Book Reviews
SHIPWRECK
- A
Saga of
Sea Tragedy and Sunken Treasure
Dave Horner, 290 pages, Sheridan House,
1999
Review by Marjorie Pratt
The
cold was unbearable . The incessant
noise created terror and fear. The
sea water now covering my feet . I noticed a hatch floating alongside. The
current literally brought me to it. I
jumped quickly and clumsily in its direction.
My body weight sent me plummeting. I
sank unfalteringly beneath the water but was not submerged long. I soon found
myself being squeezed between some brackets and planks. This is where I nearly
drowned. Totally terrified because of my inability to swim I managed somehow to
maneuver, squirming and struggling with all my strength, to achieve an upright
attitude on the miserable piece of wood, now my temporary salvation.
As
I clung to the hatch cover the entire sterncastle of the MARAVILLAS, all three
decks of it, crashed into a tumbling fall, astern to starboard. The weight of
many of the passengers as they scrambled to the poop, resulted in a splintering
crash as the deck broke away. The
tower of breaking wood sent horrified and screaming people sprawling into the
sea in every direction. ...I cried a soft prayer, knowing death would soon come.
Padre
Diego was a passenger aboard the MARAVILLAS. The vessel was en route from Havana
to Spain when it was struck broadside by another vessel in the convoy,
holed badly and took on
water. The passengers rushed to the
highest point of the vessel, aft, to the deck at the stern.
The water overcame and filled
the doomed vessel Recorded in
his diary is the harrowing struggle
to stay afloat on a piece of a hatch cover broken away as the MARAVILLAS went
down. He was one of only 45 passengers who survived.
Part
of the eyewitness account of the sinking in 1654 of the 900 ton galleon, the
Nuestra Senora de las Maravillas from the handwritten diary of Padre Diego
Portichuelo de Rivadeneira. The
amazing document was part of a shipment of research material sent to Dave
Horner, author, diver and adventurer, to further document his book on mid 17th
century treasure galleons. Horner has made a diving expedition to the site where
the remains of the 900 ton MARAVILLAS rests, just over 40 miles from land on a
sandy reef somewhere off Little
Bahama Bank.
In
the 1600’s, fleets of Spanish vessels carried
gold ,silver and jewels from the
new world from Peru northward along
the rugged South American coast to
Perico , the Port of Panama. Donkeys
carried the cargoes of vycuna,
cocoa and treasure to the west side of the Isthmus to Portobelo
and loaded aboard galleons
to set sail for Spain.
Part
2 of Treasure Galleons
By Marjorie Pratt
From
the trickle of riches to Spain to the deluge of uncounted treasure.
Then discovery of the King’s own silversmiths minting coin short of
stated value, tons of unregistered gold, silver and jewels carried and with many
ports of call, caches of treasure off loaded and vanished.
In these times of pirates, graft, bribery and pilfering, everyone was a
smuggler.
Spain
tried many ways to keep accurate records and to assure accounting for the
treasure for the crown, but with the losses of vessels sunk in storms or
strandings, and pirates the decline of Spain as a major power began.
It
took local author Dave Horner twenty five years of study after discovering
the diary of Padre Diego to begin to put the pieces of the treasure
vessels actual cargoes and amount of subsequent losses together.
Horner
came upon Padre Diego’s diary as part of items he was studying from
the Archivo General de Indias in
Seville. Written in ancient Castillian it was an arduous
process to translate the handwritten diary that covered years of Padre’s tumultuous
life. By comparing dates and with other documents, ships manifests and sailing
dates he has been able to reconstruct some of the amazing and horrendous
situations in the Padre’s life. Then
to locate the resting places of the sunken treasure ship wrecks, after more than
three hundred years, took collaboration with other interested salvers, financial
backers and sea bed lease holders. A
story in itself.
In
the Padre’s hand the diary tells of the sinking of the LA CAPITANA
watched from aboard the
ALMIRANTA. The 100 foot long
Queen of the South Seas was
lost on a reef in 1657 carrying a
reported cargo of 10 million pesos, silver
coin, bullion, and jewels. Of
the 600 passengers few survived, the terrified passengers were carrying their
personal wealth. They and
crew leapt from the decks as the vessel sank beneath the waves. In the bedlam most drowned as their gold, silver and jewelry
took them to the bottom.
After
the sinking of the LA CAPITANA little did the Padre anticipate his own impending
tragedy. The Padre was required to
make multiple sea voyages across the often treacherous seas under orders from
his benefactors on Church affairs. These
in a time when navigation was not precise, charts were vague and often
inaccurate. A sea voyage was
a daunting undertaking. Vessels
were overburdened with cargo and passengers, crew and captains of unknown skill.
Luck and fair weather were to be hoped for.
Horner, author of five previous books, has painstakingly written an authentic historical and spellbinding account of exploration, adventure, lives lost and treasure found on the high seas. Horner, who lives half time in Stuart, came to Florida from Virginia in the mid 1970’s. A former banker, restaurateur, and sales and marketing consultant, his life near and under the sea has been a constant. A lifeguard and swimming and diving teacher as a youth, he served aboard the USS Aldebaran as Assistant Navigator in his US navy career.
Treasure
Author and Salver
by Marjorie Pratt
Horner
opened one of the first professional dive shops along the mid-Atlantic coast where he customized divers wet suits
for the US NAVY SEALS,
UDT teams and other military units. Horner was one of the first
Nationally Certified SCUBA instructors in the US and has taught thousands while
running charter trips to sunken ship sites.
DIVER
BELOW , his underwater film, has won national Film Festival notice and awards.
Research
to find and salvage treasure from the merchant vessel LA CAPITANA has resulted in a production for television.
RICHES
OF THE LA CAPITANA, the treasure salving story
filmed for an Arts & Entertainment Channel television show, will be
broadcast this spring.
Watch local listings for the date.
SHIPWRECK,
a SAGA of SEA TRAGEDY and SUNKEN TREASURE was published late last year.
Sales of the saga of smugglers, sinkings, survivors and salvers of the
Spanish galleons has warranted a second printing.
When
the government learned of the pieces of four and eight and silver bars weighing
more than 70 pounds from the wreck site over the LA CAPITANA, three
administrations of the country wanted the treasure and had their hands out.
The diving days were to continue with the additional crew of armed guards
who would search each diver as they came aboard the salvage vessel.
Two years of legal work and negotiations finally arrived at a tentative
50-50 split with Ecuador.
As with the well-known problems of Mel Fisher, the finding of treasure, salvage and how much, if any, governments are entitled to, is a sub-plot to the adventure. Mel Fisher so far is the only private citizen to successfully defend his ownership of the salvaged treasure against the U.S.Government His struggle was a long and expensive one. Horner and his group continue dealing with demands and regulations of the government of Ecuador.
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This page last updated: January 06, 2007 01:49 PM