"Spanish Manila Galleon trade fleet composition" Topic

Has anyone ever run across a source for the composition of ships for the Manila Galleon trade fleets? I'm particularly interested in the last years of the fleet, from about 1785 to 1815. Looking to do a Spanish Fleet vs raiders action in the Pacific in the later Age of Sail.

Kevin

Dear Kevin,
Try Shirley Fish (2011) "The Manila Acapulco Galleons: The Treasure Ships of the Pacific with an annotated List of the Transpacific Galleons 1565-1815" (Milton Keynes: Authorhouse.)
Cheers,
Bertie

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Seems they sailed alone.

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And this is interesting too:

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(Sorry….on a roll now!)

I always thought this would be fun, too, but the Pacific was very remote and actions were likely to be very small, or between single ships.

Squadron actions were much more likely in the Caribbean (or Atlantic islands), as the ships sailing from the Caribbean to Spain were more likely to be in convoy, even in peacetime, because of the abundance and strength of pirates. During times of war on the continent the naval vessels of Spain's opponents joined in the fun. Wager's action of 1708 has been on my "to game" list for many years.

- Ix

Thanks for the help.

There is a hardware angle to this question – the harbors the Manila Galleons sailed to could handle very large, deep-draft vessels whereas the port of Cadiz (entry point for the Caribbean treasure fleet) is shallow, so they couldn't send or receive single 1000-ton vessels like the India trade or the Manila-to-Acapulco voyages.

You might also argue that splitting the new world treasure among more smaller ships was a way to ensure some of it made it home to Cadiz, by spreading the risk of loss over more hulls.

Nice find, Yellow Admiral!