Introduction, January 2024
Bruce Cruikshank
ManilaGalleon@yahoo.com
This is an updated list first posted at http://www.mrcstudios.com/bruce/ in September 2003 with the help of Mr. Matt Cruikshank. This newer, updated list (January 2024) continues to be a preliminary listing of the ships that sailed between Manila/Cavite and Acapulco from 1565 to 1815.[1] I have endeavored to make the listing of dates and names and fates as complete as possible. Due to the scanty, and sometimes ambiguous or contradictory information readily available—characteristics that prompted the project—there may be errors or omissions in the listing to date.
I am not an expert on the Manila Galleons, simply a compiler of published material excavated some twenty-one years ago. I no longer work on the topic and I have not tried to keep up to date with the literature nor to update any bibliographic references included in this guide. There has been a fair amount of research on the topic since I posted the original list, and one can find a good bit of it by searching on the WWW as well in such sites as academia.edu .
The purpose then and now is to provide an easily accessed site for scholars in Latin American, Pacific, and Asian studies to consult and correct the data presented. As you find errors, omissions, and the unresolved contradictions in the listings, please e-mail me at ManilaGalleon@yahoo.com and explain both the problem and provide the citation of the source buttressing your correction. Unless specifically directed, I will credit you for any changes adopted in subsequent ‘editions’ that came from your input; an archival or published source is of great value for this list, so please include it if you have one and it is apposite.
My actions and response are of course subject to mortality, health, and logistical challenges.
Please also consult the materials and analysis presented below in the following:
Alphabetized List of Galleons and Other Ships
Statistics for Ship Arrivals and Departures, 1565-1815
Summary Information of Galleon Arrivals and Departures, 1565-1815
Summary Statistics for Ship Arrivals and Departures, 1565-1815, by Decade
Terminology and Frequently Used Sources
Bibliography
Galleon Miscellany
[1] The information had been upgraded and moved to Google some years later, but in late 2021 Google deleted it when I failed to move from the “classic’ format to their upgraded sites.