Tucker's Cross Unsolved Mystery: San Pedro Shipwrecked in 1594

Summary: The Tucker's Cross unsolved mystery Sept. 7, 1955, of a reef-, storm-, wave-subdued shipwreck settles around one of three San Pedro ships in 1594.

map of Bermuda shipwrecks compiled and painted by marine explorer Teddy Tucker: Magpie @jillianhalfp, via Twitter March 17, 2015

The Tucker's Cross unsolved mystery arises from a religious icon abstracted by its namesake Sept. 7, 1955, from a 16th-century shipwreck in Bermuda's sometimes angry waters, "bad weather and eerie night sounds."

Edward Bolton Tucker (May 8, 1925-June 9, 2014) brought the unusual cross of precious metal and stones from the coral reefs called the Isles of Devils. Mendel Lazear Peterson (March 8, 1918-July 30, 2003), Tucker's colleague in marine archaeology and exploration from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., calculated the cross's value. He determined the emerald and gold cross's value at its discovery date as $250,000 (£90,183.16) even as marine historians deduced its likeliest disappearance date as 1594.

One Tucker's Cross unsolved mystery ensues from existing evidence 10 miles (8.69 nautical miles) off Hamilton's harbor not elucidating the exact galleon that exiled the cross.

Tucker found the shipwreck site five years before he fetched his namesake Tucker's Cross because he figured out that sunken cannons fit into coral reef floors.

Tucker got the dark, heavy cannons up from the coral reefs that gashed and grounded their 16th-century galleon for the highest bidder, the Government of Bermuda. Five summers later, Tucker headed back to the shipwreck site, whose sandy hiding places held 200 coins, from 1592 backward, from France and the Iberian Peninsula. A five-sided gold piece nine times smaller than another, royal tax stamp-incised ingot; three more gold ingots; and four pearl-studded gold buttons implied institutionalized trading itineraries.

Three ships with the name San Pedro ("Saint Peter") journeyed along the four trading routes between the Caribbean and the Mediterranean sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Cartographers, historians, marine archaeologists and oceanographers know of trading routes from and to Cartagena, Havana, Portobelo and Veracruz from such archived documents as logs and maps.

Archived records in the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula list loads from and to Caribbean coastal Colombia and Mexico, Cuba and the Azores, Lisbon and Seville. Arthur Kingtide mentions as one of the two unlikelier of the three San Pedro monickers Captain Sebastian Rodríguez Cermeño's (March 27, 1560-April 1, 1602?) Saint Peter. Rodríguez-Cermeño navigated his San Pedro from Acapulco in conquered western coastal Mexico across the Pacific Ocean to Manila in the conquered western coastal Philippines in 1594. The other unlikely San Pedro obfuscates the Tucker's Cross unsolved mystery because the Saint Peter Captain, Hierónimo de Porras, observed routes along Bermuda only after 1594.

Kingtide presents as the probable San Pedro in the Tucker's Cross unsolved mystery the Saint Peter under Captain Pedro Núñez de Bohórquez of Antioquia, northwestern Colombia.

Núñez de Bohórquez queued up stops from the Iberian Peninsula to Caribbean ports at Cartagena, Havana, Portobelo and Rio de la Hacha and back in 1594. He ran his San Pedro westward to Portobelo, southeastward to Cartagena, northward to Havana and southeastward along Bermuda's coastlines toward the Atlantic Ocean and the Azores. Stops southward toward Rio de la Hacha separated his San Pedro from armed escorts (armada) and sent his Saint Peter into Bermuda's sinister Isles of Devils.

The Tucker's Cross unsolved mystery of the ship that tumbled treasures across coral reefs turns out far less truculent than those about hidden compartments and theft.

Teddy Tucker's memorial is sited in Southampton Parish, southwestern Bermuda: The Royal Gazette @theroyalgazette, via Facebook Nov. 18, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

map of Bermuda shipwrecks compiled and painted by marine explorer Teddy Tucker: Magpie @jillianhalfp, via Twitter March 17, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/jillianhalfp/status/577856538464940032

Teddy Tucker's memorial is sited in Southampton Parish, southwestern Bermuda: The Royal Gazette @theroyalgazette, via Facebook Nov. 18, 2015, @ https://www.facebook.com/theroyalgazette/photos/a.441868117854.220634.249363077854/10153753548822855/

For further information:

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Available @ https://www.facebook.com/royalgazette.bm/posts/10152485071432855

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