Artist’s rendering of Emanuel Point II [Photo:Hinote]

University of West Florida archeological sleuths have identified a second vessel at Florida’s oldest shipwreck site, where a hurricane in 1559 sank six ships that were part of Spaniard Don Tristan de Luna’s colonization attempt. The Emanuel Point II shipwreck lies 12 feet down in Pensacola Bay, a half-mile offshore and 1,320 feet from the first shipwreck’s discovery in 1992. Following the earlier find, UWF received a $203,368 grant from the Florida Division for Historic Preservation and widened the hunt. The shipwrecks are the country’s second-oldest discovery, next to three ships lost off Texas in 1554.