Undiscovered treasure galleons

Vox veritas said:
Chagy said:

Chagy, with the age that you have you still believe in the information on this fellow?
Almost comes from my book, Shipwrecks off the coast of Mexico, p. 271. The Santa Cruz is a lie, it sank in Zahara beach, Spain.
VV

Oh no Vox V. dont get me wrong as you said I am to old to believe in Santa Claus the olny reason why I posted P.N. information was to proof that his information is purer BS because CP mentioned him in a prior post.....
 

Chagy said:
Vox veritas said:
Chagy said:

Chagy, with the age that you have you still believe in the information on this fellow?
Almost comes from my book, Shipwrecks off the coast of Mexico, p. 271. The Santa Cruz is a lie, it sank in Zahara beach, Spain.
VV

Oh no Vox V. dont get me wrong as you said I am to old to believe in Santa Claus the olny reason why I posted P.N. information was to proof that his information is purer BS because CP mentioned him in a prior post.....

Chagy, about your age it was a joke. But Pawel is sad.
VV
 

Chagy said:
Maybe Don is right when he says they are in deep waters. Everyone that has gone searching for those galleons have concentrated their search in the so rounding area of Serranilla or the most known areas closer to the south coast of Jamaica such as the Port Royal Cays. Pedro Bank, an area of shallow seas, with a number of cays (low islands or reefs), extending generally east to west for over 160 km (99 mi), lies southwest of Jamaica. To the southeast lies Morant Bank, with the Morant Cays, 51 kilometers or 32 mi from Morant Point, the easternmost point of mainland Jamaica. Alice Shoal, 260 kilometers (160 mi) southwest of the main island of Jamaica, falls within the Jamaica-Colombia Joint Regime

But Jamaica is an archipelago, which is a group of islands within 100 miles off the coast. And most of Jamaica's cays and islands are on the south coast.

The inventory of the executive director of Caribbean Coastal Management Foundation, Peter Espeut, has 65 rocks, cays and islands making up the Jamaican archipelago.

The islands, rocks and cays in Jamaica's archipelago
Anvil Rock - Bowden, St. Thomas
Bare Bush Cay - Portland Bight
Big Half-Moon Cay - Portland Bight
Big Pelican Cay - Portland Bight
Big Portland Cay - Portland Bight
Blower Rock - Pedro Bank
Bogue Islands - Montego Bay, St. James
Booby Cay - Negril
Booby Cay - Pedro Cays
Booby Cay - Morant Cays
Bush Cay - Falmouth, Trelawny
Bushy Cay - Port Royal Cays
Cabarita Island - Port Maria, St. Mary
Careening Cay - Portland Bight
Christmas Island - Kensington, Portland
Dolphin Island - Portland Bight
Drunken Man's Cay - Port Royal Cays
East Crall - Wreck Bay, St. Catherine
Emerald Island - Bowden, St. Thomas
Fort Cay - Blue Mahoe, St. Thomas
Gordon Cay - Kingston Harbour (now joined to the mainland)
Great Goat Island - Portland Bight
Green Cay - North Bloody Bay, Hanover
Green Island - Green Island, Hanover
Gun Cay - Port Royal Cays
Hogsty Cay - Pera, St. Thomas
Lilyroot Cay - Bowden, St. Thomas
Lime Cay - Port Royal Cays
Little Goat Island - Portland Bight
Little Half-Moon Cay - Portland Bight
Little Pelican Cay - Portland Bight
Little Portland Cay - Portland Bight
Long Island - Salt River, Clarendon
Maiden Cay - Port Royal Cays
Man O' War Cays - West Harbour, Portland Bight
Mango Cay - Palm Point, St. Thomas
Mid Crall - Wreck Bay, St. Catherine
Middle Cay - Pedro Cays
Monkey Island - San San, Portland (also called Pellew Island)
Morant Cays
Navy Island - Port Antonio, Portland
Needles - Portland Bight
Northeast Cay - Morant Cays
Northeast Cay - Pedro Cays
One Tree Island - Green Island, Hanover
Pedro Cays
Pelican Cay - SE of North Negril Point
Pellew Island - San San, Portland (or Monkey Island)
Pigeon Island - Portland Bight
Portland Rock
Rackham's Cay - Port Royal Cays
Refuge Cay - Port Royal
Rocky Cay - Portland Bight
Salt Island - Salt River, Clarendon
Sandbank Cay - Portland Bight
Santamaria Island - Oracabessa, St. Mary
Sapphire Island - Tower Isle, St. Mary
Short Island - Salt River, Clarendon
South Cay - Port Royal Cays
Southeast Cay - Port Royal Cays
Southeast Cay - Morant Cays
Southwest Cay - Pedro Cays
Southwest Rock
Tern Cay - Portland Bight
West Crall - Wreck Bay, St. Catherine
Woods Island - Folly, Portland

Chagy,
thanks for the effort.
Marx tells of a TF fleet of 1691, four galleons, that wrecked on Pedro Bank. This is probably the shipwrecks salvaged over several years by English wreckers.

Jamaica was not really on the route of the treasure galleons. To far to the east. Sailing towards the east was very difficult for the galleons.

Alice shoal and Rosalind Bank are good candidates for the final resting place of the galleons if they sank offshore. The reason is the giant waves built up by the strong current over the shoals, running against the violent wind from the Norther, blowing out of the west north-west.

If the ships were totally disabled, without running aground or sinking, then the prevailing winds and currents could have set them ashore anywhere to the northwest from the area where the storm hit the fleet. The wreckage would have been easily found for several months later.

When I was in Bajo Nuevo, I wasted some time looking at a recently, probably only a few months before, wrecked fishing boat. It gave me a good feeling how the wreckage of a ship that hits the reef from the east, scatters.
However, the fishermen told me of ballast piles on the west side of the bank. Funny enough, the fishermen that told me of the ballast piles, saw my own boat within the coral reefs and came to salvage hat they could from it. When I told them that we were diving for old shipwrecks, after a few bottles of Rum, they showed me some stuff they picked up near the ballast piles. They were regularly fishing for lobsters, conch and grouper on the banks.
Spear fishing.
Two men per dugout. One paddling, the other one spear fishing.
About 10 dugouts on their boat.
Miskito Indians. Nice people.
CP
 

Bajo Nuevo
 

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One minute my good friends, let’s all not forget that there has been substantial information placing one of the Cordoba fleet galleons on Mexico’s Bahia de Ascension, Yucatan peninsula, State of Quintana Roo. Vox Veritas had this narrative in great detail in his earlier website but I suspect that he has determined this account to lack veracity as it was not included in his book. Any thoughts on this Vox? Indeed there are some documentary accounts that place a 1605 wreck in this part of the world. Some of us have even been there to corroborate this thanks to these accounts.
Panfilo
 

Panfilo said:
One minute my good friends, let’s all not forget that there has been substantial information placing one of the Cordoba fleet galleons on Mexico’s Bahia de Ascension, Yucatan peninsula, State of Quintana Roo. Vox Veritas had this narrative in great detail in his earlier website but I suspect that he has determined this account to lack veracity as it was not included in his book. Any thoughts on this Vox? Indeed there are some documentary accounts that place a 1605 wreck in this part of the world. Some of us have even been there to corroborate this thanks to these accounts.
Panfilo

Well,
who gives information is Francisco Nuñez Melian, but my opinion is that it is not very reliable, as many others which were subsequently reported. But ..... ?? No further investigation of this information. I found several statements on a galleon sunk in the Bay of Asension.
VV
 

Chagy said:
Bajo Nuevo

Chagy,

these are absolutely fantastic pictures. Ahhhh, if I had had all the information available nowadays, at the time I was there.
The shipwreck is interesting. Did Mackaydon mention that one?

Interesting coincidences. When I was there, in the same general area of the reef, there was the wrecked fishing boat that I mentioned above.
It was much smaller of course.

Then, just a very little bit further south is the wreck of the "GLEE MAIDEN", an English ship that wrecked in 1816, or was it 1819? I don't quite remember.
The British Navy then sent out a ship to chart the reef. The data on my charts of Bajo Nuevo were from this original mapping survey.

CP
 

Vox veritas said:
Panfilo said:
One minute my good friends, let’s all not forget that there has been substantial information placing one of the Cordoba fleet galleons on Mexico’s Bahia de Ascension, Yucatan peninsula, State of Quintana Roo. Vox Veritas had this narrative in great detail in his earlier website but I suspect that he has determined this account to lack veracity as it was not included in his book. Any thoughts on this Vox? Indeed there are some documentary accounts that place a 1605 wreck in this part of the world. Some of us have even been there to corroborate this thanks to these accounts.
Panfilo

Well,
who gives information is Francisco Nuñez Melian, but my opinion is that it is not very reliable, as many others which were subsequently reported. But ..... ?? No further investigation of this information. I found several statements on a galleon sunk in the Bay of Asension.
VV

Keep in mind that there is another galleon in Asencion I believe is a 1659.....
 

Chagy said:
Vox veritas said:
Panfilo said:
One minute my good friends, let’s all not forget that there has been substantial information placing one of the Cordoba fleet galleons on Mexico’s Bahia de Ascension, Yucatan peninsula, State of Quintana Roo. Vox Veritas had this narrative in great detail in his earlier website but I suspect that he has determined this account to lack veracity as it was not included in his book. Any thoughts on this Vox? Indeed there are some documentary accounts that place a 1605 wreck in this part of the world. Some of us have even been there to corroborate this thanks to these accounts.
Panfilo

Well,
who gives information is Francisco Nuñez Melian, but my opinion is that it is not very reliable, as many others which were subsequently reported. But ..... ?? No further investigation of this information. I found several statements on a galleon sunk in the Bay of Asension.
VV

Keep in mind that there is another galleon in Asencion I believe is a 1659.....

All information so far known about the galleons of 1659 is wrong (Marx, Pickford, Potter).
VV
 

Mackaydon said:
CP:
Yes, in the past, I have mentioned siting a large vessel (Liberty Ship??) run aground on Bajo Nuevo; also the appearance of lobster boats anchored off the western shore.
Don........

There we have a good example of several shipwrecks , spread over many years, nearly on top of each other.
The actual wrecks are some distance apart, but I am sure, the bits and pieces of these 3 wrecks are intermingled.

This is one of the challenges of locating the treasure galleons.

CP
 

Mackaydon said:
CP:
Yes, in the past, I have mentioned siting a large vessel (Liberty Ship??) run aground on Bajo Nuevo; also the appearance of lobster boats anchored off the western shore.
Don........

Lobster boats anchored off the western shore.

Harvesting the sea.

Many years ago, Arthur C. Clarke wrote a book about cultivating the Oceans. Among other things he proposed milking the Whales instead of killing them. I forgot the books name.
It is an interesting and thought provoking fact that Arthur C. Clark also found and recovered one of the very first, famous shipwreck treasures.
Arthur C. Clarke had a great vision of the future. He was capable of looking into the outer space with Space Odyssey, but also looking into the Inner space of the Oceans that cover three quarters of the globe.
2001: A Space Odyssey

Another Ocean pioneer is Robert Stenuit. Not only is he one of the grandfathers of Underwater Archaeology, researching and locating many famous shipwrecks, but he is also a pioneer in Helium Saturation diving.
He wrote many books, including:
"The Dolphin, Cousin to Man" By: Robert Stenuit

http://www.nothingtosea.com/docs/immersed_rs.pdf

Most people who harvest the sea, develop a passion for the sea. For the life in the sea, for everything in and about the Oceans.

Oceanscience
 

Here is an overlay of the old map and the modern chart.
It does not coincide perfectly, but that is the way the old charts were.

We can see that the old chart had the Pedro Bank divided into "Bivoras" and "Ranas". Snakes and Frogs.

The modern chart shows the Bajo Nuevo undivided, that is without the channel that can be very well seen on the aerial picture. My old chart from 1821, or thereabouts, also shows the deep channel between the two parts. Interesting to see that the modern chart is less accurate.

There are more clues.... more pieces of the puzzle to come...

CP
 

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good Evening mi swabbie friends: Since no-one has found it using conventional thinking, how about a mule drivers interpretation?

It is N/E from first contact with the storm, not in the southern quadrant. As mentioned, in deep water.

Don Jose de La Mancha
 

Don Jose de la Mancha is right on this one!
 

Don José, I don’t understand what you’re trying to say, please be a little more specific. They haven’t been found because nobody has been able to look for them properly don Jose, not because they’re hiding somewhere different from where they should be. The only modern exploration that has been done here for these galleons was the Pacific Geographic Society in the mid ninety’s and they concentrated themselves in searching in the shallows, from what little there is published by them. The story that is told here, not sure if it’s true or false, is that they did find some gold, blasted some coral with dynamite, left a Colombian Navy diver stranded and were never to be seen again. The diver had to swim for several miles against the current and he eventually made it to Beacon Key. It is said, again not sure, that there is a murder charge pending here for one or more of these gentlemen. That is the story I heard from people who had access to the details at that time.
Panfilo
 

I tend to agree with Panfilo there.

Very little serious search has been done for the 1605 galleons. The region where they possibly sank, is very large, thousands of square miles.
To cover such a large area in the search, even with the most modern technology, will take years.
The remoteness, the hurricane season, the Northers in the winter time, all this makes the project a long term project, spanning many years.

Fortunately, there are many other rich shipwrecks in the same area, that will be found as "collateral damage".

But what good are the billions of dollars worth in gold and silver and emeralds and rare artifacts, if they can not be sold?
If they can not be converted into cash?

How can the cost of such an operation be payed?

CP
 

Screw UNESCO and their idea of leaving all wrecks as they are 'in-situ'.

Didn't Odyssey already prove that even the deep water wrecks are getting dispersed and destroyed by the fishing trawlers with their deep trolling nets raking the sea bed? On one of their documentaries, they had visited a wreck site once and mapped everything and then when they went back to that site several months later some cannons had clearly been dragged several meters. Is that a good thing???

Just my five cents worth.
TW
 

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