1755 - A Very Bad Trip

The Santisima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora del Buen Fin, a 2,200-ton 60-gun Manila galleon, makes a bad journey from Manila to Acapulco.

Having 435 persons aboard initially, she has lost 74 ones of typhus during her 221-day long journey. Three hundreds and ten or twenty more are lying, unable to move, near death.

¤ A standard journey takes five or six months. A seven-month one is long but not surprising. What is surprising is that a few men achieved to handle this quite big ship to a safe arrival.

When arriving, less than fifty persons, mariners and a few passengers together, sick though, are still able of standing and of giving a hand to handling the ship. A few days more, a few less persons able to standing up, and she would have joined the list of ships lost for unknown reasons. Many survivors have only come to destination to die.

Amongst the early victims, we may notice Francisco José de Ovendo y Solis Rol de la Cerda, 62, former Governor-General of the Philippines, on his way back to Spain.

Typhus is known by the Spaniards and has been described by them for two centuries. But the variety which they are more familiar with is different from the one which has plagued the unfortunate crew.

The ship was launched in 1751 at Bagatao Island shipyard. She was meant to travelling between Manila and Acapulco as part of the Treasure Fleet system. The Pacific line was initiated in 1565. The travel from Manila to Acapulco takes a Northern route to reach the winds above the tropic which are Westerlies most of time while the return takes a Southern one to reach the trade winds, which are Easterlies as everyone knows.

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IN RETROSPECT FROM TODAY

NOTE A - On typhus.

The disease responsible of the disaster is the murine typhus, a common plague aboard the vessels, probably responsible with the epidemic typhus for tens of thousands deaths amongst the seafarers in the 18th century, certainly more than warfare. The murine variant is brought by the fleas which live on rats which pass on men. Disease cause and transmission process will be ascertained as late as 1926. 

The epidemic variant is transmitted through body lice. Its cause and transmission process have been identified as late as 1913. A vaccine has been made available in 1943.

NOTE B - On ship fate.

The poor ship will be captured by the Britons in 1762 with lots of riches aboard.

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SUGGESTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

José Maria Silos Rodriguez – Viaje de 1755 del Galeón “Santisima Trinidad” in Revista de Historia Naval 88 – Madrid, 2005

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CREDIT

Unknown Painter - no information - found by chance on the Internet