Santa Leocadia

Leocadia sunk in 1800 off Punta Santa Elena, Ecuador.

In the year 1800, the Spanish frigate of war, Santa Leocadia, with 34 bronze guns, Captain Antonio Barreda, was sailing from Paita, Peru for Panama. On November 7, she struck a shoal and broke apart from about 100 yards from the beach at Punta Santa Elena near Guayaquil, Ecuador. Of her crew, passengers, and English prisoners, 140 perished and 48 badly injured. Within 3 weeks salvors had recovered about 90 percent of her treasure, leaving behind more than 200,000 pesos of registered treasure as well as an unknown amount of contraband.
The Santa Leocadia carried over two million pesos of gold and silver in her holds most of which were 1790-1800 silver and gold "bust coins". A group working the wreck in 2001 discovered a small number of late 1700 cob coins. These coins were probably not part of the official consignment, but rather somebody's personal purse. The site continues to produce coins dated from 1654-1800.