On August 19, 1563, Pedro Menéndez and his brother Bartolomé were imprisoned by the Casa de Contratación, or House of Trade, accused of accepting bribes and smuggling silver into Spain. In September, he received news that "La Concepción", flagship of the New Spain fleet and commanded by his son Admiral Juan Menéndez, had disappeared off the coast of South Carolina, and was assumed to be dead. The ship was lost in a hurricane that scattered the fleet as it was returning to Spain, at the latitude of Bermuda off the coast of South Carolina. Menéndez conceived a plan for a voyage to "La Florida" to search for his son, whom he believed might have reached there, but he was powerless to initiate it from prison, and his petitions to King Philip II went unanswered.