Photo: Donnie Reid

Six guns from the ships of privateer Admiral Sir Henry Morgan are believed to have been found in the Chagres River in Panama.

Henry Morgan’s cannons found in Panama, archaeologists say

Archaeologists have recovered six cannons from the ships of Welsh privateer Henry Morgan, the first artifacts found in Panama to be linked to the man who remains a legend there, the team said Monday.

In the late 1600s, Morgan sent three ships and a crew of 470 men to capture the Castillo de San Lorenzo el Real de Chagres, a fort that guarded the approach to Panama City, the capital. Morgan and his men were sailing up the Chagres River to join them when his flagship, the Satisfaction, and at least three other vessels crashed on Lajas Reef, sinking in shallow water.

Morgan is generally thought of as a pirate, but he was commissioned as a privateer by the English crown to attack enemy vessels and protect the British colonies of Barbados and Jamaica because the Royal Navy was unable to do so. He became the scourge of the Spanish in the Caribbean and was eventually knighted and made governor of Jamaica.

An American-Panamanian team has been exploring the mouth of the Chagres River since 2008, documenting its rich history. Christopher Columbus found it in 1502 on his fourth voyage to the New World and it became the gateway to Panama City, Spain’s main port in the Pacific.
Thanks to Irwin Bryan for passing along the story.