Tried to find more info on Claius; it seems they set out to salvage it, but had problem with the ship…..here is an article from 2009 where they then switched to the Capitana……..and nothing since
All seems sort of crazy…….and then he is somehow involved emeralds found off Florida
Scott Heimdal (newspaper archives - 1 )
PEORIA - The focus of Scott Heimdal's Peoria-based Pacific Ocean treasure hunting operation has shifted to a second shipwrecked Spanish galleon off
the coast of Ecuador.
"We're now sitting on a wreck that we think is very valuable," Heimdal said in a phone interview Wednesday from Ecuador. "How valuable is impossible to say. Because the truth is until it's recovered, cleaned, catalogued and appraised we don't know what it's worth at the end of the day."
The newest target of Heimdal's interest is known as the Capitana, a silver coin-laden ship wrecked in 1654 on Chanduy Reef, near the mouth of Ecuador's Guayaquil River. It's now in pieces and mostly submerged beneath four to eight feet of mud, sand and clay in tantalizingly shallow waters less than 40 feet deep. Divers have been able to salvage some coins in recent months, Heimdal said, but the bulk of the booty remains inaccessibly buried.
"We need new equipment in order to get at (the treasure)," Heimdal said.
It's an old problem. Almost three years ago, Heimdal's team searched for the Clarius, a Spanish galleon that sank in an undetermined spot off Ecuador in 1594. That operation required a boat specially rigged with "blowers," essentially large steel tubes that aid access to the coins that are literally buried in the ocean floor. The boat they chartered for the search, the Beacon, was damaged in Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, and the owners never made the necessary repairs. It languishes in drydock at an Alabama marina.
As a result, the Clarius operation stalled and because investors couldn't wait forever for good news and a clear view of some financial payoff, Heimdal and his crew opted to change direction.
"We had to move on," Heimdal said. "The Clarius is on hold for now."
Without ever pinpointing the location of the Clarius, the salvage operation moved to the Capitana, a shipwreck the Ecuadoran government has given Heimdal's business, RS Operations LLC, permission to pursue, he said. Heimdal called the Capitana exploration a "bird in the hand," which by logical extension characterized the Clarius adventure as two birds in the bush.
The Capitana operation still needs a boat equipped with blowers. Heimdal said four different boats are being considered - for purchase this time, not charter - and could be rigged and ready to pick up the search next month.
The amount of Capitana buried treasure hinted at on the company's Web site is mind-boggling. The boat may have been carrying as many as 10 million pesos when it sank, with between 10 percent and 20 percent remaining on the ocean floor today, according to the Web site. The value of each piece could range from $100 to several thousand dollars, Heimdal said, depending on its value to collectors. He said he believed the entire bounty of coins would fill the back of a pickup truck.
Heimdal and his company would get half the haul, while the other half would go to the Ecuadorian government, according to an agreement between the two parties.
By comparison, the Atocha, a ship salvaged in the 1980s by famed treasure hunter Mel Fisher, carried 750,000 pesos that were believed to be valued at several hundred million dollars.
"We are involved in a complex and expensive business," Heimdal said. "But we have a good outlook that is currently bearing some nice recoveries."
Scott Hilyard can be reached at 686-3244 or
shilyard@pjstar.com.
