GOLD Escudos, Spanish Doubloons (Doblons), Facts in Fiction from legends of unfound treasure in the tropical waters of Belize: The excerpt begins shortly. First, truths behind passages in ‘Solana del Mar.’ Residing for extended periods among the Belizean islands, we were intrugued by legends about Capt. Henry Morgan’s fabled hideaway, a place where pirates reportedly knew the treacherous backwaters behind the Belizean Barrier Reef - in centuries past a logistical sanctuary from pursuing navies. Pirate vessels likewise would have driven galleons into treacherous waters along a Mayan coastline to become British Honduras, now Belize. Some of us wondered if such vessels, pirate or galleon, would have met an unexpected end, descending into fathoms of open-ocean at widely separate cuts in the reef, where naval vessels dared not venture due to shallow seas, a notorious maze of rock and coral beyond. Shots were lobbed in pursuit, sea battles occurred in this Caribbean frontier, record keeping was less evident. Lost cargos and phantom vessels would have gone down undocumented. Research led to waters behind the reef. In time, remnants of an ancient shipwreck was located at five fathoms, 1 atmosphere. We knew in our bones that we were looking at the real deal…when the sea rangers closed in. (Dang.) The following is one of many passages in ‘Solana del Mar’ reflecting a glimmer of clues not far from things to come: **** Sander stepped to the shady edge of the great palapa and waved. Megan waved back with an ecstatic little hop. “It’s treasure time,” he muttered under his breath. He could feel it: the ocean warm, crystalline waters with limitless visibility and undersea marvels of blue tang and sunfish…and the first, tell-tale glint of solid gold under a rocky shelf he knew well. Over a couple of days in a rare rip current, shifting tons of sand behind the reef had moved in his favor at last. The scattered ballast stones from a Spanish galleon had been pointing in the right direction, after all. He knew it. He’d known it in his soul from the day his ambling research led him to an ancient discovery, and he knew the secret was his alone: In mid-November, 1669, under orders of Spanish King Carlos to sail from Old Panama City, up the Yucatan channel, and across the Gulf of Mexico for the Cabeza de los Martires del Floridas, a bloated galleon had been jammed full of 65-pound silver ingots and coins, and leather caskets brimming with gems and certain personal assets of wealthy passengers. After leaving Portobello, the lumbering ship had picked up an additional cargo of thousands of gold coins - ‘pesos de oro’ - and ingots bearing the stamp of King Carlos V, heir of Phillip IV, at a time when Spanish treasure ships ran constantly home, back and occasionally aground in killer storms - to support an increasingly overgrown empire. Among the stacks of musty log books in a sequestered corner of an old library in Belize City, Sander had discovered the plight of one galleon specifically - a lost and forgotten ship that had tried to run the Spanish Main in November of that year, when a late-season hurricane severed its mast, ripped the tiller from its casings and pushed the stricken Senora de Seville 150 miles off course, into the thrashing, serrated jaws of the Barrier Reef off Albacore Caye. The account of a royal salvage crew in January, 1670, reported the shredding of the Seville: By the time they found the wreck site, the remains of the Seville had been strewn up and down the reef for half a kilometer, “….due south of a Mermayds portal to the deep, where the sea hath cleaved the reef in twain to grant the Lord’s safe passage…yet a vineyard’s length ashore.” Meaning, she had nearly made it through the cut, but instead, La Senora de Seville rode a belly-ripping course along the jagged reef, spewing enormously valuable cargo in all directions - either seaward into the lost depths or into the churning “shallows of rock and coral” on the other side - all souls lost at sea. Yet, the royal salvage operation itself had been abruptly abandoned, the crew ordered Godspeed to Old Panama City against the city’s imminent sacking by Captain Henry Morgan and his deranged horde of pirates out of Port Royal, Jamaica. New salvage operations were never recorded. Such omissions were rare in Spanish archives and Sander knew in his bones that the crew had perished in the battle without replacements from a beleaguered empire. He knew the Seville was still out there. (The above is an excerpt from ‘Solana del Mar,’ a novel by Steve Marsh, online via Amazon/books, Barnes& Noble, Google books and beyond.)
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 00:01:36 +0000
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