Did Cortés reuse materials from his scuttled ships to build the brigantines used in the siege of Tenochtitlán?
r/AskHistoriansWhen Cortés arrived to Veracruz he scuttled his ships in order to prevent dissidence among his crew. He would later build brigantines with the help of the people of Tlaxcala in order to siege Tenochtitlán. Would Cortés have enough technology (sails, metalwork) to construct these brigantines without reusing it from his scuttled ships?
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Cortés did indeed reuse materials from his scuttled ships, such as sails, anchors, chains, etc. Both Cortés (in his 2nd Letter to Charles V) and Bernal Diaz del Castillo describe how they had Indian porters carry these materials from the coast into the Basin of Mexico. There they were brought to Texcoco and assembled into new ships. The woodworking for the brigantines was done by Indian carpenters under Spanish supervision.
I recall Cortés describes the transportation of the disassembled brigantines from Tlaxcala to Texcoco, I’ll have to re-read that part, thanks!