King of Spain, and its purpose appears to have been the worst kept secret in Europe. The situation came to a head with the execution of Mary Queen of Scots in February 1587, and with the attack on Cadiz by Sir Francis Drake in April of the same year. It was then that preparations began for the great Armada of 1588.

The fleet arrived off the Lizard on July 29th. An English fleet of 90 ships sailed south to meet the Armada. On the night of August 7th, the English sent fire ships in amongst the Spanish fleet. This was a dreaded tactic as the ships were filled with explosive and incendiary materials. In panic, the Spaniards were forced to abandon the venture. The Spanish ships were given instructions to sail home via the East coast of England, around the north of Scotland and Ireland before turning southwards for Spain.

Streedagh Strand
Photograph (c) Richard Golden

Of the original fleet of 130, up to 26 ships may have been lost around the coast of Ireland, and possibly as many as 40 in all were lost on the return journey to Spain. The human cost of the expedition was high: some 1,913 soldiers and 1,016 sailors lost their lives.

Captain Francisco De Cuellar, a survivor, wrote a fascinating account of the wrecking of these three ships and the subsequent events. De Cuellar describes the dreadful conditions of the wrecking and the terrible loss of life, one thousand drowned and those survivors who reached the shore being stripped and robbed by the local "savages".

Following the defeat of the Armada, Elizabeth had medals struck with the legend, "God breathed and they were scattered". The devout Phillip was heard to comment on hearing of the failure of the Armada, "I sent my ships to fight against men, not the winds and tides of God".

Conclusion

The wreck of La Juliana is significant for many reasons. It was a Catalan-built ship, which is critical, as we have very little knowledge of ship construction and the Iberian shipbuilding tradition in this period. The La Juliana provide an opportunity to gain further insight into one of the wrecks from Armada campaign. It provides the most complete collection of bronze guns recovered from any Spanish Armada ship to date.

The diversity of the bronze cannon and the details on each one makes them national treasures. The variety and size of cannon shot will provide further information on the types of gun carried on board ships like La Juliana and the type of the munitions supplied for such a campaign.

The use of the fire-ships and the subsequent orders to the Armada to return to Spain were turning points in European history. If the wind had changed direction and blown the fire ships away from the Armada at Calais we might all be speaking Spanish today.

For further information see:
(1) CANNONS, SAINTS AND SUNKEKL SHIPS—AN ARMADA WRECK REVEALED Author(s): Fionnbarr Moore, Karl Brady and Connie Kelleher Source: Archaeology Ireland, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Winter 2015),
(2) The Irish Legacy of the Spanish Armada Author(s): Laurence Flanagan Source: Archaeology Ireland, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Winter, 1988)
(3) Finds of the Spanish Armada Author(s): Cormac F. Lowth Source: Dublin Historical Record, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Spring, 2004)
 http://www.sligoheritage.com/ArchSpanishArmada.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5MYIQKs7Gc   
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_6nxyarrog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK1BH28nhZA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkypWnFIBA8

Cheddar Man - our 10,000-year-old black ancestor

The model of Cheddar Man rendered by Kennis & Kennis Reconstructions (Image: ©Tom Barnes/Channel 4)

Recently, world media has been abuzz with the news that our earliest ancestors were dark skinned and had blue eyes. 

A 10,000-year-old hunter had “dark to black” skin, a groundbreaking DNA analysis of Britain’s oldest complete skeleton has revealed. The Cheddar Man fossil was unearthed in Gough’s Cave in Somerset over a century ago. He was one of the first settlers to have crossed Doggerland, the land bridge from continental Europe to Britain, after the glaciers began receding at the end of the last ice age.

A Team of scientists using the latest genetic sequencing technology located the genes linked to skin and hair colour and texture, and eye colour and discovered he had a “dark to black” skin tone and blue eyes.

Reassembled skeleton of Cheddar Man, the oldest complete skeleton found in the UK. (Image: Natural History Museum )

Cheddar Man is the oldest almost complete skeleton of our species, Homo sapiens, ever found in Britain. Most of the Mesolithic human remains that date to this period were discovered in caves and there is a strong tradition of cave burial in the region.  

'About a mile up the road from where Cheddar Man was found, there is another cave known as Aveline's Hole which is one of the biggest Mesolithic cemeteries in Britain. Archaeologists found the remains of about 50 individuals, all deposited over a short period of 100-200 years,' says Dr Tom Booth, a postdoctoral researcher working closely with the Natural History Museum's human remains collection to investigate human adaptation to changing environments.

Scientists believe that northern European peoples became lighter-skinned over time because pale skin absorbs more sunlight. These findings suggest that pale skinned people emerged with the advent of farming, at a time when people were obtaining less vitamin D from oily fish. We now know the genes for lighter skinned European populations spread far later than originally thought. These findings show that people of white British ancestry alive today, are direct descendants of this black population.

'Until recently it was always assumed that humans quickly adapted to have paler skin after entering Europe about 45,000 years ago,' says Dr Booth. 'Pale skin is better at absorbing UV light and helps humans avoid vitamin D deficiency in climates with less sunlight.'

The Skull of Cheddar Man. 

(Image: Natural History Museum )

Scientists now believe that pale skin probably arrived in Britain with a migration of people from the Middle East around 6,000 years ago. These people had pale skin and brown eyes and absorbed populations like the ones Cheddar Man belonged to. No-one's entirely sure why pale skin evolved in these farmers, but their cereal-based diet was probably deficient in Vitamin D. This would have required agriculturalists to absorb this essential nutrient from sunlight through their skin.

  Modern humans were in Britain as early as 40,000 years ago, but a period of extreme cold known as the Last Glacial Maximum drove them out some 10,000 years later. There's evidence from Gough's Cave that hunter-gatherers ventured back about 15,000 years ago, establishing a temporary presence when the climate briefly improved. However, they were soon forced to leave again by another cold period. Britain was once again settled 11,000 years ago and has been inhabited ever since.

Researchers extracted DNA from Cheddar Man, who was discovered in 1903. The DNA results suggest Cheddar Man could not drink milk as an adult. This capability only spread much later, after the beginning of the Bronze Age. Present-day Europeans owe on average 10% of their ancestry to Mesolithic hunters like Cheddar Man. Analysis of his genome reveals he was closely related to other Mesolithic individuals or Western Hunter-Gatherers who have been examined from Spain, Luxembourg, and Hungary.

In 1997, it was reported that a living descendant of Cheddar Man had been found. The DNA of Adrian Targett, who was 42 years old when that discovery was made, was found to match that belonging to Cheddar Man. Both Targett and Cheddar Man share a common maternal ancestor.

Within Gough’s Cave, scientists have found numerous human and animal remains with clearly visible signs of butchery. The human remains belonged to around 5 or 7 people, including a three-year-old child and two adolescents. All of them had cut-marks and breakage consistent with defleshing and eating.

According to scientists, the remains do not display any evidence of violence prior to death, so the people who were consumed were not killed and eaten because of conflict. Scientists concluded that this was an example either of cannibalism or the removal of flesh from bones after death, which was occasionally done for ritualistic purposes.

These people died during the Ice Age, when food resources were very limited, which may explain the necessity to consume human remains. The researchers suggest that people from the Gough's Cave used cups made from skulls as part of ritual practices.

Scientists from the Natural History Museum in London and University College London (UCL) compared hundreds of cut-marks found on both human and animal bones at Gough’s Cave. After examining the engravings on a human bone, they concluded that cannibals ate their relatives and then performed ritualistic burials with the remains.

Conclusion

One of the first settlers to arrive in Britain from continental Europe 10,000 years ago had dark skin and blue eyes. Cheddar Man is the oldest almost complete skeleton of our species, Homo sapiens, ever found in Britain. These findings show that people of white British ancestry alive today, are direct descendants of this black population. Present-day Europeans owe on average 10% of their ancestry to Mesolithic hunters like Cheddar Man.

For further information please see:

http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/blue-eyed-black-skinned-british-hunter-closes-race-debate-009562

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42939192

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/cheddar-man-mesolithic-britain-blue-eyed-boy.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42939192

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5IGI1CxONs