Pry Bar
Physical Object
1986.008.0725
Nuestra Señora de Atocha (1622)
circa 1620
A pry bar from the wreck of the galleon Atocha could have served multiple uses. The long, heavy, wrought iron bar has a two-pronged claw at one end and a point at the other. As a shipboard tool, it would have been used to remove spikes and planks and to move and scoot heavy objects such as cargo and cannons. It could have also been used as a tool by divers to salvage the shipwreck: An underwater recovery team was able break into the ship immediately after it sank, but they were rebuffed by the relatively deep water. While they were re-equipping in Havana, another hurricane demolished the submerged ship, and it was then lost to Spanish salvagers forever.