La Trinidad Valencera
Trinidad Valencera was one of five Venetian traders requisitioned
by Spanish authorities in Sicily for use as an armed transport with
the Spanish Armada. At 1100 tons, this was one of the largest ships
in the fleet. Over the objections of her merchant captain Horatio
Donai, she was fitted with twenty-eight bronze guns. When the fleet
sailed, she was the most heavily armed ship in Martin de Bertendona's
Levant Squadron, which included ten converted merchant ships from
the Mediterranean. In addition to her own armament, she carried four
of the King's guns, and a complement of 79 seaman, 281 Neapolitan
soldiers, and a cadre of officers. During the Armada campaign, Trinidad
Valencera (a Spanish corruption of her Venetian name, Balanzara) saw
action off Portland Bill (August 1-2), the Isle of Wight (August 2-3),
and in the crucial rearguard action fought at the Battle of Gravelines
on August 7-9, just before the Armada sailed into the North Sea for
the brutal return to Spain. On about August 20, Trinidad Valencera,
Gran Grifón, and two other hulks separated from the main fleet
off northern Scotland; none would return to Spain. On September 12,
Trinidad Valencera was caught in a storm off the north coast of Ireland
and, leaking badly, came to anchor in Kinnagoe Bay on the 14th. Two
days later, she split in two and sank. Most of the ship's company
seem to have made it safely to shore, but several days later they
were tricked into laying down their weapons. Stripped of their clothes
and other possessions by a nominally inferior force, three hundred
of the soldiers and sailors were killed by an Anglo-Irish force under
Richard and Henry Hovenden. Thirty-two of the surviving crew eventually
made it to Scotland and, with safe passage from James VI, on to France.
The officers were marched to Dublin, where all but two were murdered
on orders from the Lord Deputy, Sir William Fitzwilliam.
The wreck of "La Trinidad Valencera" was discovered by the City
of Derry Sub-Aqua Club in 1971. As the crew had removed what they
could from the ship, there are few substantial artifacts. Chief
among them are the ship's guns, which have added considerably to
the knowledge of naval gunnery in the sixteenth century. In addition,
there are ship's fittings, a few dislocated structural timbers,
and pieces of rigging and other cordage.
A plaque which commemorates the 400 Anniversary of the Armada
was erected in Kinnagoe Bay by Bord Failte, Donegal/Leitrim/Sligo
Regional Tourism Organisation and Donegal County Council in 1988.
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