Living History Event About 1715 Silver Fleet Wreck Off Brevard In Hurricane Set April 8
By Space Coast Daily // March 17, 2017
survivors were stranded On Brevard beaches
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Early on the morning of July 31, 1715, an event took place along Brevard County’s coast that shook the royal courts of Europe.
At approximately 4 a.m., a powerful hurricane struck Spain’s plate (from “plata,” the Spanish word for “silver”) fleet and wrecked it on Florida’s “coast of the Ays,” between present-day Melbourne Beach and Vero Beach.
Eleven vessels, an estimated 15 million silver pesos in treasure – along with the cargo of gold, jewels, spices,
tobacco, porcelain, etc. – and over 1,000 lives were lost in the disaster, which left some 1,500 survivors
stranded along the Florida coast south of Cape Canaveral.
The 1715 loss of Spain’s annual plate fleet on Florida’s coast triggered economic chaos and collapse across Europe and its New World empires.
On Saturday, April 8, in partnership with the Florida State Parks/Sebastian Inlet State Park, non-profit Florida Living History, Inc.’s volunteers will present a new living-history event focusing on the 1715 Plate Fleet Disaster and Spain’s subsequent 1715-1717 efforts to salvage the fleet’s lost treasure.
This heritage event will start at 10 a.m. and end at 3 p.m.
At 1 p.m., Dr. John de Bry, Director of the Center for Historical Archaeology, will present a lecture, The History of the 1715 Fleet – A Maritime Tragedy Off the East Coast of Florida.
Admission to this presentation is free of charge to the public, though please note that seating is limited.
For further information, email info@floridalivinghistory.org
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