Has anybody ever come across something like this. It is a cast iron mask of a woman's face, and was found in the 1950s on a beach in Southern Oregon. It is life size. The woman has her hair up, possibly with a coronet, and seems to be wearing what I would describe as a Tudor ruff around her neck. In the forehead is a cast hole. The back of the mask is curved, so it would fit up against a mast or a pole, and the hole would enable it to be nailed against the mast/pole.
I think it is a cast of the face of Queen Elizabeth I, and I think it came from the wreck of Thomas Cavendish's lost ship, the Content, which went missing off Baja California in 1587, immediately after helping to capture and plunder the Manila Galleon Santa Ana. I attach a portrait for comparison.
The Content was rumored to have gone north in search of the North West Passage, and was never seen again. I think that it, and a considerable cargo of treasure, was wrecked on the Southern Oregon coast. several years ago, I was approached by a middle aged businessman, who appears to be completely sane, with a tale that under very unusual sea conditions, a friend of his had managed to walk into a normally- inaccessible sea cave and had found a large cache of silver bars, and a sword. He managed to bring out six bars and the sword before normal conditions were re-established, and the cave was again very dangerous to try to enter. The friend showed this man the sword and a letter from the Smithsonian saying that it was a 16th century English sword, and let him hold one of the bars, which weighed around sixty pounds.
The man says that just a couple of years ago, he got some brave soul to get into the cave, but that it was empty. I do not know if the following statement is true, but a local man approached them and said that the silver in the cave had been removed by a group of people using winches fitted to the front of trucks, which had Arizona plates.
I don't know which bits of this story are true, and which are not, but I believed the guy when he told me that he had held the silver and seen the sword.
In 1700, a great 9.0+ earthquake hit the Oregon coast and caused most of the land to sink 6-10 feet into the ocean. This would have made caves like this, accessible in 1699, to be inaccessible in 1701. I have a bag of ashes and shells taken from a very close similar cave, showing that what is now an inaccessible cave was once used by people who cooked shell food in it.
I would appreciate any information that helps me put the pieces of this particular puzzle in place.
Mariner
I think it is a cast of the face of Queen Elizabeth I, and I think it came from the wreck of Thomas Cavendish's lost ship, the Content, which went missing off Baja California in 1587, immediately after helping to capture and plunder the Manila Galleon Santa Ana. I attach a portrait for comparison.
The Content was rumored to have gone north in search of the North West Passage, and was never seen again. I think that it, and a considerable cargo of treasure, was wrecked on the Southern Oregon coast. several years ago, I was approached by a middle aged businessman, who appears to be completely sane, with a tale that under very unusual sea conditions, a friend of his had managed to walk into a normally- inaccessible sea cave and had found a large cache of silver bars, and a sword. He managed to bring out six bars and the sword before normal conditions were re-established, and the cave was again very dangerous to try to enter. The friend showed this man the sword and a letter from the Smithsonian saying that it was a 16th century English sword, and let him hold one of the bars, which weighed around sixty pounds.
The man says that just a couple of years ago, he got some brave soul to get into the cave, but that it was empty. I do not know if the following statement is true, but a local man approached them and said that the silver in the cave had been removed by a group of people using winches fitted to the front of trucks, which had Arizona plates.
I don't know which bits of this story are true, and which are not, but I believed the guy when he told me that he had held the silver and seen the sword.
In 1700, a great 9.0+ earthquake hit the Oregon coast and caused most of the land to sink 6-10 feet into the ocean. This would have made caves like this, accessible in 1699, to be inaccessible in 1701. I have a bag of ashes and shells taken from a very close similar cave, showing that what is now an inaccessible cave was once used by people who cooked shell food in it.
I would appreciate any information that helps me put the pieces of this particular puzzle in place.
Mariner
