Originally part of the Spanish South Pacific Treasure Fleet of 1681 bringing coins and precious metals to the Manila for trade with China, the Consolación got delayed in port. After she left Port with no protection off the Gulf of Guayaquil, modern-day Ecuador, English pirates led by Bartholomew Sharpe attacked the Consolación sinking her on a reef on Santa Clara Island (nicknamed “Isla El Muerto,” or Dead Man Island, due to the fact that its profile resembles a corpse). The crew set fire to the ship and escaped to the nearby island. All attempts to recover the treasure by the Spanish and the Pirates where a failure so it sat undisturbed till it was rediscovered. 
When vast amounts of silver coins were found in the area starting in the 1990s, eventually under agreement between local entrepreneurs Roberto Aguirre and Carlos Saavedra and the government of Ecuador in 1997, the exact name and history of the wreck were unknown, and about 8,000 of the coins (all Potosí silver cobs) were subsequently sold at auction by Spink New York in December, 2001, as simply “Treasures from the ‘Isla de Muerto’”. Most of the coins offered were of low quality and poorly preserved but came with individually numbered photo-certificates. Later, after the provenance had been properly researched, and utilizing better conservation methods, a Florida syndicate arranged to have ongoing finds from this wreck permanently encapsulated in hard-plastic holders by ANACS. It is believed that many more coins are yet to be recovered, as the manifest of the Consolación stated the value of her registered cargo as 146,000 pesos in silver coins in addition to silver and gold ingots, plus an even higher sum in contraband, according to custom. 
History courtesy of Sedwick Auctions.