Isla de Plata, Ecuador

[mariner]

Since the recent thread about Drake supposedly dumping tons of silver at this island, I have looked again at the stories that created this rumor, and at the English and Spanish accounts of Drake's movements. When he captured the Cacafuego, Drake was already north of the equator, and after offloading the silver from the Spanish ship, he told her captain that he intended to careen his ship at teh Island Of Cano, which is furher north, off the coast of Costa Rica. The Spanish ship kept the Golden Hind in sight for several more days, and confirmed that it was headed to the north west. It might have seemed foolish for Drake to declare his intentions, but that it was the Island of Cano off Costa Rica that he went is confirmed by not only the English accounts but those of the Spaniards that were aboard Tello's bark that he captured there. These Spansih accounts are all available in Zelia Nuttall's book "New Light on Drake". She found the accounts in the archives in Seville.

Even Nora Stirling in Treasure under the Sea talks about Drake heading for Coasta Rica, and then suddenly places him further south at teh Isla de Plata, with absolutelu no evidence for doing so. Potter then quotes Stirling and the myth grows. It is interesting that Esquemeling quoted the rumor way back in the 1600s, but there is no knowing on what basis, and it is contradicted by the documented testimonies.

I do not know if Sterling's story about the dredger recovering ten tons of silver on the Isla de Plate in the 1930s is true, but if it is, and I doubt it, then the silver had nothing to do with Drake, in my opinion. Why on earth would Drake have dumped the silver thousands of miles from home instead of just capturing another Spanish ship (which he did off the real Island of Cano), or holding on to the Cacafuego? The only reasonable explanation for a large cache of silver is a shipwreck.

Good luck to Global Marine in their supposed attempts to find the silver. If it is true and they do, maybe we can identify its source from dates on the silver. I have e-mailed them, asking to be kept informed on their progress, but have not heard back as yet.

Mariner

 

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[Mackaydon]

Mariner:

I agree about THE Cano Island being the island of the same name off Costa Rica, not Ecuador, but there is a gentleman on this list who states he has held in his hands a bar of Drake's silver found (and left on the bottom) on the Ecuadoran island.

Reading Stirling, she used about 20 sources for her "Drake" study. Many are of the 'plain vanilla' type; denoting Drakes' travels but never mentioning a 'temporary' abandonment of the silver; only offlloading that particular cargo to facilitate careening his vessel. I believe Stirling's source for "Ecuador" was from Verrill's book, "They Found Gold" (1936: G. P. Putnam's Sons) wherein Verrill reports Drake 'jettisoned' the sliver; and later Captain Davis supposedly found "several hundred pieces of eight" by means of tallowed leads. Verrill then goes on to state: "Several years ago a man dredged up 18 tons of the silver which Drake threw overboard, but fully 30 tons must still remain on the bottom in fairly shallow water." This would tie nicely into the story Stirling wove in her book, first published in 1956 ( Fawcett Publications and by Popular Publications--same year).
Best of the Season,
Don.....

It would seem a relatively easy target to determine if it exits IF all the elements to the discovery were first in place--starting with an acceptable permit to salvage AND divide.

 

[old man]

Don,
I wasn't going to respond the La Plata post and then I read your post. I have the utmost respect for what you've accomplished in the field and therefore, I will share this little bit of info with you. Several years ago a movie producer in L.A. named Truman Weatherly contacted me and ask me to come to L.A. and discuss the La Plata site. He told me that he knew the person that had a contract to salvage the area around La Plata. He also knew several of the investors that weren't happy with the contract holder. Burt Webber is the person that had Truman contact me. I told Truman that I would go to L.A. and discuss the silver bar that I uncovered with 2 restrictions. #1 That he sign a non-disclosure and #2 that he pay for a polygraph test that would either prove or disprove that I had found what I claimed to have found. The test also included the physical clues that were in Verrills Book that I used to find the site. In the polygraph test, I also claimed to find a non-ferrous reading about half the size of a football field. I would ask you to contact Truman and find out what the results of the polygraph were, if you so desire. He can be reached at [email protected] tell Truman if you e-mail him, that I said, I told you to contact him. You can also check out his movie credits as a producer, by tying his name into your computer.

Old Man ( Ed)

 

[mariner]

Old Man,

I have read your various posts with great interest, and if you say that you found a silver bar, I would not feel the need to consult a third party about whether you had taken a polygraph test. The question for me would be what the source of the silver was, because I do not think it was Drake.

I won't repeat what I have already said about Drake's movements after capturing the Cacafuego, and I very much doubt that as Drake passed Ecuador in chasing the Cacafuego he would have stopped to careen his ship. Nor do I believe that he would in any case have simply dumped a large amount of silver into the Ocean, in order to lift his boat slightly out of the water, to effect repairs. It is far more likely that he would have taken the silver ashore, to get the same effect, and then recovered it. If he needed more capacity, then he would have captured another Spanish ship.

However, if there is/was a lot of silver at the Isla de Plate, then it must have been from another source. A few years ago, I was provided with evidence of a large cache of silver from somebody who had held one of the bars forty years ago, and an engraved sword that was found with it, and I was able to work out the source of the silver from certain clues. However, when I checked out the location, the cache of silver had gone. However, that was much further north than Ecuador.

I think that the most likely source of a cache of silver around Ecuador would be another ship following the same route as the Cacafuego, which ran into trouble and wrecked there. There was plenty of such traffic in Drake's days and for a considerable time later. Local knowledge of such a wreck could well have been passed onto some of the people/pirates visiting the area later, and it might be natural for someone like Esquemeling to have associated the presence of the silver with as likely a source as Drake, not having access to independent testimony about Drake's true movements.

Many of the silver bars produced in those days would have been carrying markings which would indicate the source of the silver, and in some cases the date. I wonder if Old Man will tell me whether the silver bar he found carried any markings? In light of his experience, it strikes me that there is a real story here, though I still think it has nothing to do with Drake.

Mariner

 

[old man]

Mariner, What ever the source of the silver is that I found, it will eventually in time come to light. As Don stated, the area will have to be permitted and you will have to wait until someone with some degree of honestly gets a permit and does the salvage work. The only thing that I can tell you for certain, is that there is no wreck there. A sidescan survey with a sub-bottom profiler was used to go over the area. I was present during the survey by Klein Associates and the survey produced no signs of a wreck. All I know is that there is one heck of alot of what I believe to be silver there ( due to the bar I uncovered). I also want you to know that the equipment from Klein was working, as when we went into Manta Harbor we found a wreck from the 1500's with their sidescan.

 

[mariner]

Old Man,

Thanks for the latest note. I think I read somewhere that some outfit has secured a license to recover what is left of the silver there. I thought their name was Global marine, but cannot find any details of a company by that name getting a license for such a project. Perhaps I have the name slightly wrong. Can anybody help me locate the information?

Incidentally, during my internet search, I came across the thread on this subject that was posted on this forum just over a year ago, which was before I had joined it. Very interesting.

Old Man, do I gather from a note on that thread that when you found the silver bar, you left it where it was? You must have a great strength of character.

Mariner

 

[old man]

Mariner, you gather correctly. I left the bar there because I did not want to jepardize any chance of getting a contract to do salvage work on the site.
That was before I found out that an area permit was already issued for around the island . As far as Global goes, I have spoken with the President of the company, he is not going to salvage
anything there at this time. I believe that he is having the same problems that I encountered with the person that is holding the area lease. I won't go into those problems here, but I would advise anyone to stay clear of the permit holder, if in fact he gets a permit renewal.