I need some prom help

**Galician** · 21st April 08, 12:20 PM

Originally Posted by Riverkilt

Perhaps our historians on this site could help you with the story of how maybe...just maybe...Moors aboard the Spanish Armada were shipwrecked off Scotland and integrated into the culture giving the explaination for the dark Scots....

Or is that myth?

But even if myth you could tie it in with the prom theme.

Ron

Is this a real story?

On the other hand, I've known Irish-Americans whose faces were straight out of Andalusia.

**haukehaien** · 21st April 08, 01:10 PM

Myth.

(This article is technically about a similar legend having to do with Ireland; however, the data it provides is useful)
Straight Dope: Do Some Irish Names Come From Spanish Armada Survivors?

I note that according to this site, only 4 Spanish ships are known to have wrecked off Scotland; and two of them wrecked so far out that it is unlikely that any crew or soldiers survived. (One of them - La Trinidad - simply disappeared in the North Atlantic.) Of the two known to have wrecked in Scotland, El Gran Grifon foundered in the Orkneys; about 50 of the men died on Fair Isle and are buried there in the "Spaniards' Grave". The rest were repatriated to Spain, although many of them died when they were attacked by Dutch gunboats. Elizabeth had promised that the English Navy wouldn't attack them, but hadn't promised not to alert the Dutch.
The San Juan de Sicilia appears to have docked in Tobermory harbor and sent troops ashore to get provisions; on its way back out to sea, it exploded and sank with all hands. (Various legends as to the cause of the explosion abound; I'm not getting into them here.)