Along the beaches of Oregon, around Nehalem Bay, a very strange thing washes up on the beach...chunks of raw beeswax. Some are small, some are extremely large, some have Arabic numerals stamped on them, and some even have bits of bee carcass trapped inside. Along with sherds of Chinese pottery and sometimes the errant silver coin, the wax comes from a very specific source...a Spanish Manila galleon wrecked somewhere, just offshore...
The American Spanish Empire had constant contact with Asia. Huge Spanish galleons would load their holds in the Philippines with spices, silks, porcelain bowls and plates from China, and wax. Beeswax made the best candles. If you didn't have beeswax, the candle would be crafted from tallow, essentially, beef fat. Tallow candles are smoky, smelly, and nasty. If there's nothing else, you'd use what you had, but if you could get it, beeswax made the best, cleanest and sweetest candle money could buy. Up and down Spain's American Colonies, from Arizona and Texas to the Southern tip of South America and all the way back to Spain itself, the need for candles was tremendous. Not only for lighting the home, but for all the religious ceremony needed in Catholic Churches. That need ensured boatloads of beeswax, with most of it coming from Asia.
Spain was a empire dependent on wealth from abroad. From the early days of conquest and the riches garnered from subjugating the Native civilizations of the Americas, Spain needed a system that would transport far-flung wealth and goods back home. The Philippine Islands served as Spain's Asian gateway, with Manila being the central hub from which to ship. In 1565, the Spanish founded their first settlement in the Philippines, Cebu, with the town of Manila following in 1571. By the end of the Elizabethan period, Spain had established a lucrative foothold in the region, consolidating their eastern trading franchise into a system that would funnel this Asian wealth halfway around the world.
The heart of the system was the Manila Galleon. Large cargo vessels, with cavernous holds, these vessels were designed to pack as much product as possible and get those goods across the vast Pacific Ocean to the Western shores of Mexico or Panama. From there, the cargo would be offloaded, transported by wagon to the Caribbean side, then loaded up once again for a voyage to Europe. On the journey, galleons would frequently encounter the West Coast of what is now the United States, the last leg of the voyage across the Pacific Ocean. Once this was reached, they would turn south, following the coast to Acapulco. Given navigation limitations of the time, it is amazing the Manila galleons made it as far as they did, with relatively small losses, but there were exceptions.
In the waters off Oregon and California there are at least three of these magnificent Spanish behemoths. One in Southern California, one in Northern California and one right off the coast of Oregon. None of these wrecks have been exactly pinpointed, but their enormous cargos have been leeching out for years, being deposited onto the beach. Spanish records were well kept, so we know exactly which ships were lost, the ship's names, the crews and the cargos they carried. in the case of the Oregon wreck, it came down to two contenders, the Santo Cristo de Burgos lost in 1693, and the San Francisco Xavier which vanished in 1705. Either one could be the lost wax galleon, both would have similar cargos. The mystery was solved by a very big wave...
In 1700, we know that a large tsunami struck the Oregon coast in the region of the wax galleon wreck. Archaeological evidence shows that wax from the Santo Cristo de Burgos' cargo was washed inland by the wave. Had it been the wreck of a Manila galleon, the one from 1705, there would be no wax in the tsunami's inland sediment layer. To date, the final resting place of the San Francisco Xavier is unknown, but we finally know the true identity, and the approximate location, of the mysterious wax galleon.
