El Cazador
Take your seat in a glass-bottom boat and explore the amazing shipwreck of El Cazador, a Spanish brigantine, that met its fate in 1784, sinking in the Gulf of America during a storm. Laden with silver coins, it was bound for New Orleans to support Spain’s struggling economy. Lost for over 200 years, its discovery in 1993 stirred excitement. The coins onboard became prized artifacts, reflecting the economic ties of colonial America. Many historians believe that if El Cazador had completed her mission, she could have changed history. Instead, El Cazador’s story embodies the risks and rewards of maritime trade, the mysteries of the deep, and the enduring allure of lost treasure.
The Story of El Cazador
In January 1784, the Spanish brig El Cazador (“The Hunter”) sailed from Veracruz, Mexico, bound for New Orleans. Her cargo was about 450,000 silver coins, mostly 8-real “pieces of eight,” sent by King Charles III to shore up the Spanish colony of Louisiana, whose paper money was not backed by silver or gold. She never arrived. By June 1784, Spain officially listed her as lost at sea.
For more than 200 years, no one knew where she went down. Then, on August 2, 1993, the Pascagoula, Mississippi, fishing trawler Mistake snagged its net about 50 miles south of New Orleans. When the crew hauled it up, it was full of silver coins dated 1783.
The find drew national attention, and much of the silver was first kept in a bank safe in Grand Bay, Alabama, just west of Mobile.
See El Cazador at the Museum
At the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf, you can take a seat in a glass-bottom boat and look down on the wreck of El Cazador.
