by: Ray Theiss
Lone Star Ghost Towns
Matagorda Bay is a large body of water located in-between Galveston and Victoria.
The bay itself is divided into two separate entities, East and West Matagorda, and both empty directly into the Gulf of Mexico.
Since the mid-1500s, Matagorda Bay has been mapped and explored by sailors from Spain and France.
Over the course of its lengthy history, there are numerous accounts of shipwrecks and lost treasures scattered in the vicinity of the bay and upon the narrow strip of land named today as Matagorda island.
Of all the stories and legends though concerning Matagorda Bay and Matagorda Island, there is one that has caused serious speculations and research for over 30 years and that has yet to be fully discovered.
The legend of the lost Spanish vessel, the Santa Rosa, has caused many treasure hunters through the years to invest thousands of dollars into underwater surveying equipment; but the murky depths of Matagorda Bay has yet to reveal this lost secret.
There are two separate accounts of how the Santa Rosa vanished.
One that is largely believed by the locals of the Matagorda area is that the ship was attacked by the infamous pirate of the northern Caribbean coastline, Jean Lafitte, and either sunk or captured and vanished to parts unknown.
However, because the Santa Rosa was such a valuable ship at the time of its disappearance, it is more than likely that it would have been too large of a target for Lafitte’s pirates to capture without going unnoticed by the Spanish or American governments.
The second story of the Santa Rosa’s fate, that has been researched only rarely in the past, seems to be the more probable of the two.
According to this version of the story, the probability of the Santa Rosa lying at the bottom of either West or East Matagorda Bay seems higher.
According to what is told, the Santa Rosa was a three mast brig that was commissioned by the Spanish government in the early 1700s to transport a load of silver from the mines in northern Mexico to the Spanish garrisons in present day Florida.
From Florida, the cargo was going to be loaded onto a larger ship and sent to Spain, however, this was not to be.
At the time the Santa Rosa was brought into service, the age of piracy was at its full peak.
The Caribbean, in the early 1700s, was a hotbed of activity. French, Spanish, Dutch, and numerous other nationalities were all churning the blue waves in the region around present day Cuba, offering inviting targets for wealth seeking smugglers, thieves, and privateers.
Knowing that trying to keep the valuable cargo that the Santa Rosa was going to be carrying a secret from other entities would be futile, the Spanish government believed that the ship would be safer if it avoided the opened waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and instead followed the present day southern coastline of the United States from the Rio Grande to its destination in Florida.
For extra protection, the Santa Rosa was going to be accompanied to Florida by three smaller ships, making the entire fleet a formidable opponent against any solitary pirates.
The exact date that the fleet embarked for Florida has been lost, but from what is told, the ships stayed with-in eyesight of the shoreline as they made their way up the present day Texas coastline.
For the first week of the voyage, all was going according to plan, and it seemed as if the trip was going to be a success.
However, unforeseen trouble for the small armada was brewing over the Gulf of Mexico.
About a week or so into the voyage, as the ships were coming towards present day Corpus Christi Bay, heavy clouds were seen boiling up over the gulf and approaching the shoreline.
Over the following days, as the system came closer to shore, the captain of the Santa Rosa decided that the storm was not going to get any larger than a minor tropical storm.
He believed that, due to its size and heavy cargo, the Santa Rosa could make it through the weather without taking any major damages.
However, the captain decided that the smaller ships that were accompanying the Santa Rosa would not be able to make it through the weather, and he decided that the smaller vessels should remain at Corpus Christi Bay until the system passed and then make all haste to catch up to the Santa Rosa when it was all clear.
Because the voyage had been without troubles, the captain of the Santa Rosa decided to put his plan into motion.
As the smaller ships started to anchor in Corpus Christi Bay, the Santa Rosa ventured forward into the darkness of the approaching storm.
The storm lasted for about three days, and finally once it had passed, the smaller ships departed Corpus Christi Bay at full sails in order to catch up to the Santa Rosa.
After a day’s travel, the accompanying ships arrived at the entrance of West Matagorda Bay and saw that the beaches were littered with storm debris.
Huge logs and immense heaps of seaweed were scattered across the sand and the fields of salt grass on Matagorda Island had turned into alligator infested marshes.
As the smaller ships continued up Matagorda Island, the crew started to notice that the storm had apparently been worse than what the captain of the Santa Rosa had originally foreseen.
Then, as the ships approached the eastern tip of Matagorda Island, about three Spaniards came running out of the grass shouting for the ships to pull them aboard.
Their clothes were torn and tattered, their faces ragged with sand, and their voices full of desperation.
Once aboard, the sailors informed the crews of the smaller ships that the Santa Rosa had been lost in the storm. According to what has been told, what the captain believed to have been a tropical storm turned into a hurricane.
The waves and the winds forced the Santa Rosa to turn into Matagorda Bay, seeking a haven from the wrath of the weather.
Although it was away from the gulf, the waves turned into swells in the bay, and the Santa Rosa struck a submerged reef somewhere in the murky depths that tore a massive hole into its lower hull.
The crew was forced to abandon ship, and these three men were the only survivors (as far as the sailors knew).
The smaller ships tried to find the site of the wreck and search for other survivors for several days afterwards, but with no success, they eventually gave up on the task and sailed back to Mexico to report the disaster.
The Santa Rosa, and its load of silver cargo, was lost in the depths of Matagorda Bay.
To this day, the site of the Santa Rosa wreck has never been uncovered.
The bay itself is not very deep, only about 90’ at its furthest, but it is usually immensely murky most of the year round and full of Tiger, Bull, and Hammerhead sharks; as well as alligators, and all of these factors have prevented the lost Santa Rosa from being recovered.
According to the locals of the small communities surrounding Matagorda Bay, the treasure of the Santa Rosa still lies at the bottom of the murky waters.
Will it ever be discovered? Only, time will tell.
Sources Used
Matagorda County Historical Commission, Historic Matagorda County: Vol. I. Bay City, TX. 1987.