Armada del Mar del Sur

The Armada del Mar del Sur (South Sea Fleet) was the Spanish naval force based at Callao that guarded the Pacific coast of the Viceroyalty of Peru. From the late sixteenth century it escorted the annual shipments of Potosí silver from Callao to Panama, where the bullion was carried across the isthmus to the fleets bound for Spain, and it defended the coast against English and Dutch raiders.