Nuestra Señora de la Pura y Limpia Concepción

The final voyage

Nuestra Señora de la Pura y Limpia Concepción sailed as almiranta of the 1641 New Spain fleet returning from Veracruz. Damaged in a hurricane and driven off course, she struck a reef on the Silver Bank (also called the Abrojos), a shoal-strewn area north of Hispaniola, and broke apart. [1](https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/william-phips-goes-sea-making-colonial-sheriff/)

The wreck became a legend among Caribbean salvors for decades. In 1687, New England shipwright and treasure hunter William Phips, backed by English investors including the Duke of Albemarle, located and salvaged a substantial quantity of silver, gold, and jewelry from the site. Accounts of the total recovered value vary — figures cited in different sources range roughly from the tens of thousands up to the low hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling, or are given in later dollar-equivalent estimates — but the recovery was large enough that Phips was knighted by King James II and later served as the first royally appointed governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Phips)[3](https://www.islandinstitute.org/working-waterfront/the-treasure-hunter-from-woolwich/)

What was aboard

No complete original manifest is cited in the sources consulted here. Cargo descriptions rely on secondary historical accounts of the fleet and of Phips's 1687 salvage, and reported total values vary between sources.

Silver: The principal component of Phips's 1687 recovery, described across sources as tons of silver bullion and coin.

Gold and jewelry: Additional gold and jewelry recovered alongside the silver, per historical accounts of the salvage.

Asian trade goods (fleet cargo): As almiranta of a New Spain fleet, she is understood to have carried goods trans-shipped overland from the Manila galleon trade alongside American silver, though this is not itemized in the salvage accounts used here.

How to collect

Separate 1687 and modern recoveries: Material should be identified as either historically salvaged (17th-century) or from documented modern expeditions — the two have very different chains of custody.

Treat value estimates as historical, not appraisals: Cited period figures for Phips's haul vary by source and should not be read as a precise modern valuation.

Look for Dominican licensing: Modern recovery from Silver Bank sites falls under Dominican Republic cultural-heritage and salvage regulation; ask for the relevant permit history.

Confirm ship identity: This is the 1641 Concepción, distinct from the earlier, unrelated 16th-century galleon of the same name captured by Francis Drake.