The Portuguese-owned San Antonio was a 300-ton ship that carried seventy Portuguese and Spanish men, women and children. The ship was on its way to Cadiz, Spain from Cartagena Columbia, when it wrecked upon rocks ten miles west of Bermuda in September 12, 1621 during a storm. All seventy people survived the wreck, and escaped on small boats and rafts.
In 1622, Governor Nathaniel Butler of Bermuda sent men on about 23 voyages to the wreck, where they recovered some of the San Antonio’s cargo, including 10 pieces of iron ordnances, 4 anchors, 6 small breech-loaded cannons, a length of cable, 5 pieces of silver plate, and a bag with 162 pieces of eight.
In 1960, treasure hunter Teddy Tucker located the wreck and recovered items from the wreck. Cargo that has been recovered include tools, beads, combs, shoe soles, shot, cowry shells, pottery fragments, olive jars, gold jewelry, silver pieces of eight, and gem jewelry. The recovered items were given minimal conservation treatment and displayed in Tucker’s personal museum. In the 1960s, Tucker donated a portion of his collection to the Smithsonian, and sold another portion to the Bermuda Government. In 1976, the Bermuda Maritime Museum displayed their collection of artifacts from the wreck. In the mid-1980s, a conservation program was undertaken by the Bermuda Maritime Museum in order to halt the rapid deterioration of the artifacts in the collection. Today, some of the artifacts are displayed in the Bermuda Maritime Museum, while the rest are in storage.