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On 20 September 1638, the Manila galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepcion wrecked on the island of Saipan in the Northern Marianas. Nepotism, incompetence, mutiny, and a storm all contributed to her demise. Well off the usual course from Manila to Acapulco, she carried an enormously valuable cargo of silks, spices, gem-encrusted gold jewellery, and Chinese porcelain. She also carried a personal consignment from the Spanish governor of the Philippines. The wreck was discovered in 1987 by Pacific Sea Resources Inc. Michael Flecker served as diving superintendent throughout the ten-month excavation, and as a fledgling maritime archaeologist during the follow-up conservation and documentation. 35 years later, he is still able to vividly recount the adventure, and to elaborate on all that was learned.


About the Speaker
Dr Michael Flecker has overseen some of the most important shipwreck excavations in Asia over the past 30 years. They include the 9th-century Belitung (Tang), 12th-century Flying Fish, 13th-century Java Sea, and 17th-century Vung Tau wrecks. He earned his PhD at the National University of Singapore based on the excavation of the 10th-century Intan wreck, which resulted in a book published under the British Archaeological Report Series (2002). Other works include Porcelain from the Vung Tau Wreck (2001), Early Voyaging in the South China Sea: Implications on Territorial Claims (2015), Ancient Silk Trade Routes (2015), and The Tang Shipwreck: Art and Exchange in the 9th Century (2017) published by the ACM, along with many articles in international journals. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute since 2015, and has directed shipwreck excavations in Singapore waters on behalf of the National Heritage Board since 2016. 

^{Image: Painting by Roger Morris, commissioned by Pacific Sea Resources.}

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