Spanish Wrecks on Aberdeenshire Coast

[Bilcor1]

Any info on 3 Spanish wrecks between Colliston and Peterhead
Santa Catarina sunk at Colliston [hence Catherines Dub] heard of 1 off Boddam and 1 at Keith Inch
Bilcor1

[Archivos]

You don't say what dates they happened, but you could try getting hold of a copy of the book Shipwrecks of North East Scotland, 1444-1990 by David M. Ferguson.  Your local library might have it, or you can purchase copies online from various booksellers.

[still_looking]

I don't know if it qualifies as a 'Spanish' ship but there was the Sancta Marie. Although it was travelling back from Spain it's home port was Lubeck. Taken by privateers they crashed into the coast in bad weather attempting to reach Leith.

S_L

[Bilcor1]

Sorry for not replying quicker
Went to Peterhead Library got info on David M Ferguson's book onlyhas few lines on ship wreck at St Catherines Dub which is Santa Catharina also spoke briefly to local diver who was at wreck site
and says in the 60s they formed local diving club and discovered a wreck of Spanish galleon near Skerry Rock at Boddam he  says the name was San Michael
The anchor they took up is now at front of Peterhead Library and the chains were exactly the same as mooring chains at Boddam harbour
He says it was all verifyed by person in London
Also reckons the survivors were the Stephens and Cordiners of Boddam and they had photo taken with a lady in Colliston whose forefathers were Philips from the Santa Catharina

[Tornado78]

I am researching my mother's family and have family names Stephen and Cordiner. Is there proof of a shipwreck off the coast of Boddam.
Was told by a resident of boddam there were 3 Spanish ships scuttled by the sailors who were saved from the English by Scots hiding them in there homes
The sailors settled in boddam and the surnames Stephen and Cordiner were originally Spanish

[Forfarian]

the surnames Stephen and Cordiner were originally Spanish

The name Cordiner is a variant of the rather archaic word 'cordwainer', which described a person, usually a shoemaker, who worked with soft leather. This is in turn derived from Cordoba in Spain, because that was where soft goatskin leather suitable for fine shoes came from. So yes, the name Cordiner has a Spanish root, but as far as I am aware its use as a surname did not originate in Spain.

Stephen, however, comes from Greek. Stephanos was said to be the first Christian martyr, and the name came to Britain, and in particular to Scotland, with the Normans. The fourth king of England after the Norman conquest was Stephen, who reigned in the 12th century. It occurs as a surname in Scotland in the 13th century.

It may be true that there are descendants of wrecked Spaniards in Boddam who bear the names Stephen and Cordiner, but those names are not reliably indicative of Spanish descent. I don't know enough about Spanish surnames to know whether either surname ever occurs in Spain. The Spanish equivalent of Stephen is Esteban.

[Skoosh]

There are similar stories in Easter Ross concerning families supposedly with a Spanish origin & even folk called Paterson apparently descended from a seal! 

Skoosh.

[hdw]

Yes, there are many stories of alleged Spanish ancestors in the east-coast fishing villages. Some people think the Gosmans of my native East Neuk of Fife are descended from a wrecked Spanish sailor called Guzman. There is of course no proof of any of these stories, and surnames like Gosman, Stephen and Cordiner have been around in Scotland since long before the Spanish Armada.

On a more practical level, I know of a Mary Jean Cordiner from Boddam who married Peter Smith, known as "Poetry Peter", the fisherman-poet of Cellardyke (by Anstruther). I can't check the date of their marriage as Scotlandspeople is down, but Peter was born in 1874, and Mary Jean shows up in the 1901 census of Cellardyke, as a "visitor" with a family of Murrays, aged 22. The son of Peter Smith and Mary Jean Cordiner was a teacher at my old school in Anstruther in the 1960s and after retirement wrote several books about the local fishing industry.

Harry

[gypsyspirit]

just joining the thread as it came up in a search.
I have Cordiner, Stephen (and Steven) in my Boddam/Peterhead families.  I am interested in the story of the possible connections to the Spanish wrecks as it might explain some of my unusually placed DNA matches.
Margaret