Girona (ship)

La Girona (/lɑː xɪˈrɔːnɑː/) was named after the Girones family, who at the time had just become Dukes of Osuna and viceroys of Naples (not after Girona, the Catalan name of the city and province of Gerona). Its captain was Hugo de Moncada y Gralla, knight of the Order of Malta. == Shipwreck ==

c.1580 La Girona had anchored with a damaged rudder in Killybegs Harbour in the south-west of Tír Chonaill, a Gaelic túath that covered most of the then newly established County Donegal in the west of Ulster. With the assistance of an Irish chieftain, MacSweeney Bannagh, she was repaired and set sail for the Kingdom of Scotland on the 25th of October, with 1,300 men on board, including , knight and trece of the Order of Santiago. == Salvage ==

Between 1967 and April 1968, off the coast of Portballintrae (Port-na-Spaniagh Bay), a team consisting of local diver and historian John MacLennan, alongside a team of Belgian divers (including Robert Sténuit, the world's first aquanaut) located the remains of the wreck and brought up the greatest find of Spanish Armada treasure salvaged up until that time. The underwater site was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act on 22 April 1993. ==Commemoration==

The wrecking of La Girona was officially commemorated with a period illustration on the reverse side of sterling banknotes formerly issued by the First Trust Bank in Northern Ireland. ==Ulster Museum Exhibit, Belfast==

"Treasures from the Girona". Gold and silver coins, jewelry, armaments, and utilitarian objects from the Spanish galleass, Girona, are on permanent display at the Ulster Museum (part of the National Museums of Northern Ireland) in Stranmillis in Belfast. Replicas of the treasures were loaned by the museum and featured in the BBC series The Great Egg Race episode "The Treasure Map" in 1986. File:Girona_(3).JPG|Ulster Museum, Belfast File:GironaCannon.JPG|Girona cannons File:GalleassGirona (4).JPG|Girona cannon File:GalleassGirona(2).JPG|Iron cannon of Duquesa Santa Ana File:Cannon of Duquesa Santa Ana.JPG|Iron cannon of Duquesa Santa Ana File:Cannon of Girona 2.JPG|Girona cannons File:Cannon of Girona 1.JPG|Girona cannon File:Salamander pendant.JPG|Salamander pendant File:GironaCoins.JPG|Gold coins from Girona File:Cross of a Knight of St John of Jerusalem.JPG|Gold cross of a knight of Saint John of Jerusalem (Order of Malta), most probably Hugo de Moncada y Gralla who was the only knight of the Order on board File:Port-Na Spaniagh c.1888.jpg|View over Port-Na Spaniagh toward Lacada Point, c.1888. File:Spanish Galleon shipwreck at Port-Na Spaniagh 1588.jpg|A 19th-century engraving, Spanish Rocks in the background File:Spanish Armada treasure chest, possibly from the Girona.jpg|A Spanish Armada treasure chest, considered to be early salvage from the wreck of the Girona. ==See also==