Angra do Heroísmo: Portuguese discoveries capital

The Portuguese crown understood this almost immediately. By 1527, King João III had formalized the system — he created a position called the Provedor das Armadas, a sort of harbour master and fleet coordinator, based right here in Angra. The first man appointed was Pero Anes do Canto, and his family held the post for nearly three hundred years straight. His job was essentially to make sure nothing went wrong before the treasure reached Lisbon. He built a network of lookouts stationed on Corvo — the outermost island, the first to spot incoming ships — who would send couriers racing south to Angra with sighting reports. A dedicated escort fleet would then sail out to meet the returning armadas and bring them safely home.

Between 1497 and 1650, over a thousand ships departed Lisbon on the India route alone. Annual returns averaged ten to fifteen ships, each carrying fortunes. After 1580, when Spain and Portugal were unified under one crown, the American silver galleons joined the traffic.

Angra was elevated to city status on the twenty-first of August, 1534 — the first city in the entire archipelago — and became the seat of a new diocese that same year. By the late 1500s, three hundred masons and a hundred and fifty woodworkers were employed here simultaneously, sustained entirely by the money flowing through this port.

What you see around you is the skeleton of all that traffic. And the bay is still keeping secrets — at least seventy-four ships have wrecked in these waters since 1552, most of them still on the seafloor.