Did any of you (old) guys know my Uncle: Henry Taylor? (coin expert on the "Samala")

[speck]

Did any of you (old) guys know my Uncle: Henry Taylor? (coin expert on the "Samala")

Hi everybody,

I'm new here and don't know the local ettiquette, so I'll try to tread lightly...

My Uncle was Henry Taylor who was my hero when I was growing up. He was a treasure hunter who actually found some real treasure. I didn't know the significance of this event back when he (and the rest of Burt Webber's crew) found the "Elusive Lady" - the Concepcion which sunk in the Silver Bank back in 1641. You guys may have heard of this one! Anyway, "Uncle Hennie" as I knew him, was the chief coin expert and one of the divers working on the "Samala" when they found it and also worked the previous year when their (massive) efforts went unrewarded. (and the crew almost went crazy from fish poisioning.)

My Mom, Edie, was his only sister and they were pretty close. My Mom passed away this past summer and I've started going through her belongings. I came across a 15 coin set taken from the Concepcion, but the interesting part was this letter that he had sent my Mom a month after they made the discovery.



I though I'd share this with you guys and see if any of you knew him.

He was a very cool guy!

 

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[aquanut]

I knew him. He was leaving my house in Sebastion after spending Thanksgiving weekend there planning a Treasure Hunt in the Charlotte Harbor area when he got in that horrific car accident that killed him. I originally met him in the Keys after he had gotten out of the jail on the Cayman Islands where he had found a treasure ship and made the mistake of diving without a permit in the "Queen's Park". My mother was his future wife to be's best friend and introduced us. She worked for the DEA at the time and was influential in getting your Uncle safely back to the States. Boy was he pissed! That was in the mid nineties.

 

[Goldminer]

Henry Taylor was my partner, and best friend for many years. We lived one mile apart in the Keys, and dived most every day on some site or other. I have so many stories about my times with Henry that I don't know where to begin. For one, though, I was on that boat trip to the Caymans with Henry, George Hossford and Dick Marble. We left Islamorda for Little Cayman in late spring, with no GPS, and a jury rigged Loran system that Henry thought up. This was a wooden boat with a single diesel that had been built in 1928. Henry and I built a "master stateroom" down in the bilge behind the engine. We attempted to go around the west side of Cuba, but the weather was too rough. We had to stop in the Marquesas for some time before deciding to return to Islamorada. On the way back we encountered more rough weather that eventually loosened all the fastenings below the water line. We turned on the bilge pump and never turned it off.
Back at port, we filled that old lady with hundreds of dollars worth of foam, and tried to refasten the planking with roofing patches and screws. Every time we made a stop in anchorable water, I had to go overboard and apply more screw patches. One anchorage, we were on the Bahama Bank, (we had decided to go around the East end of Cuba)and there was nothing but a small island near us. I mean nothing, just miles and miles of water. I was down on my patching job and decided to take a break. Everyone was having a nap, the water was dead calm, so i decided to take one myself. George and Dick were in the wheelhouse, Henry and I were in the "stateroom", when I heard a voice calling, "Henry, Bill, where are you guys." I raced up the ladder to the deck, followed by Henry, and was completely dumbfounded to see Chuck Mitchell (most of you Keys divers knew Chuck) in a Zodiak sitting along side of us. He was with a ship from the U. of Miami that was on a field trip to that small island. His first question was "ya got a drink, no alcohol on that boat". We could not see any boat in sight, but eventually it came near to us.
We continued on down the Bahamas until we reached the Exumas. We anchored up at Georgetown for several days because of bad weather, and after restocking our beer supply, we headed west down the south side of Cuba. Everything was going well until one morning we awoke to see a Cuban gunboat patrolling alongside of us. They were not threatening us, just watching, so we continued on. That night, we got hit by weather that was the worst that I have ever been in while at sea. If that old boat had not had so much foam in it, we would have surely sank that night. But we didn't.
I had finished my helm watch at midnight and was sleeping when someone yelled for me to come back up. Everyone was up and pointing at a red flashing light in the distance. "That my boys is the light on the east end of Cayman Brac, I said" It was still dark and several hours before we would reach an anchorage.
We arrived at the place where we hoped to clear customs and get some rest. I called our partner (who owned a dive shop) on the radio, and was answered by one of his staff. "Where are you" was the first response. I radioed back that we were at the Creek at the east end of the Brac. "No you are not" came the reply. "You are at the bottom of the sea because we have just had a hurricane hit the island, everything is flooded."
I will finish this later if you wish.

 

[Southern_Digger]

Good Stuff! I recall meeting Taylor at some gathering. I believe he was there with C. Mitchell, who I certainly remember. One of the meets where I talked with Mitchell was at a Dania Museum`. They were announcing the discovery of a Merchant shipwreck they had recently found. I offered to Cad-Up the U/W site plan voluntarily for them. However, they already had some museum on board with that.

 

[Goldminer]

Yeah,
Chuck was a piece of work, so was Henry. I was the only sane one in the bunch. I remember Henry playing than uke in Eric's bar on Snake Creek, and singing "Ring Dang Doo".

 

[speck]

Henry Taylor was my partner, and best friend for many years. ... I will finish this later if you wish.

Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this wonderfully detailed response! My family moved to Utah in 1961 when I was only 4, so I never got a chance to get to know my family from "Back East" very well. I do remember riding in his green British roadster convertible that sat very close to the ground with tiny doors and cool wood paneling (both He and my Mom had excellent taste!) I know that He was into model airplanes when he was a kid. On the few occasions when I visited my Gramma's house (I used to go through the dresser in his room to look at all the model engines in his top drawer). My Mom used to crew for him when he went sailing and she had fond memories from many sailing days.

From his best friend of many years? Yes, I can listen to your stories all day long! (and it sounds like you have a few doosies!)

Thanks Again!
Jeff in SLC, UT

 

[Slingshot]

I met him on the beach below Sebastian Inlet where I was detecting one December day in the early 90's. He came up and began a conversation, and from his appearance I thought he was some kind of beach bum and was ready to KO him with my detector if he tried something weird. He finally wandered off and I later returned to the vehicle for lunch and found one of my buddies talking to him and another guy. After introductions I found out who he was and also met Burt Webber. I then spotted the large piece of 8 coin he had around his neck that I had totally missed in our first meeting on the beach. We exchanged treasure stories for several hours, the he and Burt broke out an electronic device from the trunk of a old rusted out Chevy they were in, that was some kind of advanced technology they had from MIT, I think it was called a multi frequency discriminator. They had lines and probes they were moving around on the site, I think it was Cardigans, taking readings. They told one of my buddies that they were getting a silver reading about 75 yards down the beach at a certain spot and directed him over to the area where my buddy found a silver crucifix. After the initial elation wore off, we discovered it was marked - made in Mexico - on the back, still a nice find though.
We were camped at the KOA and Henry and Burt came by that evening for a few drinks, and more treasure tales around our campfire. Henry did an ID on a 1/2 reale coin I had found on the beach the prior day. Nice guy, never ran into him again after that but it was a real pleasure getting to know him.

 

[Goldminer]

speck,
I WILL finish later, I just had to take a step back and think that they are all gone.... Jack Haskins, Henry, Chuck, George, Duke Long who was with Henry and Burt on the conception, all gone. Burt is still with us, we all lived within 2 miles of each other.

 

[Galleon Hunter]

Burt is a still alive and doing well. I just talked to him last night. He worked with Henry on many projects. I just spoke to Burt last night. Here is a pic of Henry and him with the first coins recovered from the San Francisco in 1970. Drop me a PM and I can put you in touch with Burt.

 

[Goldminer]

speck,
To finish the Cayman trip. It all went down hill from here. We cleared customs on Cayman Brac and left for Little Cayman where we were expected by the McCoy family. We anchored up in South Hole Sound on the south side of Little Cayman. One of the McCoy boys came out to meet us in a small boat. He said that he was hungry, and dived over the side to get some conch for his breakfast. We did not know that we were slightly inside a conch preserve. Later on I went ashore and ran into a man who was supposedly in charge of customs for Little Cayman. He asked what we were doing there, and I said we would be checking some electronic detecting equipment in the sound. Next day, we put our mag in our small boat and ran a few lines so we could adjust for the lower latitude. Our purpose for being there was to proceed to Jamaica where we wanted to do some work for a local group. We noticed a man running down the dock near where we were anchored waving his arms in a frantic manner. We took the small boat over, and he said that we were to return to Cayman Brac immediately. When we arrived back at the Brac, we were swarmed by customs and police. Two of us were removed from our boat and the other two were separated on the vessel. After searching our boat for quite sometime, one of the policemen said that we were under arrest for poaching in a preserve and operating search equipment without a permit.
We were then separated from each other and questioned one at a time. The people that we had come to visit were outraged, and told the authorities that they had made a big mistake. We were still locked up, but treated very well. A special session of Parliament was called in Georgetown to determine our fate. We were never allowed to see an attorney or talk with our embassy people. (they knew that they had screwed up) Eventually we were released, but told to leave the Caymans. We then decided to not continue but to return to the US, so we went back down Cuba around the west end. Before we reached the end of Cuba, a pigeon landed on our small boat. We were many miles from Cuba and the Caymans at that point. After the bird had rested for a short time, he flew onto our deck, and then hopped into the wheelhouse. We fed him, and gave him some water, and he flew up on our sink. It would be dark soon, so we expected him to stay the night, which he did. About mid-morning of the next day we had left the west end of Cuba and were headed for Key West. The pigeon then flew out of the wheelhouse and headed for the gulf coast. That night we ran into bad weather again, and had to turn south back towards Cuba. Shortly after dawn the weather broke, and we could see the mountains of Cuba. As we turned back to the northeast, there was a freighter right behind us. On the radio, I asked what was the heading for Key West. The captain answered in perfect English, said he was a Russian cargo ship headed for Havana, and that we were on the exact heading for Key West.

 

[truckinbutch]

This is one of the best threads I have read here .

 

[aquanut]

Goldminer. Were you also known as Red or was that George? My Mom was Jean Urciolo. She passed away last July...

 

[Goldminer]

Might have been George, John. However; he had no hair when I knew him

 

[aquanut]

Might have been George, John. However; he had no hair when I knew him

I have a friend named Bonnie that lived on Islamorada for about 35 years. I think she knew George. I'll ask her. She might have something to add about you pirates! LOL. Was one of you guys called Sarge? I'm sure you knew Carlin.

 

[SteveS]

I met him a couple of times and stopped at his home down in the Keys. He had recovered a small bronze cannon off Indian Key which we believe was originally salvaged from a wreck here off Hillsboro Beach back in 1836 and then lost off Indian Key soon after. We excavated the wreck off Hillsboro (legally and with a research permit), and Henry loaned us his cannon which was on display in the Broward Coundy administration building along with some other recovered Florida artifacts for a period of time. I have a photo of the cannon somewhere. Does your family still have that cannon?
I remember he was a real nice guy and had a wealth of information. Wish I had known him better.
Steve S

 

[speck]

I met him a couple of times and stopped at his home down in the Keys. He had recovered a small bronze cannon off Indian Key which we believe was originally salvaged from a wreck here off Hillsboro Beach back in 1836 and then lost off Indian Key soon after. We excavated the wreck off Hillsboro (legally and with a research permit), and Henry loaned us his cannon which was on display in the Broward Coundy administration building along with some other recovered Florida artifacts for a period of time. I have a photo of the cannon somewhere. Does your family still have that cannon?
I remember he was a real nice guy and had a wealth of information. Wish I had known him better.
Steve S

I remember seeing a canon at my Grandmother's place in Delaware in 1977 - one that uncle Hennie had found and was keeping there. My memory is vague but I do remember it was green (from oxidation?).

I haven't seen it since, so unfortunately, don't know where it might have ended up after my Grandmother passed away 30 some odd years ago. The only treasures my Mom has/had is a 15 piece limited edition set of Reale taken from the Concepcion and given by Hennie to my Mom. (This is how I found this web site - I am curious as to what this is worth and have posted a thread here in the "What's it worth" forum)

Its great to know I wasn't the only one who admired my Uncle Henry Taylor. Thanks again guys!

 

[Josocool1]

Hi: I knew your Uncle well. My Father-inlaw Jim "Giacomo" Amoroso lived in the same house for many years and there are details about the discovery of several sites that I researched for your Uncle. I'd have to know more about you before I can discuss that matter. I'd left the Keys in 1991, divorced Jim Amoroso's daughter in 1995, and have had very little information about anything that occurred after your uncle passed away. Your uncle was one of the nicest people I have ever met! And yes, he was indeed very cool-even under horrendous stress!

 

[aquanut]

Speck,
You need to keep that limited edition set of Reales taken from the Concepcion as a family heirloom. The coins as a collection would mean far more to your family than a few dollars.

Goldminer, did you know my mother was instrumental in getting you guys released? I can tell you a little background if you like.

 

[Goldminer]

Sorry John,
I don't follow TNet as often as before, I live in Las Vegas now, back to prospecting.

 

[Salvor6]

John's mother was a DEA agent. She helped to get Goldminer released from detention in the Caymans.