Green — Armada Ships on the Kerry Coast. 269 



son, and mentioned many of the grandees who were on board ; he also said 

 that the ship contained 50,000 ducats in gold, an equal amount in silver, and 

 a quantity of gold and silver plate. Besides this, she carried "50 great 

 pieces, all cannons of the field ; 25 pieces of brass and cast-iron belonging to 

 the ship ; there were also in her 50 tuns of sack." 



The question which naturally suggests itself is. Where did the Santa 

 Maria sink? The ships that first came in let go their anchors in the right 

 place, between Beginish and the Great Blasket, on a sandy bottom. In the 

 gales that followed they dragged their anchors in an easterly direction, and 

 were finally anchored on rocks, probably about the ten-fathom line. The 

 Santa Maria anchored near them, and must have dragged at least half way 

 across the Sound; and probably, as the tide was then ebbing, she sank some- 

 where near the Stromboli Eock, which is marked on the Admiralty charts. 

 That rock may then have been awash, though now there are two and a half 

 fathoms on it at low water. It seems to have been smashed when H.M.S. 

 Stromboli struck it some fifty years ago. Whatever treasure may have been 

 in the other ship that sank (the San Juan, of Ragusa) was, no doubt, taken 

 out of her by Eecalde, who tried to salve her guns. I should say her wreck 

 lies further to the westward than that of the Santa Maria, but the area in 

 which they both undoubtedly lie is not an extensive one. 



About seventy years ago the Blasket islanders fished up a small brass 

 cannon, with a coat-of-arms on it bearing the device of an uprooted tree. It 

 is preserved in Clonskeagh Castle, near Dublin. 



For those who have time and means at their disposal this part of the 

 Blasket Sound would be an interesting field for discovery. 



R.I.A. PROC, VOL. XXVII., SECT. C, 



[41] 



