List of Atlantic hurricanes in the 17th century

The remnant Spanish treasure fleet sighted Vera Cruz, on 26 September, but a "norther" compelled the fleet to anchor offshore overnight. Some ships anchored in the lee of Isla de Sacrificios, and the storm compelled many to cast their cannon, anchors, and part of their cargoes overboard to prevent capsizing. The carrack (nao in Spanish) under captaincy of Juan Minquez cast 500 ceramic jugs of wine and 160 jugs of olive oil overboard. Before the "norther" diminished, the fleet lost eight more ships:

• The 300-ton frigate La Caridad under captaincy of Francisco Morales and ownership of Augustín de Paz wrecked near Isla Verde with thirty men drowned.
• The 100-ton carrack (nao in Spanish) Santa María del Juncal wrecked near Isla de Gavias, but later divers recovered part of her cargo.
• the 300-ton nao San Pedro under captaincy of Diego de Bodes, was wrecked on the coast near the Medellín River, and some of her cargo washed ashore.
• the 100-ton nao La Catalina under captaincy of Duarte de Quirós, wrecked on the coast about 5 leagues from Coatzacoalcos, but her men survived, and salvage recovered only forty or fifty new muskets.
• The 170-ton Scottish-built fluyt (filibote in Spanish) Nuestra Señora del Rosario under captaincy of Herman Garcia, wrecked on the coast at Las Aguas Locas, and people recovered many pipes of wine that washed ashore.
• The 135-ton English-built frigate San Benito under captaincy of Lazaro de Arpide struck the coast near Alvarado River, and people salvaged some pipes of wine.
• The 125-ton French-built ship San Buenaventura under captaincy of Juan Francisco Grimaldi sank near the Tuscla River off the Sierras de San Miguel (perhaps Sierra de los Tuxtlas), and sixty persons drowned, but people recovered some pipes of wine that washed ashore.
• The 400-ton nao La Esperanza under captaincy of Tomás Gallardo, struck on the coast near Mimcapa, 13 men drowned, and she lost all 110 boxes of mercury.

Some accounts combine the effects of the two storms, which together killed about one thousand persons and let to the loss or jettisoning of cargo worth more than 10 million pesos. Some French and English accounts date these storms to 1601, perhaps because of the slow pace of news.^[3] Tropical cyclone status in doubt.

Captain general Luis de Córdova commanded seven treasure-laden galleons of the Armada de Tierra Firma from Cartagena, Colombia. Between Serrana Bank and Serranilla Bank, a hurricane struck the fleet. One ship returned to Cartagena; two others reached Jamaica. The hurricane wrecked the other four galleons on Serranilla Bank:

• the 600-ton galleon capitana San Roque under captaincy of Ruy López,
• the 747-ton galleon admiral Santo Domingo under captaincy of Diego Ramírez,
• the 500-ton Nuestra Señora de Begoña under captaincy of Pedro Muñoz de Salto, and
• the 450-ton San Ambrosio under captaincy of Martín de Ora Macha

No one survived these four wrecks, and Spanish marine salvage teams traversed the western Caribbean Sea but failed to locate them and recover their lost 8 million pesos. Spanish fishermen from Cuba in 1667 accidentally located at least two of the shipwrecks and recovered some silver coins. Spanish marine salvage expeditions over the next six years failed because of bad weather. Robert F. Marx attempted to salvage the wrecks in 1963 but failed on account of bad weather and rough seas.^[6]

London Times reports the loss of 28 of 42 slaves with additional loss of some crew aboard the Bristol. Lloyd's List indicates that someone saved only 10 men and noted the loss of "three vessels, from Africa with slaves" in the West Indies from the hurricane; statistics of the era often ignored slaves. [This is in error: Both the London Times and Lloyd's List did not exist at this time so these comments should be removed.]

The furious tempest occurred the day of San Leoncio, Saturday 12 September 1615, three days after full moon. Father Diego de Torres Vargas describes the storm. Arriving Bishop of Puerto Rico, Pedro de Solier y Vargas (OSA) experiences the storm, and it damaged Cathedral of San Juan Bautista. In the aftermath, people covered the Cathedral with straw thatch until His Majesty raised 4000 ducats in alms and the proceeds from the auction of the estate of Bishop Fray Martín Vázquez de Arce to cover it properly. The repairs included an arch and two pillars to support the crossing (architecture) of the Cathedral church.

A presentment to His Majesty Philip III of Spain, king of Iberian Union, tells of the storm when Captain General Felipe de Beaumont y Navarra served as Governor of Puerto Rico. This document, now archived at General Archive of the Indies, describes a great storm of water and air crashing houses of wood and some of stone, leaving others without door and window tiles. The storm hit the countryside with similar damage with some deaths and injuries to persons; it isolated and destroyed cassava and sugarcane. It drove aground carracks (naos in Spanish) and bajel es from the port with most of their cargo lost. The residents asked the king for a reduction in their tribute. Other commentators note that the storm destroyed the Capital of Puerto Rico.^[15]

In another incident that year (or, more likely, in different recollections of the same incident), after six crucial weeks of delays, Spanish treasure fleet and Tierra Firma fleet left Havana for Spain on or about the morning of 4 September despite the reluctance of some ship captains who suspected a brewing storm. Lope Díez de Armendáriz, marqués de Cadereyta, admiral Tomás de Larraspuru, and admiral don Pedro de Pasquier y Esparza jointly commanded the combined fleet of 28 ships: 17 cargo carracks (naos in Spanish), 8 registered treasure galleons, and 3 pataches. A hurricane hit that fleet on 5/6 September in Straits of Florida off Florida Keys. The lead ship Nuestra Señora de Candelaria and 20 other ships then passed west of the Dry Tortugas and safely into the Gulf of Mexico to ride out the storm. Several ships, however, wrecked:

• Nuestra Señora de la Consolación capsized early in deep water and sank quickly. This ship may be among the merchant naos or another treasure galleon.
• The interesting 600-ton treasure galleon Santa Margarita (shipwreck) under captaincy of Pedro Guerrero de Espinosa or Bernardino de Lugo carried 500,000 Spanish pesos of silver bullion, 1,000,000 additional Spanish pesos, tobacco, and other cargoes. The storm smashed her into an island of Los Mártires (as the Spanish then called the Florida Keys) west of Marquesas Keys, and she sank in 5 fathoms (30 ft; 9.1 m) of water. Of her 194 passengers and crew, 68 survived, including possible captain Bernardino de Lugo, who witnessed the sinking of Nuestra Señora de Atocha.
• Two merchant carracks (naos in Spanish) of the Tierra Firma fleet wrecked against the Keys, apparently within an hour after the wreck of Santa Margarita.
• Two other merchant carracks (naos in Spanish) of the Tierra Firma fleet swamped at sea and sank in deeper water, apparently within an hour after the wreck of Santa Margarita.
• The heavily armed 600-ton registered treasure galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha under captaincy of Jacome de Veider and ownership of Casa de Contratación followed the other ships of the fleet to repulse any attacks on its rear. She carried 901 70 pounds (32 kg) silver bars, 250,000 Spanish reals, tobacco, gold, and other treasure worth more than 1 million Spanish pesos in total; she also held considerable private luggage of various passengers. It swamped and sunk west of Marquesas Keys, 30 leagues from Havana and only one league from the wreck of Santa Margarita, at a depth of 10 fathoms (60 ft; 18 m), too deep for significant marine salvage with 17th-century technology. Of her 265 passengers and crew, three sailors and two slaves clung to the top of the mainmast (sailing) and survived; all the others, including admiral Pedro de Pasquier y Esparza, drowned.
• The 600-ton treasure galleon Nuestra Señora del Rosario under captaincy of Francisco Rodriguez Rico or Miguel de Chazarreta and ownership of Gaspar de Vargas carried a half-million Spanish pesos of silver bullion and other treasure. She wrecked near the Dry Tortugas.
• A patache, reconnoitering for the convoy, wrecked, probably off the southeast side of Tortugas Banks or near Loggerhead Key in Dry Tortugas.
• The 117-ton Portuguese-built merchant carrack (nao in Spanish) Buen Jesús y Nuestra Señora del Rosario sailed under captaincy of Manuel Díaz and ownership of Juan de la Torre; the fleet also lost her in the Florida Keys.
• The storm probably claimed one to four other ships at sea never seen again.

A different fleet that year (or this fleet) also lost the merchant carrack (nao in Spanish) Nuestra Señora de la Merced, probably in 1,500 feet (460 m) of water off the Dry Tortugas, which may be among the four merchant naos mentioned earlier.

In total, the hurricane drowned more than 1000 men aboard the ships this fleet. Many of the surviving ships jettisoned cannon and cargo before returning, battered and dismasted, to Havana. Spanish marine salvage operations began within a week and found the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, rescuing her five survivors. Because she sank in water too deep for common salvage operations, however, they recovered little treasure, and 2 fathoms (12 ft; 3.7 m) of sand reportedly buried her remains within a few months. Spanish marine salvage crews located and salvaged Nuestra Señora del Rosario and recovered probably at least half of the treasure from Santa Margarita (shipwreck) during the succeeding several years. Sand buried the remaining treasure. The Spanish treasure fleet did not return to Spain until the next year.

Mel Fisher salvaged Nuestra Señora de Atocha in 1985. Treasure hunters from Tampa in 1989 identified probable remains of Nuestra Señora de la Merced and recovered a bell and numerous gold bars. Nuestra Señora de Candelaria probably survived, but treasure hunters recently sought her. Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum displays salvaged artifacts salvaged from the wreckage of this fleet.^{[18][19][20][21]} This event may continue as another event this season.

• The es:capitana (nave), Nuestra Señora del Juncal, sank 8 leagues north of "Bajo de las Áreas" (location unknown), and 35 of the 335 persons aboard her escaped in a small boat; the other 300 presumably drowned to death. The Spanish never located the wreck nor salvaged any of its cargo.
• The carrack (nao in Spanish) San Antonio under captaincy of Antonio de Lajust wrecked 1 league "windward of the port of Tabasco"; marine salvage recovered most of its cargo of cochineal.
• The carrack (nao in Spanish) under captaincy of Baltasar de Espinoza (or de España) wrecked very close to the port of Tabasco, and divers recovered 164,954 pesos in specie, 23 silver bars, 50 marcos in silver objects, and 9 marcos in golden objects.
• Two other merchant carracks (naos in Spanish) wrecked on the coast of Campeche, but marine salvage recovered nothing from them.

The other 14 ships of this fleet vanished to an obscure fate; most likely, they sunk at sea without survivors.^[30] Tropical cyclone status in doubt. Marx in one account^[31] labels the storm a "norther," which could refer either to an especially ferocious cold front or to the western semicircle of a hurricane.

Captain general (or admiral) Juan de Campos commanded the Spanish treasure fleet from Havana through Old Bahama Channel (or the northern extension of Straits of Florida) for Spain. During the Eighty Years' War, es:Armada de Barlovento protected Spanish ships returning from the Caribbean. A hurricane struck the fleet at 30°N latitude on 27 September and drove four ships back toward Cuba. Two of these ships wrecked near Havana, a third ship wrecked 6 leagues from Santiago de Cuba, and a fourth successfully returned to the port of Havana. Four merchant carracks (naos in Spanish) wrecked without survivors. The hurricane wrecked the patache of the fleet also wrecked; a priest and other survivors attempted to swim ashore, but sharks ate them all. Another patache from Havana located the wrecked patache 5 leagues from the Florida coast with some survivors still aboard her. Other ships in the convoy survived the storm with such damage that they later sank on the high seas.

The storm also separated the 680-ton almiranta galleon Nuestra Señora de la la Limpia y Pura Concepción under captaincy of Hernando Rodríquez from the remainder of the fleet; she drifted without mast (sailing) or rudder and wrecked on the north side of Abreojos (now Silver Bank) off Hispaniola. More than six hundred persons aboard her swam to a nearby sandbar and constructed makeshift rafts and boats from the wreck. Two hundred survivors then traveled toward Santo Domingo, but most perished before the few survivors reached that destination. Although authorities in Santo Domingo sent a vessel to rescue the stranded, no one survived on the sandbar when it returned. Sir William Phips of Britain in 1687 operated from Port Royal, Jamaica, to recover more than 2 million pesos of silver—twice the registered amount of treasure—from this sunken galleon, setting a world record for value of treasure recovered from a shipwreck. Bermudian and other marine salvage operations of his era recovered more treasure.^[36] Burt Webber circa 1979 nevertheless found more valuable cargo: more than 95,000 silver coins, Ming Dynasty ceramics, gold chains, and other artifacts.

At Saint Kitts and Nevis, several ships containing tobacco ran aground and poisoned the water, killing thousands of fish.^[24]

Father Pierre Pelleprat at Saint Kitts related that the hurricane destroyed four or five loaded merchant vessels at Sandy Point Town. A large Dutch fluyt "resisted the sea" and enabled him to aid "two men that only awaited death behind this ship."

This terrible hurricane hit the fleet of Prince Rupert of the Rhine on 23 September [O.S. 13 September] and scattered the ships. The men aboard the Swallow, including Prince Rupert, took in most of their sails; the storm destroyed the remaining sails. In the northerly hurricane, the Swallow passed within a half-league of Sombrero, Anguilla, and near Anguillita before increasingly easterly winds took him and his vessel to anchorage near an uninhabited island among the Virgin Islands. Meanwhile, the hurricane scattered the fleet, driving the Honest Seaman ashore on Porto Pina in Hispaniola. The Defiance with Prince Maurice of the Palatinate aboard her vanished into obscurity, probably sinking in the hurricane with her crew; another ship and her crew shared her fate. The hurricane subsided after three or four days, ending on 25/26 September [O.S. 15/16 September]. José Carlos Millás suggests that a slow-moving hurricane battered islands from Martinique through Puerto Rico and parts of Hispaniola with the center passing just south of Saint Martin.

Prince Rupert gradually recognized the loss of his brother and grieved terribly. Still, he captured four ships as prizes in the Antilles before returning to Nantes in France early the next year. Cardinal Mazarin bought the ships and stores; Prince Rupert split the limited profit spoils with exiled Charles II of England.^[41][42]

Another hurricane burst forth on 1 October.^[43]

Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre reported on a fearful, tremendous hurricane that desolated Guadeloupe. It destroyed most houses, killed all domestic animals, laid waste all plantations, wrecked every vessel at anchor in the roadstead, and drowned most of their crews.^{[44][45][46][47][48]}

A different hurricane also struck the Antilles this year.

A tropical cyclone also struck Guadeloupe this season.