Tolosa

[dreamsofgold]

Hello everyone, I am new to this forum so it will be a pleasure to meet you all..The name is Andy. My grandfather was a shipwreck salver in the 1960's 70's era and was part of the team that found and brought up the Tolosa in the Dominican Republic in 1979.. Their story can be found in the National Geographic Magazine VOl. 156, NO.6 December 1979.. So I guess you can say that treasure hunting runs in the blood.. I am your average working class guy and spend most of my time doing that, but every moment of my spare time is spent on learning and researching the past and history on shipwrecks .. Ive personally touched the shiny "Gold" and have been hooked ever since :-) Ive started my journey/hunt by researching the past work of my grandfather and his associates and along the way I have learned allot of interesting things about shipwrecks, adventures and all kinds of fun things.. I even got the opportunity to meet in person one of the guys that was part of the crew in 1979.. My grandfather would be happy and I would truly love nothing more than to follow my grandfathers foot steps and possibly complete a project or two that he was working on before he unexpectedly past away.. He passed away and took a few secrets with him no doubt, but in my hunt I just might have found one :-)) Ok well enough for now, I look forward to meeting some new friends..

 

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[buscadero]

Welcome to TN! Glad to see someone w/ a Pedigree in TH in their blood!

Joe 8)

 

[riobravo]

welcome aboard mate, hope you get to change your screen name to coffers of gold

 

[dreamsofgold]

Thanks Joe :-) I truly do love it, Ive loved it since I was a kid in school. I would tell people my grandpa was a treasure hunter and thats what I wanted to be when I grew up lol They would all laugh, even after showing them a National Geographic with the story, some of them still belived it lol.. I know alot of you out here know all about the naysayers and the non beleivers :-) Nevertheless 20 years later I still love it and If I had a wallet like my grandfather had I would have my own expeditions under way :-)

 

[dreamsofgold]

Thanks Doc and riobravo, I feel like I found a new home :-) I have been searching for some time for a channel to talk to diffeent people about the same subject.. This is a great place and could be the best find yet :-)

 

[Bobadilla]

Thanks Joe :-) I truly do love it, Ive loved it since I was a kid in school. I would tell people my grandpa was a treasure hunter and thats what I wanted to be when I grew up lol They would all laugh, even after showing them a National Geographic with the story, some of them still belived it lol.. I know alot of you out here know all about the naysayers and the non beleivers :-) Nevertheless 20 years later I still love it and If I had a wallet like my grandfather had I would have my own expeditions under way :-)

Hello,

I am also new in the Forum, just only about two weeks older than you.... I fell in love in this forum, in two weeks I have met new friends here on the Treasur Net, I echanged lot of opinion about treasure hunting and folks from the Forum helped me greatly with some information about sunken galleons that I was no able to find. I am underwater archaeologist and treasure hunter for many years and I have been permanently living, diving and doing my research work in Dominican Republic for many years now. Dominican Republic MUST sound you very familiar because of your gradpa adventure with Tolosa that went down close to the Samana Bay. I do not know if you had a chance to visit our island, full of pirate's burried and sunken treasures, with plenty of historical shipwrecks and wonderful underwater history. If not, please be free to ask me any kind of question you want about these topics related with Dominican Republic. If I know the answer, I will answer you with pleasure. WELCOME TO THE FORUM!!

Lobo

 

[dreamsofgold]

Thanks Joe :-) I truly do love it, Ive loved it since I was a kid in school. I would tell people my grandpa was a treasure hunter and thats what I wanted to be when I grew up lol They would all laugh, even after showing them a National Geographic with the story, some of them still belived it lol.. I know alot of you out here know all about the naysayers and the non beleivers :-) Nevertheless 20 years later I still love it and If I had a wallet like my grandfather had I would have my own expeditions under way :-)

Hello,

I am also new in the Forum, just only about two weeks older than you.... I fell in love in this forum, in two weeks I have met new friends here on the Treasur Net, I echanged lot of opinion about treasure hunting and folks from the Forum helped me greatly with some information about sunken galleons that I was no able to find. I am underwater archaeologist and treasure hunter for many years and I have been permanently living, diving and doing my research work in Dominican Republic for many years now. Dominican Republic MUST sound you very familiar because of your gradpa adventure with Tolosa that went down close to the Samana Bay. I do not know if you had a chance to visit our island, full of pirate's burried and sunken treasures, with plenty of historical shipwrecks and wonderful underwater history. If not, please be free to ask me any kind of question you want about these topics related with Dominican Republic. If I know the answer, I will answer you with pleasure. WELCOME TO THE FORUM!!

Lobo

Thank you Bobadilla.. I have not yet been to visit the place where my grandfather made his dreams come true, But one day I will hopefully make it down there to the Dominican Republic.. I talked to somenone previously from H20 diving and I have been told that an underwater dive tour has become of the "Hickory" AKA "limon" at the La Caleta underwater national park.. Thats is great :-) I would enjoy very much to experience that..I guess im going to have to get my diving license now lol .. I have a wealth of slides and information from that find.. I will post some pics of it from time to time..

 

[ScubaFinder]

Welcome aboard Andy, I think you're going to fit into this group nicely. Please do post some pics and more stories from your grandfather, I for one would read them with great interest. Is the ship in your last post the one he worked from?

Getting your dive certification would be an excellent first step towards your dream, that is a decision that I can promise you will never regret! Visiting the world under the waves is a treasure in itself to me, the freinds you will make here are another treasure (well, most of them anyways ). If I happen to find some gold along the way....great, but if I don't then I still feel like I came out ahead.

Enjoy!

Jason

 

[dreamsofgold]

Thank you Jason, As I said above, this forum has been my best find yet.. It sucks to have lots to talk about and nobody to talk about it with lol.. But thats now a thing of the past :-) I will definately post plenty of pics that I have from the Guadelupe and the Tolosa.. And if anyone needs any info on any of that I will do my best to answer thier questions as accuratley as possible. Yes the Hickory was the ship that my grandfather worked from along with Tracey Bowden and Harry Doan .. My grandfather was Vice President of Caribe salvage.. I have lots of uncerculated pictures of the entire project, actually they are slides but I recently purchased a slide scanner to convert them to digital image, so now its just a matter of finding time to scan a mountain of slides lol.. And you can bet im definately going to get my dive cert.. I currently hold a private pilots license and I am seeking my multi engine rating so that I can fly myself places a little bit faster than in a single engine plane.. So with that plus a dive cert, I should be able to find something to get into :-) Anyways lunch break is over, gotta get back to the shop and paint an airplane today :-)) Hope you and everyone enjoys the pics ..

 

[Bill]

dreamsofgold,
Interesting thread you have started. Two of my former associates were connected with the Tolosa and Guadalupe. When Burt Webbers' group was in the DR, Tracy approached Henry Taylor about magging the area for the wrecks. Henry, thinking that this would be a time based project, agreed to mag on a daily basis instead of a percentage basis. He found one of the wrecks on the first day.
Harry Shaffer worked for Tracy for about 8 years in the DR, and Harry, Henry and myself all lived very near one another in the Fla. Keys. We were also diving partners in the search for the El Grande near Cape Canaveral.
Bill

 

[dreamsofgold]

dreamsofgold,
Interesting thread you have started. Two of my former associates were connected with the Tolosa and Guadalupe. When Burt Webbers' group was in the DR, Tracy approached Henry Taylor about magging the area for the wrecks. Henry, thinking that this would be a time based project, agreed to mag on a daily basis instead of a percentage basis. He found one of the wrecks on the first day.
Harry Shaffer worked for Tracy for about 8 years in the DR, and Harry, Henry and myself all lived very near one another in the Fla. Keys. We were also diving partners in the search for the El Grande near Cape Canaveral.
Bill

Hi Bill pleasure to meet you as well.. Thats great, then you probably new my grandfather or have met him atleast.. His name is William P Strube AKA "bill"... He passed away in 1984 so I only had the opertunity to know him as a young boy..But one thing I new then was he loved his treasure hunting.. He always had some neat gadgets to play with lol.. I had the opertunity last year to meet Dale Shliefe , I guess he did allot of the photography down there for you guys.. And ive talked to Jack Haskins quite a few times, he gave me a pretty good History lesson on the whole wreck, Jack really knows his stuff when it concerns shipwrecks.. I am really excited to have found this forum , I cant say it enough.. This might be my calling.. I have a few things of great interest that I would like to talk about at some point, but I have been advised to let it alone :-) So at this point I would really like to get to know everyone and just make some new friends with the same interests.. Well I have to pull a double shift at the shop tonight so I will look forward to getting back here tomorrow..

 

[ScubaFinder]

I'd sure like to see a pic of that thing uncovered, looks like a nice chunk of gold with diamonds. I can't really make out the shape, what exactly was it?

Jason

 

[dreamsofgold]

Here is a pic of that Broach uncovered. Its the one on the left side of the picture. Its beautiful isnt it :-) I cant even imagine finding something like that.. I would probably have a dam stroke before I got it up to the surface lol..

 

[CPGs1]

dreamsofgold,
Interesting thread you have started. Two of my former associates were connected with the Tolosa and Guadalupe. When Burt Webbers' group was in the DR, Tracy approached Henry Taylor about magging the area for the wrecks. Henry, thinking that this would be a time based project, agreed to mag on a daily basis instead of a percentage basis. He found one of the wrecks on the first day.
Harry Shaffer worked for Tracy for about 8 years in the DR, and Harry, Henry and myself all lived very near one another in the Fla. Keys. We were also diving partners in the search for the El Grande near Cape Canaveral.
Bill

HEY ALL, still a newbie here so bear with me. Have Guadalupe and Tolosa been completely salvaged? Are there legends or rumours of unfound parts of these vessels?