Where is the Spanish frigate Juno?

The Juno was awarded to Spain by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia in October of 2000. In 2006, the author examined the site form for the Juno, DHR ID# 44AC0402, at the Historic Preservation Office in Richmond, Virginia. It says that the site contemplated in the admiralty proceeding is not the Juno. Contrary to this, the National Park Service is claiming that the two wrecks discovered off Assateague in 1997 by Sea Hunt, Inc. are La Galga and the Juno. It appears that their only basis that these are Spanish ships is the recovery of some Spanish coins. SPANISH COINS DO NOT NECESSARILY PROVE THAT THE SHIP IS SPANISH. These coins were used in American commerce until 1857. At the end of the litigation in 2000 Spain requested that IF these ships were ever found they would belong to Spain. WHAT IS GOING ON AND WHY?

History of the Juno

On October 1, The Juno and the Anfitrite left for Cadiz, Spain. Near Bermuda, the ships were separated during a storm and the Juno began to leak. The Juno continued north in a desperate condition. The American schooner, Favorite, came to Juno’s aid, and began taking on Juno’s passengers and crew. Only seven people were able to transfer to the Favorite before the Juno and approximately 413 people were lost.

There are several accounts of the loss of the Juno. Primarily two. One was an account from the Columbian Centinal of Boston, Massachusetts dated November 3, 1802. The other was Francisco Duro in his Nafragios de la Armada Espanola written in 1857. The two accounts are mostly consistent except for the final moments of the wreck. The first account comes from the schooner Favorite, Captain Pourland, who was sailing from Madeira to Boston, he fell in with the Juno on October 24^th and found her in great distress and taking on water. The Juno had left Porto Rico on October 1^st headed for Cádiz, Spain and encountered severe weather where the ship was damaged. Two anchors and all of the artillery forward of the main mast were thrown overboard on October 23^rd. The Favorite took on board three officers, one named Don Francisco Clemente, and four marines from the Juno to coordinate signals and a possible rescue. The position given by the Favorite was latitude 37° longitude 67°. This was over three hundred and fifty miles off the Capes of Virginia. (It should be noted that the determination of longitude in those days was often imprecise). The ships sailed together northward for three days propelled by a fresh southwesterly wind. The desperate Spaniards were continuously working the pumps and unable to stop the leak. Duro’s version which seems to be based on Clemente’s account, said that on the 27^th the Juno lost her rudder and at noon their position was latitude 38° longitude 69.56°.  It should be noted here that in both accounts there was no mention of soundings being taken. Soundings are taken to determine how close a vessel is to land. In deep water farther out to sea, calculations of longitude would have been made and relied upon absent the calculation of water depth. This last position translates to two hundred and fifty miles off Assateague Island. At ten in the evening the wind shifted to the northwest and there was a violent squall. The Columbian Centinal says it started early morning on the 28^th. The gale continued and at nine a.m. the mainmast went over the side and the foremast was rendered useless. All four pumps were manned. The Juno made signals to the Favorite that they needed to abandon the ship but the Favorite could not maneuver close enough. The Juno was seen to roll as if nearly full of water. The Centinal reported that a heavy fog ensued and the Favorite lost sight of the Juno for about a half an hour and when the fog cleared she was no longer to be seen. Duro reported that at dawn of the 28^th the Favorite had lost sight of the Juno from the night before. Duro’s account was taken from Lt. Clemente’s description of events and written over fifty years later. The question unanswered is what was the Favorite’s position on the 28^th when she lost sight of the Juno? It is obvious that the Favorite could still sail well and she remained with the lumbering Juno who was dangerously full of water. From noon the 28^th until ten that night it appears from the accounts that the ships were still on a north to north west course. The difference in the two known reported positions which spanned seventy two hours was sixty miles to the north and about ninety miles to the west. No report ever mentioned being “in soundings,” a depth of about 200 feet. Because of the difficulties of accurately determining longitude, sounding the bottom was the best method of finding an approaching shore. The distance traveled by report translates into a speed of more than two knots. That would put her position about latitude 38° 10’ and longitude 70° at ten pm the 27^th. That would be about 250 miles from the sight that was indicated by SEA Hunt, Inc. Clemente had reported that when the wind changed she was forced under bare poles and drove for about ten miles by the northwest wind. This probably put her back to her noon position, which would have been still about two hundred and fifty miles off of Assateague Island, Virginia. The wind continued driving the ship to the south east as the wind was from the northwest, the Juno had no formal rudder, only a steering oar. By the time she disappeared on the morning of the 28^th the Juno would not have been any closer to land. SEA Hunt's theory can now be deduced. The Juno would have to had traveled at a minimum two hundred miles to the west to reach the southern end of Assateague Island if she in fact sank or wrecked as suggested on the morning of the 28th. That would be at a speed of twenty miles an hour. Not likely with no sails. Otherwise the ship would have to have remained afloat for days and still be capable of sailing, this of course after the officers had signaled that they needed to abandon ship on the 28^th. In the admiralty case filed by Benson, Spain submitted some documents from the Don Alvaro de Bazan Museum Archives at Cuidad Real entitled File #31, of the Expeditions to the Indies. There was a translation of Clemente’s account which was incomplete, and an account from the Charleston, South Carolina dated November 13, 1802 which stated that it was a from an article dated November 2, 1802 from Boston. The South Carolina article said the position of the Juno on October 24^th was latitude 36° 44’ longitude 76º 16’. This position today would be over dry land near the Virginia/ North Carolina border, an obvious error. The Favorite had reported their position as latitude 38º longitude 67º, 470 miles from Assateague. This same article stated the treasure on board at “700,000” pesos as the Boston account said “100,000.” Spain submitted documents from Don Alvaro de Bazan Museum Archives at # 130 which included proof that the treasure was offloaded onto the warship Asia in Puerto Rico.

Sea Hunt, Inc. was not the first to claim discovery of the Juno. In 1989, Quicksilver International, Inc said they had located the wreck 40 miles off of Assateague Island. After ten years of irregular diving and research, the company went out of business without verifying the wreck they found in 180 feet of water.

On October 17, 2006, representatives of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports and the U.S. National Park Service signed a loan agreement for artifacts from the so-called La Galga and Juno sites to be displayed in a new visitor’s center at Assateague. This is the same group that got it wrong on the San Lorenzo.

Perhaps Spain can tell us where their lost ship really is.