La Trinidad Valencera, was an 1100-ton Venetian merchant ship, the fourth largest ship in the Spanish Armada. She had been commandeered and pressed into service to serve as a supply transport ship for the Armada.
Damaged in the battles going up the English Channel and further damaged by the gales she encountered rounding Scotland into the Atlantic, she was leaking badly when she arrived off Inishowen.
She had on board the surviving 264 crew from the Barca de Amburgo, another ship swamped, earlier, by heavy seas.
On 14th September 1588, she arrived in Kinnagoe Bay but was wrecked as she tried to kedge on to the beach.
The majority of the crew managed to get ashore before the ship sank. Some drowned and the survivors were aided by the local O’Doherty clan. Many of the survivors were slaughtered by pro-English mercenaries, some were ransomed and a few escaped.
The wreck of La Trinidad Valencera was discovered in 1971 by City of Derry Sub-aqua Club. We are currently showing some artefacts from La Trinidad Valencera, on loan from the Ulster Museum and are in negotiations with them for the loan of a cannon off her
