Shiver Me Chain

A remnant called “Ramona’s Chain” presents a fantastic range of possible histories. The explanatory card beneath four links of ancient chain reads: “Rusted and Corroded Chain from a Pirate Ship Washed up on the Shore of Isla Mujeres in the Caribbean: found by Ramona while beachcombing in 1963.”

Was this a component of a pirate ship? The Golden Age of Piracy, primarily meant to undermine Spanish or English authority in the West Indies, was from 1650-1680, enduring until the 1820s. The Caribbean was the hotbed of privateering from 1628-1638, with the peak at 500 ships raided or destroyed. 

Why privateering in the 17^th century? Firstly, the illegal but lucrative slave trade was a battle on the seas. Secondly, major seafaring nations, Spain, England, and the Dutch, vied for Colonial power in the Caribbean. Thirdly, monarchs underhandedly encouraged pirates who undermined competing nations. The English King Charles II knighted Welsh privateer Henry Morgan, for example, because Morgan sank and sacked Spanish property and ships. Morgan would die a peaceful death as Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica.

Thus, if this chain originated on a pirate ship of the Caribbean, we would assume it was from the mid-17^th to 18^th centuries. If captained by a 17^th-century pirate, the likelihood is that ship was a frigate, the premier fast ship of war.

What heft of iron chains were carried onboard a frigate in the 17^th century? Seventeenth-century frigates carried iron anchors connected to massive hemp rope cables; chains were not standard in the mid to late 17^th century. Looking at the heft of the chain found by Ramona in 1963, could this chain have borne the weight of an anchor? Typical anchors on a 17^th-century frigate ranged from 150 lbs. to 800 lbs. However, a “chain stopper” secured the anchor to the ship. Or Ramona’s chain may have been an element of the chain pump common on 17^th-18^th century frigates: chain, wheels, and plates were turned manually to remove water from the bilge, discharging through the scuppers.

Ramona’s links are not strong enough for a heavy anchor, hoisted up through the sea floor. Unless Ramona’s chain entered the sea later than the 17^th or 18^th century, only a modern high grade alloy chain could survive for 400 years; chains made from standard steel likely had a shorter lifespan.

Chains were used in the 17^th and 18th centuries for “boom defenses;” a huge chain would be stretched across a body of water to deter enemy ships’ passages; these chains were massive, some 600 yards long, composed of iron links 2 feet in length; each link weighing 140-160 lbs. each. 

Ramona’s chain might be a lighter heft hand-forged 17^th-or 18^th century chain. Which frigate? Which commander?

Two pirates plied the waters around Isla Mujeres in the late 17^th and early 18^th centuries: Firstly, Henry Morgan (1635, Wales to 1688, Jamaica), the most famous of the plunderers of Spain’s Caribbean colonies. He seized Jamaica from Spain in 1655; he gained Dutch colonies for England; in 1668, he captured Cuba; he raided Venezuela and captured Panama as the captain of 36 pirate ships. 

The other pirate active in the area in the late 18^th to early 19^th century built a home on Isla Mujeres. Fermín Antonio Mundaca y Marecheaga was a slave trader to Cuba and a privateer of foreign ships. He built a 16-hectare plantation and gardens of stone, “Vista Alegre,” in 1854. The farm encompassed 40% of the island. When he fell in love, the land was dedicated to his paramour, dark eyed Martiniana Gómez Pantoja (b. 1862), 37 years his junior. The stone entry gates of his estate proclaimed, “La Entrada de la Trigueña” – The Entrance of the Dark-Haired Beauty – though in fact the brunette never entered. She married a young local, and Fermín began to lose his mind. He carved a stone mausoleum in the island’s cemetery, with one façade showing a skull and crossbones, and the other a likeness of La Trigueña, and his epitaph to her: “As you are, I was, and as I am, you will be.” However, his remains are not inside!

This empty tomb is a fitting end to a saga of the feminine spirit present on the island so aptly named in 1517 by Spanish explorer Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, “Isla Mujeres.” On arrival the captain had been stunned by Mayan female statues dedicated to Ixchel, the goddess of the moon, fertility, and medicine. Devotees made the pilgrimage to the temple and lighthouse on the southern tip of the island. 

The aggressive, masculine world of buccaneers, pirates, frigates, conquest and plunder; all have sunk. What remains is the Island of Women – and a rusted chain.