Playa Damas Shipwreck Artifact Inventory - 2005 - ShipLab Report 9

Texas A&M University - Department of Anthropology - Nautical Archaeology Program

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Playa Damas

Artifact Inventory

Filipe Castro

Ship Lab Report 9

May 2005


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Playa Damas Shipwreck

Artifact Inventory

Filipe Castro

Ship Lab Report 9

College Station, May 2005


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Playa Damas Shipwreck

Artifact Inventory

Introduction

Located near the little village of Nombre de Dios, on Panama’s Caribbean coast, the Playa

Damas shipwreck is yet another Spanish shipwreck destroyed by treasure hunters’ relentless

optimism. Sunk in very shallow water sometime during the first decades of the 16th

century, it

was undoubtedly salvaged soon after its loss, and only a small collection of artifacts was left,

buried or stored in the holds and difficult to access. The ship's heavy iron guns and anchors were

probably were quickly buried in the sand.

In July 2003 the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University (INA) was invited

by the media group Spiegel to consider the complete excavation of a shipwreck at Playa Damas,

located near Nombre de Dios, on the Atlantic coast of Panama. The media had announced,

based on some evidence not confirmed by archaeological analysis, that this shipwreck was

almost immediately announced to be Columbus’ Vizcaína, a small 50 ton caravel lost near

Portobelo, during his fourth voyage, in 1503. Regardless of whether it was Columbus' caravel or

not, this shipwreck was of obvious interest for archaeologists, because ships dating from the 15th

and 16th

centuries are rare.

The Spiegel group made an agreement with the government of Panama, through the national

Institutte of Culture (INAC), to fully fund the excavation and conservation of the Playa Damas

shipwreck. The money was to be donated by several European sponsors who asked for nothing

in return.

In July 2003 the author went to Hamburg, Germany, to meet with the Spiegel team and discuss

the feasibility of this project. Tests carried out by the Spiegel-TV team on materials from the

shipwreck, removed with permission from the heritage office and in cooperation with the

German government, had already yielded some incredible dates. A sample of the hull’s timber –

from an oak hull plank – was dated to the late 15th

century.

We were enthusiastic about the project. One of its most appealing features was the fact that

Panama had just changed its law concerning the protection of its underwater cultural heritage,

being the first country in World to ratify the UNESCO Convention of the Underwater Cultural

Heritage. The Convention had recently been voted by over one hundred countries and its

adoption greatly strengthening the state's role in protecting and researching Panama's underwater

cultural heritage. This made it a perfect opportunity to show the world that developing countries

can be on the front line in fields like nautical archaeology.


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The Spiegel group agreed to try to raise a sum of around US$1,200,000 to pay for the excavation,

conservation, publication, and possibly exhibition of the artifacts of this shipwreck. The details

of the exhibition of the artifacts would have to be planned at a later date, depending upon the

amount of money raised by the Spiegel group, INA and Texas A&M University.

The Shipwreck

It seems that the Playa Damas shipwreck site was known for some time by local fishermen, who

dived regularly on it to catch lobsters. It was found by an American diver, Mr. Warren White, in

1997. In the fall of 2001 Mr. White visited this site with a treasure hunting company –

Investigaciones Maritimas del Istmo, SA. (IMDI) – which used a “mailbox” to dig a trench about

four meters deep, around the vessel, according to Mr. White. A large collection of artifacts was

raised. Most were stored at a facility built at Portobelo by the treasure hunting company, in

some cases mixed with artifacts from different proveniences. A few artifacts may have been lost

forever: a lead seal, numerous stone cannonballs, and two iron guns were dropped in the bay of

Nombre de Dios, after being found too heavy to be raised into a truck on a nearby pier.

Fig. 01 – Sketch of the Playa Damas shipwreck site by Mr. Warren White (2001).

It is impossible to know exactly what the shipwreck looked like before the salvage company

Investigaciones Marítimas del Istmo SA (IMDI) first worked on the site, in 2001. We are

fortunate to have a sketch by Mr. Warren White, and personal information from Mrs. Nilda


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Vasquez, who informed us that there were around 150 stone cannon balls on the site, when they

first got to it.

There is a video showing a mailbox being used, and Mr. White informed us that there was

another portion of the hull underneath the shipwreck.

The list of artifacts in Mr. White’s map is quite interesting but it is not clear if there is a

corresponding official list in IMDI’s salvage papers.

Fig. 02 – Artifact list by Mr. Warren White (2001).

After raising a number of artifacts the company IMDI produced a list of the artifacts raised,

which was published in the government’s journal, Gaceta Oficial, in January 2002 (Table 1).


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Table 1

Inventario preliminar de los artefactos de Playa Damas acorde a la Gaceta Oficial, lunes 14

de enero de 2002, Nº 24,499:

A. Armamento y accesorios de metal:

a. 3 cañones tipo verso

b. 1 cañón tipo lombarda

c. 1 cañón pequeño

d. 2 morteros

e. 1 servidor de bronce

f. 5 servidores de verso

g. 2 piezas de alambre

B. Proyectiles:

a. 9 proyectiles esféricos de piedra

C. Otros materiales líticos:

a. 1 piedra grande de lastre

b. 252 piedras de lastre pequeñas y medianas

c. 2 piedra de color blanquecino

D. Vidrio:

a. 5 botellas de color verde oscuro (4 quebradas)

b. 1 pedazo de botella color verde oscuro

E. Otros recipientes:

a. 5 recipientes de tipo “caneca” de principios del Siglo XX

F. Cerámica torneada:

a. 1148 fragmentos de botijas o peruleras

G. Materiales afectados por concreciones de coral:

a. 275 elementos no identificados cubiertos de coral

b. 5 segmentos de cadena de meta

c. 1 concreción con tres servidores de metal adheridos a otros materiales

d. 1 artefacto en forma de barril con otros elementos no identificados adheridos

H. Fragmentos de Madera:

a. 130 fragmentos no identificados, de distintos tamaños

I. Otros materiales orgánicos:

a. 3 huesos no identificados


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These artifacts were stored at a warehouse built by IMDI in Portobelo, under custody of the

Panamanian state, due to the lack of facilities at Instituto Nacional de Cultura (INAC)

headquarters in Panama City.

In January 2002 Dr. Donald Keith, from Ships of Discovery, visited the site and shot some video

footage of the shipwreck.

Later, in the fall of 2002, Dr. Roger Smith and Dr. Cheryl Ward also visited the site on behalf of

the Florida Association of Volunteers in the Caribbean to evaluate the possibility of excavating

this shipwreck with students from Florida State University. Both Dr. Smith and Dr. Ward took

pictures and made sketches, which they were kind enough to share with us.

Fig. 03 – Sketch of the Playa Damas shipwreck site by Dr. Roger Smith (2002).


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In March 2003 a team from the German media group Spiegel visited the site while filming a

documentary, and produced underwater pictures and video footage. Mr. Karl Vandenhole, the

executive producer of this documentary – Kolumbus’ letze Reise, Spiegel TV, 2004 – elaborated a

report which included a number of his own sketches.


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Fig. 06 – Sketch of the Playa Damas shipwreck site by Mr. Karl Vandenhole (2003).



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In September 2003 a team from Texas A&M - the author, accompanied by Dr. Donny Hamilton -

visited the shipwreck site and IMDI’s warehouse, where the artifacts raised in 2001 were stored.

below is a sketch of the artifact collection.


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Fig. 11 – Sketch of IMDI’s tank by Filipe Castro (2003).


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Although we were not authorized to take pictures IMDI, we had pictures taken by Dr. Cheryl

Ward and Mr. Karl Vandenhole, which we used to make a tentative inventory the artifacts stored,

together with our notes.

Fig. 12 – Artifacts in IMDI’s tank (Photo: Dr. Cheryl Ward, 2002).



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Fig. 18 – Artifacts in IMDI’s tank – cannon balls (Photo: Dr. Cheryl Ward, 2002).

Fig. 19 – Artifacts in IMDI’s tank – timber (Photo: Dr. Cheryl Ward, 2002).


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Fig. 20 – Artifacts in IMDI’s tank – Ceramic shards (Photo: Dr. Cheryl Ward, 2002).

Fig. 21 – Artifacts in IMDI’s tank – Large chamber (Photo: Mr. Karl Vandenhole, 2003).


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Fig. 22 – Artifacts in IMDI’s tank (Photo: Mr. Karl Vandenhole, 2003).


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Fig. 23 – Artifacts in IMDI’s tank (Photo: Mr. Karl Vandenhole, 2003).


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In January 2004 we visited the shipwreck site once again, this time the author and Mr. Jim

Jobling from Texas A&M University’s Nautical Archaeology Program, and made a sketch of the

shipwreck site.

Fig. 24 – Sketch of the Playa Damas shipwreck site by Filipe Castro and Jim Jobling (2004).

The larger artifacts exposed were numbered and measured when possible (Table 2). Other,

smaller artifacts were photographed. Later, at INAC’s headquarters, we saw another two stone

cannon balls, which I have numbered C001 and C002.

Table 2

Artifacts inspected in situ at Playa Damas, in January 2004.

01 and 02 – Metal tubes, presumably a versos.

03 to 12 – Versos.

13 – Metal tube, presumably a verso.

14 and 15 – Bombardetas.

16 and 17 – Metal concretions, presumably bombardas.


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18 to 20 – Anchors.

Fig. 25 – Stone cannon ball and ceramic shards in situ (Photo: Karl Vandenhole, 2004).

It is impossible at this stage to make sense of this collection and produce a full inventory of the

artifacts. We have numbered the different collections from 1 to n, assigning the letters A to the

IMDI collection, B to the artifacts that are said to have been kept at Mrs. Nilda Vasquez’ house,

and C to the artifacts stored at INAC headquarters, in Panama City.

In early May 2005 Mr. Warren White visited the site and took pictures from the surface, which

suggest that the shipwreck site was extensively worked by a salvage company. The guns and

ballast photographed by Mr. White do not show any king of tags, nor the site shows any

positioning system in site, a puzzling situation, since the salvage company mentioned publicly

having hired an archaeologist.

It is worrisome to think that this site has been worked by a company in search of artifacts with

market value for sale – these were the intentions expressed to me by one of the company's

investors. Although we tried to explain that a shallow shipwreck located so close to a Spanish

port had been extensively salvage at the time of its loss, some of the fundraisers involved - an

American partner company based in Florida, according to our informants - insisted that there was

a treasure and that there would probably be cashes of emeralds hidden inside the guns.


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Fig. 26 – Sketch by Mr. Warren White in early May 2005.

Fig. 27 – The site in May 2005 (Photo: Warren White, 2005).


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The salvage company IMDI has allegedly worked the site from late 2003 to 2005 and is said to

have produced a site plan for INAC. As we abandon the project, there are rumors of artifacts

sold, and lawsuits against governmental officials that tried to stop the salvage works.

Fig. 32 – Media clip mentioning rumors of possible exportation of artifacts to the USA (El Siglo, November

2004)

College Station, May 2005

Filipe Castro

Playa Damas Shipwreck Artifact Inventory - 2005 - ShipLab Report 9

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