The Mystery of the Beeswax Shipwreck

6/27/2024

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
A discovery of "ancient beeswax" found on the Oregonian coast at Nehalem was reported in the newspapers throughout the years. It was assumed it came from a wrecked vessel that foundered on its way to a Catholic monastery in California. The wax was etched with Latin words.

Nehalem Bay

During the 1800s, there were different theories where chunks of beeswax washing onshore were coming from. First it was assumed it might have come from the ship Peacock wrecked on the Nehalem Bay sandpit. It carried beeswax among its cargo, which was strewn along the beach. However William Savage a pioneer in the area during the 1840s, said the brig-of-war Peacock was wrecked at the mouth of Columbia River in 1842.

Then there was controversy if it was beeswax or mineral wax, however the wing of a bee was found imbedded in the wax, providing evidence of its origins.

By 1922, it was reported that chunks of beeswax were sent by Emil G. Gadell of Manzanita to the Oregon Agricultural College for further examination.

In 1961, the beeswax was dated to the 16th century (Source - The News Review)

In 1961, the Shell Oil Company issued a report stating the beeswax found in the sand dune of Nehalem Peninsula were about 430 years old. They tested a specimen at their laboratory in Texas after it was sent to them by the Tillamook County Chamber of Commerce.

Some believed it came from the cargo of the San Francisco Xavier, a Spanish galleon which wrecked in 1705, as it was headed from Mexico to the Philippines.

Dr. Cook, who taught at Castleton Teachers' College in Vermont, and was in the process of writing a book titled, The Spanish in the Pacific Northwest saw a picture in the newspapers of Alex Walker holding a piece of beeswax he had found. He said, "From the marking, it is undoubtedly from a Spanish ship which visited the area in the early days. It appears to be one of the largest and best preserved pieces in existence."

He said that beeswax was once found along the coast in large quantities, but it was destroyed by those who didn't realize what they had found. These specimens came from Spanish ship wrecked off the coast. The mystery was tied to the name of the ship.

In the summer of 1693, Santo Cristo de Burgos left Manila then a Spanish colony, on what was supposed to be a normal trading voyage. The galleon had filled its hold with beeswax, Chinese porcelain and silk bound for Mexico. Somewhere in the northern Pacific it ran into some type of disaster. It sailed into oblivion until 2022.

Chinese porcelain that washed onshore (source - MAS)

Seven years later, an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale swallowed part of the Oregon coastline, and then returned it inside a tsunami. This event was known as the Great Cascadia Earthquake.

The galleon and its cargo were thrown onto the coastline, among all the other debris returned to the shore..

The Maritime Archeological Society (MAS) researched legends of a burning ship and its survivors retold by the Nehalem Indians. It involved tales of lost treasure and locals finding pieces of Chinese porcelain shards along the shoreline.

According to the oral histories of the Nehalem Indians, crewmen from the ship lived with them for some time, leaving descendants who are in the area until this day. Other stories contradict this version, in which the crew who survived the wreck were killed by the natives.

A large beeswax block that was found near the Nehalem Spit with Spanish shipping marks carved into it. This block was donated to the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum in 1952 (Source OHS.org)

According to Spanish naval records, two galleons were lost during these years. It was the Santo Cristo de Burgos sailing from Manila to Acapulco, and the San Francisco Xavier, lost in 1705. However examination of large wooden timbers recovered in coastal sea caves, find they date to before the tsunami. Radio carbon dating on the wood indicated it was built in the 1650s from Asian lumber, ruling out the San Francisco Xavier.

The earliest reference to the wreck date back to 1813, when fur trader Alexander Henry said the local Clatsop tribe were trading large amounts of beeswax. They said it came from a shipwreck near Nehalem Bay. Teak from the ship's timbers were used to build furniture and souvenirs. Much of the beeswax was marked with Spanish shipping symbols, and wings of bees native to the Philippines were found trapped in the wax.

The origins of the beeswax captured the imagination of the coastal residents for decades

It is a mystery why the galleon was sailing off the coast of Oregon, north of its route to Mexico, unless it was damaged and drifted off course.

In 2006, a group of archaeologists from the Maritime Archeology Society started The Beeswax Wreck Research Project, using the shards of Chinese porcelain recovered thus far by beachcombers.

Examination of the porcelain proved they came from the Kangxi period of the late 17th century, which corresponded with the time period the ships were sailing between Manila and Mexico.

An unidentified man holds a piece of beeswax that washed ashore in 1955 (Source - Salem Public Library)

A group of volunteers were looking for clues through the local lore that had accumulated through the years about the beeswax wreck.

Ronald Spores a professor at Vanderbilt University was part of the group, and in 2018 while reviewing 17th-century records from Spain, he found the personnel manifest of the ship. There were 231 persons on board on its last voyage. They were 215 officers and crew members; 62 weren't Spanish but Creoles from the Philippines, China, Malaysia and other cultures. There were only 16 passengers, composed of six priests of the Augustinian, Dominican, and Jesuit orders, as well as merchants and military men.. There were no women.

A map of the winds and currents used by Manila galleons to facilitate trade between New Spain and Asia.

The Santo Cristo de Burgos was built in 1687-1688 at the Spanish shipyard of Solsogón on the island of Bagatao in the Philippines, and probably had a cargo space in excess of 1,000 tons. Its exact dimensions are unknown. It plied the Manila trade route used by Spain from 1565 to 1815. The Spanish ships traversed 12,000 miles from Asia to New Spain (now Mexico) laden with Chinese silks, ivory figurines, spices and lacquer furniture.

The ship was captained by Don Bernardo Iñiguez del Bayo y de Pradilla. He came from a noble Basque family, was a member of the Knights of Santiago and served in 1686 as the mayor of the mining town San Luis de Potosi in Mexico. He then headed the cavalry of Mexico City. By the spring of 1691 he sailed on the ship to the Philippines, but the following year it encountered a furious storm that sent it back to port in the Philippines with three broken masts. An investigation cleared the captain of responsibility, but most of the officers faced the end of their maritime careers. Some were banished and others imprisoned. This was punishment for the tremendous loss of revenue when the voyage could not be completed.

The ship sailed from the Philippines in 1693, short of about 30 crew members. Why it wrecked is unknown. Was it another storm, or inadequate repairs? There was also scurvy among the crew.

Remnants from what is believed to be the Santo Cristo de Burgos galleon were recovered throughout the years at what became known as "Beeswax Beach" c.1953. (Source - Oregonian)

There is an oral tradition in which survivors, some which sported long ponytails possibly the non-Spanish crew, made it to the shore. In a tantalizing clue, a rock at Oswald State Park south of Manzanita, has the initials "HM" carved in old style lettering into it. One of the crew was named Hernando Muñoz. Was this him?

Could the story be accurate that all who survived and made it to the beach were killed, or were they instead integrated into the tribes, leaving descendants in the area?

Bronze chest handles found in Manzanita c.1913 (Source - Beeswax Wreck Project)

In 1915, an article described where a "primitive Spanish cannon" had been found nine miles north of Nehalem Bay in what became known as Cannon Beach. There was another account of a second cannon found on Nehalem Beach. What became of the cannons after their discovery is unknown.

In 2013, Craig Andes, a beachcomber found timbers sticking out of the sand in caves, which initially no one believed belonged to a shipwreck. It turned out he was right.

The Goonies movie poster c.1985

In 2022, more pieces were recovered, and are the first clue of physical evidence to confirm its existence.

Lest you believe the loss of this Spanish galleon was a rare occurrence, more than 2,000 ships have been lost where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean.

The Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 protects shipwrecks and gave ownership within 3 miles of the American coastline to the state adjacent to where it was found. So for example, if you're a diver or beachcomber and you come across any part of a new wreck along the Oregon Coast, you would be cheated of your find by this law since it belongs to Oregon.

One exception is the Sunken Military Craft Act of 2004, which preserves the sovereign status of sunken U.S. military vessels and aircraft, regardless of how much time has passed.

The numerous stories circulated about the lost ship caught the attention of director Steven Spielberg. This was the jumping off point for the idea behind the 1985 movie, The Goonies where a group of kids use a map to find the hidden treasure left behind by One-Eyed Willy, a 17th-century pirate.