, Legend Heading
LegendHeading
Shipwreck · off the Algarve

The Frigate Mercedes

The Frigate Mercedes: still unexplained.

◆ Evidence tier: TraditionSank 1804 – present◎ Recently discovered — still growing

The Story

What is claimed · what is sourced · what is still disputed

The Spanish frigate Mercedes blew up in 1804 with a fortune in silver, and its recovery two centuries later sparked a famous courtroom battle that sent the coins back to Spain.

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.

The lure: Half a million silver coins

Evidence & Corroboration

Distinct evidence classes that independently agree — never a single score

Historical tradition
Newspaper mention
Scholarly support
Archival evidence
Official map/chart
Corroborated
Verified fact

? Open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.

Historic Maps

Period cartography · Library of Congress & DPLA via IIIF · deep-zoom

◇ No period cartography on file yet. The IIIF map adapters (Library of Congress, David Rumsey, DPLA) fill this automatically when they find charts of this place.

Period Newspaper Coverage

Dated OCR mentions · Chronicling America / loc.gov — a mention proves circulation, nothing more

◇ No dated newspaper coverage yet. Chronicling America runs against this legend automatically and lands dated clips here.

Archival Documents

Manuscripts, government records, company filings · NARA · IIIF · registries

◇ No archival documents on file yet. NARA and national-archive adapters attach primary records here as they surface.

Timeline

Every event source-backed · unsourced events are dropped, never invented

◇ No dated, source-backed events yet. Timeline entries are built only from evidence with a confirmed date -- nothing is estimated or invented.

Sources & Citations

Typed, first-class citations with retrieval provenance

◇ No typed citations compiled yet -- check Historic Maps, Newspapers, and Archives above as they fill in.

From the archive

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