Captain Limbrey and 40 of his crew got away in boats and were picked up by Dover Merchant. The Royal Merchant kept leaking after she and her sister-ship left Cadiz and, when the pumps broke down, she sank off Land's End in rough weather on 23 September 1641.Įighteen men drowned in the sinking.

He volunteered to carry the treasure to Antwerp on his way home. When a Spanish ship in Cadiz at the same time caught fire just before she was due to carry treasure to convert into pay for Spain's 30,000 soldiers in Flanders, the Royal Merchant's Captain Limbrey saw his chance to make a little more cash for his owners. By all accounts she was leaking badly after her long voyage. The Royal Merchant and her sister-ship, the Dover Merchant, called into Cadiz on their way home to London. England was at peace with Spain at this time.

The Royal Merchant spent two years trading with Spanish colonies in the West Indies from 1637 to 1640. On board were at least 100,000 pounds of gold (over US$1.5 billion in today's money), 400 bars of Mexican silver (another 1 million) and nearly 500,000 pieces of eight and other coins, making it one of the most valuable wrecks of all time. The Royal Merchant was a 17th-century English merchant ship that was lost at sea off Land's End in rough weather on 23 September 1641.

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