The Santo Cristo di Castello (1667)
the santo cristo di castello (1667)
This page contained additional material and images for Chapter 9 of my book A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks.
The wreck of the Santo Cristo di Castello, nicknamed the ‘Mullion Pin Wreck’ because of the numerous brass clothing pins found at the site, was discovered by Royal Navy officer Peter McBride while snorkelling off the west coast of the Lizard Peninsula near Mullion in 1969. Over the next few years he led a team that excavated part of the site and carried out documentary research that identified the ship, a rich Genoese merchantman that had left Amsterdam on her maiden voyage towards Spain and Italy but been wrecked on 5 October 1667. The results of this first period of investigation were published in several detailed reports in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and many of their finds are displayed in the Charlestown Shipwreck Treasure Museum. For years after those excavations had finished the site was thought to have been completely buried in shingle as a result of other divers using explosives at the entrance to the inlet where the wreck is located, blocking the shingle from shifting in storms and revealing the wreck. In June 2018 when I retraced Peter McBride’s snorkel I was excited to see a new area exposed that had not been seen before. That began a renewed programme of investigation that continues to this day, initially involving my colleague in Cornwall Maritime Archaeology, Mark Milburn, and now in collaboration with Ben Dunstan, and with several other divers including my daughter Molly Gibbins.
Our work has added to that carried out the previous team in a number of ways. As well as making many new finds, we have taken hundreds of photos of the site and artefacts in situ, sometimes capturing images of material that was only exposed on that one dive before being covered by shingle again. In 2019 we began a programme of archaeometallurgical analysis of the copper and lead ingots from the site, with trace-element analysis completed by Professor Peter Northover of the University of Oxford. Experimental archaeology involving shooting an 18th century musket to test the results of impact on lead shot has resulted in a better understanding of the condition of musket balls on the site, a number of which had impact damage which we now know was caused by firing rather than damage during the wrecking – showing that they must have been collected elsewhere and were being carried as part of a consignment of lead scrap.
Study of the artefacts has benefitted from more extensive knowledge than was available in the 1970s, including new land and wreck excavations elsewhere that have produced comparative materials. One important outcome of this is being able to date a number of the brass items from the site to as early as the 15th century, making them among the oldest artefacts to be recovered from a wreck off Cornwall. It seems clear that much of this material was being carried as scrap, and that some of it – candlesticks and other likely church ornaments – may have come from the desecration of churches in the Netherlands as a result of the Reformation.
Click on this image for the association of the Santo Cristo di Castello with two lost Rembrandt masterpieces.
In addition, much new documentary evidence has come to light in the archives of the UK, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. In Genoa, Renato Gianni Ridella and Luca Lo Basso have revealed more about the ship’s construction and history in the months leading up to her departure from Amsterdam. Their research has contributed to an extraordinary revelation about one of the cargo consignments on the ship that you can read about here. At The National Archives in Kew, I was able to see a large collection of papers taken from another Genoese ship sailing from Amsterdam in 1667, the Sacrificio d’Abramo, showing that some of her cargo consignments were shared with the Santo Cristo di Castello. This has allowed me to build up a rich picture of the cargo on the Santo Cristo di Castello, which included bales of cumin, coriander, cloves and pepper originally from the East Indies, many different types of cloth from the Netherlands, ingots of copper and lead, iron bars, scrap metal – and two works of art from one of the greatest painters who ever lived.
All of the artefacts shown below have been recovered since I first dived on the site in 2018 and have been declared to the UK Receiver of Wreck. The chapter in my book, as well as this webpage, are part of a publication programme that will lead to a detailed monograph on the wreck and the Sacrificio d’Abramo, and our plan is to see the artefacts form a museum display on the wreck. The three blogs linked at the bottom of this page contain detailed reports on several of the more interesting artefacts. To keep up to date with discoveries from the wreck, follow us on Facebook at Cornwall Maritime Archaeology.
Click on the images to enlarge.
One of the outstanding finds from a wreck of this date period anywhere is this beautiful copper-alloy Corpus Christi, which I discovered loose in shingle at the site. It is attributable to the workshop of Guglielmo della Porta and probably dates to the late 1500s, about a century before the wreck. See my blog here for more details on this find (photo: David Gibbins).
Another impressive finds from the site is this chandelier body, probably of 16th century date and part of the scrap cargo - possibly, like many of the candlesticks and other brass items, from churches that had embellishments removed during the Reformation (photo: David Gibbins).
One of our most important finds - a two-pound ‘block weight’ for a balance-pan stamped with dates by the Amsterdam authority regulating weights and measures. The latest date, 1665, is the latest likely for a ship being fitted out in 1666, as the Santo Cristo di Castello was - making this further evidence for the identification of the wreck with that ship. See my blog here for more details on this find (photo: David Gibbins).
A selection of palance-pan weights from the site, including the ‘block weight’ shown above with the date stamps. See my blog here for more details on these finds (photo: David Gibbins).
The outer cup of a set of nested weights, this one bearing the stamp of Antwerp inside. See my blog here for more details on this find (photo: David Gibbins).
A brass-sheathed lead steelyard weight (photo: David Gibbins).
Evidence for mercantile activity also comes from small lead bale seals, this one showing the crossed keys of Leiden - a major cloth producing centre (photo: David Gibbins).
A view in early January 2023 from Angrouse cliffs towards Mullion Island and the open Atlantic to the west, showing the likely course of the Santo Cristo di Castello as she was blown into the rocks below (photo: David Gibbins).
No images are known of the Santo Cristo di Castello, but there are several paintings of ships of this date by the great Dutch marine artists - including this one of 1673 by Willem van de Velte entitled ‘Three ships in a gale’, showing an armed merchantman probably similar to the ship in circumstances very evocative of the wrecking (NG981, The National Gallery).
This 1651 model of the Prins Willem, a Dutch East Indiaman built in 1649 and lost in the Indian Ocean in 1662, probably gives a good idea of the appearance of the Santo Cristo di Castello. The Prinz Willem was 1200 tons burden, making her one of the largest merchant ships of the period, and had 40 guns; the tonnage of the Santo Cristo di Castello is unknown but she had 48 guns, so would have been of this large size. She was built in close proximity to the Dutch East India company shipyards and would probably have been modelled closely on those vessels, which were designed to look like warships (Rijksmuseum NG-NM-11911).
The deposition of William Paynter in 1668 regarding the salvage of material from the wreck that I quote in my chapter, seen here among other papers in the High Court of Admiralty collection in The National Archives at Kew (photo: David Gibbins).
Could this and the next artefact have been the personal possessions of the captain himself? We know that his name was Giovanni Lorenzo Viviano, and that he was from a distinguished Genoese maritime family. This object is a wax chisel, a very rare artefact from this period, used to break off the wax seals from letter - as Captain Viviano would often have done in Amsterdam in his cabin while dealing with the complex paperwork required before he sailed (photo: David Gibbins).
The end of a pair of very fine gilt nautical dividers, of the sort that Captain Viviano would very probably have kept in his cabin (photo: David Gibbins).
Photo of me from the surface in exceptional visibility at the site, showing the cannon that I saw the first time I swam over the wreck in 2018 (photo: Molly Gibbins).
A white-balanced photo of one of the guns from the wreck showing its actual appearance unfiltered by water depth - revealing that oxidization is a continuing process (photo: David Gibbins).
I begin the chapter with an account of my rediscovery of the wreck and then a dive that I did with Mark Milburn and my daughter Molly a short time later. This and the next two photos are from that actual dive - a very memorable and exciting day on the site. This one shows Molly and Mark on the way back from the dive, with Angrouse cliffs and the wreck in the background. On this occasion we used a small inflatable out of Mullion Harbour; we have also shore-dived the site from nearby Polurrian Cove, an arduous undertaking with gear having to be lugged up and down from the cliffs and only possible in very calm seas (photo: David Gibbins).
Molly excavating on the site as I describe in my book. This area of shingle between boulders was rich in artefacts, many of which were loose and had clearly been move around a lot by the frequent heavy groundswell which can cause the shingle to move from one end of the site to the other. The shingle is difficult to move by hand and quickly refills excavated areas between dives (photo: David Gibbins).
Molly uncovering three artefacts at the wreck during that dive - an exciting ‘moment of discovery’ shot (photo: David Gibbins).
The artefacts in the previous photo. Left to right: part of a chandelier body, a copper handle from a pot and what may be the strap of a hinged lid, possibly for a set of nested weights (it is semi-circular in section so flat-bottomed). As with all of the artefacts shown here, these finds were declared to the UK Receiver of Wreck.
Two spouts from lavabos - holy water vessels - of probable 15th century date (photo: David Gibbins).
One of the best ways to date brass domestic items such as those found on the wreck is by the appearance of similar items in dated Dutch paintings. Here in part of the Annunciation Triptych from the workshop of Robert Campin you can see a holy water ‘lavabo’ with spouts and a knopped candlestick, both very similar to the wreck finds. This painting dates from 1427-32 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art).
The two knopped candlesticks are of a late medieval form, of probable 15th century date; the one on the right may be 16th century (photo: David Gibbins). ‘Knops’ are the ridges along the shaft of the candlestick.
This and the following photo show Molly Gibbins examining two guns at the site, both probably 8 or 9 pounders from the ship’s defensive armament. We have recorded 14 guns out of a known complement of 48 - so a number may have been salvaged at the time and others probably remain buried. In common with Dutch and English East Indiamen, merchant ships such as the Santo Cristo di Castello bound for voyages on the ‘high seas’ were heavily armed and designed to look like warships (photo: David Gibbins).
Molly Gibbins examining a gun on the site (photo: David Gibbins).
The site contained not only full-size guns but also miniature cannons - this photo shows Ben Dunstan with one of his best finds from the site, a miniature cannon that is very well preserved because it had been embedded and protected in the concretion that you can see to the lower right. These guns - which have a bore and touchhole and could be fired - were produced as ornaments and toys, and also as part of ‘cannon sundials’ in which sunlight magnified into the touchhole would set the gun off at a certain time (photo: Ben Dunstan).
Copper alloy artefacts including wheels that may be part of the carriages of miniature cannons (photo: David Gibbins).
A well-preserved 8 pound iron cannonball, with a gun behind (photo: David Gibbins).
One half of an iron ‘bar shot’ embedded in concretion, with the second cannonball missing (photo: David Gibbins).
A selection of lead shot from the site, including one-inch balls for swivel guns, musket shot and smaller balls probably used like buckshot in muskets (photo: David Gibbins).
Wired musket shot - two balls joined by a copper wire that expanded on firing, causing greater injury on impact. These were unique finds when they were first discovered at this site in the 1970s but have since been paralleled at several other 17th century wrecks (photo: David Gibbins).
A number of musket balls were found deformed as if compacted against a solid surface, and in order to test that this had been caused by firing I replicated the process by firing modern lead balls from a 1799-dated East India ‘Brown Bess’ musket - with the result that you can see here.
One of two lead ingots weighing over 100 kg each that we have recorded on the wreck. Several ingots raised in the 1970s had stamps on them. These are likely to be of English origin, part of a cargo of lead captured during the Anglo-Dutch war, auctioned off in Amsterdam and acquired by a merchant who had his goods laden on the Santo Cristo di Castello (photo: David Gibbins).
A copper ingot (photo: David Gibbins). Its appearance and shape is original and not a result of seabed erosion.
Fragments of copper ingots. Documentary evidence for the lading of the ships shows that she was carrying large consignments of copper ingots and iron bars - the latter having mostly oxidised and caused much of the concretion that covers the wreck. The copper is currently undergoing analysis to determine its origins, which are likely to be Central Europe but could include Japan at this period (photo: David Gibbins).
The site gained the nickname ‘The Mullion Pin Wreck’ because of thousands of brass clothing pins found all over the site. You can see some here in front of my hand in the remains of a wooden box that once held them (photo: David Gibbins).
A selection of pins as they came off the seabed, many of them misshapen from having been in concretion (photo: David Gibbins).
The four main sizes of pin as well as several pinheads that had separated from the pins. They are most likely to have been made in Amsterdam (photo: David Gibbins).
The wreck contained a large number of spigots and taps for barrels, probably carried as a trade consignment (photo: David Gibbins).
Close-up of one of the tap handles with an impressed salamander, a known maker’s mark from Amsterdam (photo: David Gibbins).
Pewter bottle tops from the wreck - evidence that she may have been carrying a bottled trade commodity, possibly mercury (photo: David Gibbins).
The finds have included large quantities of scrap lead, probably carried as a trade consignment - along with lead ingots - but also for shipboard use (photo: David Gibbins).
Fragment of a bronze grinding mortar with the letters IH, the first letters of the name Jesus - a rare find but paralleled elsewhere on several mortaria of this period (photo: David Gibbins).
A swan, probably an embellishment from a candelabra (photo: David Gibbins).
Faces from the wreck - two copper-alloy ornaments from candelabras or similar items (photo: David Gibbins).
The Daily Telegraph, 6 January 2024. For more on the Rembrandt connection, click here.
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