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This straight timber (codaste) was the principal backbone of the stern of the ship, where the planking terminates, and on which the rudder was hung. Originally rounded at the after edge, the sternpost measures 35 cm in sided thickness and has a surviving molded height of 25 cm. Rabbets were cut 10 cm into the forward sided face, and 5 cm into the molded thickness, of the sternpost to let in hood‑ends of the planks and to provide a backing on which to fasten them with square-shanked iron spikes. The sternpost has an estimated rake (lançamiento) of 60 degrees of arc, measured upward from an imaginary horizontal extension of the keel (or, 30 degrees aft of vertical). San Diego, a Manila galleon lost off the Philippines in 1600, has the same sternpost rake (Carré et al. 1994: 148), while the more contemporary San Estéban, a Spanish nao wrecked in 1554 off Padre Island, Texas, had a slightly lesser rake of 65 degrees (Rosloff and Arnold 1984: 291).