kenb
Bronze Member
BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Hundreds of millions of dollars in gold, silver and gemstones and ancient works of art, all buried in the sea in a violent shipwreck.
It's not just the stuff of pirate dreams. It's the loot local divers are finding halfway around the world.
The most precious pieces are on the other side of bulletproof glass and past the secret codes of a high-security vault in Bellevue.
But before we talk about the riches, we need to tell a brief history of the Santa Margarita.
The Spanish galleon left Manila in 1600, overflowing with gold, silver, gems and artwork bound for trade fairs in Acapulco.
Seven months into her doomed journey, most of the crew was dead of scurvy and starvation.
At the tiny island of Rota in the Mariana Islands near Guam, the derelict ship broke apart, sending its treasure to a grave in the sea.
400 years later and more than 5,000 miles away, the Santa Margarita's highly valued treasures are accessible only to Jack and Edris Harbeston.
Looking at an artifact carved out of a single ivory tusk, Edris Harbeston remarks, "They were under the sea for 400 years and survived this much. It's just amazing."
Her husband Jack Harbeston is still equally in awe.
"I think they're just beautiful," he says. "To think that this kind of work survived in a very hostile environment for 400 years."
The Bellevue couple heads a salvage company called IOTA Partners, intent on bringing all of the Santa Margarita's riches back to the surface.
They've done a lot of research on the ship's ill-fated journey.
"We found a letter from the king to the governor asking, 'where's my tax money?' And the governor wrote back, 'well, it's unfortunately on the Santa Margarita.'"
The king's bad fortune could mean a great fortune for the 100 people who've invested in this expedition.
They've put up $10 million so far.
They have yet to reach the gold, which is estimated to be worth up to $210 million in today's prices.
And while the hunt carries that dream of riches, Jack Harbeston says they've already found their greatest treasure in priceless works of art.
"It conveys something about the culture and the people and what they believed 400 years ago," he says. "The gold doesn't do that."
There is porcelain from the Ming Dynasty. Some pieces have barely a scratch or chip.
They show us ivory carvings of Jesus, one after another after another.
There are 150 round smooth pieces of garnet as well as other gemstones.
Some of the pieces have amazing detail.
Jack says an ivory carving of the Virgin Mary is the earliest known example of the fusion of Asian and European models.
There's no telling what it's worth.
Much of the artwork will be auctioned off, with some of the largest museums in the world already expressing interest.
"These survived and now we've got them here in Bellevue and we're going to show them to thousands and thousands of people, it's hard for me to believe," Jack sasy.
The dive team hopes to go to Rota one last time next year to recover the rest of the ship's loot.
The Harbestons hopes the lasting legacy of the expedition will be the works of art that endured hundreds of years underwater and will still be on display hundreds of years from now.
They are the true riches of the Santa Margarita.
For more information on the history of the ship and more details about the recover and restoration of the artifacts, visit www.iotapartners.com
kenb
It's not just the stuff of pirate dreams. It's the loot local divers are finding halfway around the world.
The most precious pieces are on the other side of bulletproof glass and past the secret codes of a high-security vault in Bellevue.
But before we talk about the riches, we need to tell a brief history of the Santa Margarita.
The Spanish galleon left Manila in 1600, overflowing with gold, silver, gems and artwork bound for trade fairs in Acapulco.
Seven months into her doomed journey, most of the crew was dead of scurvy and starvation.
At the tiny island of Rota in the Mariana Islands near Guam, the derelict ship broke apart, sending its treasure to a grave in the sea.
400 years later and more than 5,000 miles away, the Santa Margarita's highly valued treasures are accessible only to Jack and Edris Harbeston.
Looking at an artifact carved out of a single ivory tusk, Edris Harbeston remarks, "They were under the sea for 400 years and survived this much. It's just amazing."
Her husband Jack Harbeston is still equally in awe.
"I think they're just beautiful," he says. "To think that this kind of work survived in a very hostile environment for 400 years."
The Bellevue couple heads a salvage company called IOTA Partners, intent on bringing all of the Santa Margarita's riches back to the surface.
They've done a lot of research on the ship's ill-fated journey.
"We found a letter from the king to the governor asking, 'where's my tax money?' And the governor wrote back, 'well, it's unfortunately on the Santa Margarita.'"
The king's bad fortune could mean a great fortune for the 100 people who've invested in this expedition.
They've put up $10 million so far.
They have yet to reach the gold, which is estimated to be worth up to $210 million in today's prices.
And while the hunt carries that dream of riches, Jack Harbeston says they've already found their greatest treasure in priceless works of art.
"It conveys something about the culture and the people and what they believed 400 years ago," he says. "The gold doesn't do that."
There is porcelain from the Ming Dynasty. Some pieces have barely a scratch or chip.
They show us ivory carvings of Jesus, one after another after another.
There are 150 round smooth pieces of garnet as well as other gemstones.
Some of the pieces have amazing detail.
Jack says an ivory carving of the Virgin Mary is the earliest known example of the fusion of Asian and European models.
There's no telling what it's worth.
Much of the artwork will be auctioned off, with some of the largest museums in the world already expressing interest.
"These survived and now we've got them here in Bellevue and we're going to show them to thousands and thousands of people, it's hard for me to believe," Jack sasy.
The dive team hopes to go to Rota one last time next year to recover the rest of the ship's loot.
The Harbestons hopes the lasting legacy of the expedition will be the works of art that endured hundreds of years underwater and will still be on display hundreds of years from now.
They are the true riches of the Santa Margarita.
For more information on the history of the ship and more details about the recover and restoration of the artifacts, visit www.iotapartners.com
kenb
