The Hidden Galleon
Virginia’s most valuable treasure ship gone, but not forgotten.
ON JULY 21, 2000, THE FOURTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, AT
THE INSISTENCE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, AWARDED SPAIN THE RIGHTS TO THE
SPANISH WARSHIP LA GALGA WHICH DROVE ASHORE ON ASSATEAGUE ISLAND, VIRGINIA, ON
SEPTEMBER 5, 1750. UNLIKE THE RECENT TREASURE DISCOVERIES IN THE NEWS, THIS SHIP
WAS NOT CARRYING APPRECIABLE GOLD AND SILVER. HER REAL TREASURE WAS THAT SHE WAS
RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WORLD FAMOUS LEGEND THAT THE WILD PONIES OF ASSATEAGUE
ISLAND DESCENDED FROM THOSE SURVIVORS WHO SWAM ASHORE FROM A SPANISH GALLEON
CENTURIES AGO. IN LATE MAY, ODYSSEY MARINE EXPLORATIONS OF TAMPA, FLORIDA
BROUGHT INTO THE PROTECTION OF THE FEDERAL ADMIRALTY COURT SEVENTEEN TONS OF
GOLD AND SILVER COINS. SPAIN FILED PAPERS IN THAT COURT SAYING THAT IF THE
TREASURE IS SPANISH IT IS THEIRS. THEY CITED THE CASE OF LA GALGA AS LEGAL
PRECEDENT EVEN THOUGH A NON-SPANISH SHIP HAD BEEN MISTAKENLY ARRESTED IN THAT
CASE. NOW, AFTER SIX YEARS IN THE MAKING, THE BEHIND THE SCENES STORY THAT SPANS
THIRTY YEARS IS SOON TO BE RELEASED IN THE HIDDEN GALLEON: THE TRUE STORY OF A
LOST SPANISH SHIP AND THE WILD HORSES OF ASSATEAGUE ISLAND, NEW MARITIMA PRESS,
AUGUST, 2007.
According to the author, John Amrhein, Jr., this award should never have
happened. He said that in federal government’s rush to punish a treasure hunter
in a premature claim of discovery in 1997, they failed to do their legal and
factual homework. Since the government was predisposed to get rid of a
historical treasure, they entered the litigation being heard in the Federal
District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on the side of Spain. The
federal government argued that the Spanish warship, La Galga, was never
abandoned and thus remained the property of Spain since the time of King
Ferdinand VI. The historical record shows that days after the wreck, the captain
of this legendary ship documented such abandonment when he told the sheriff of
neighboring Worcester County, Maryland, that the “Owner of the Land Owned the
Ship.” This peculiar statement was finally made clear in recent documents found
in Spain. Amrhein says the ship began to cover with sand immediately after it
wrecked and was swallowed up by the island itself. In 1943, the federal
government acquired title to this land now called the Chincoteague National
Wildlife Refuge and thus clear title to the abandoned warship. In 1983, after a
meticulous search in the ocean and in American and Spanish archives, Amhrein
informed government officials that the historic vessel was buried under their
land. For several weeks the media gave accounts of that story including a
front-page chronicle in the News Journal, Wilmington, Delaware on New Years Day,
1984. His research has continued until release of his fact-filled book that
comes out in mid August. He said the government chose to do nothing about his
discovery, although they have in the past always attempted to seize shipwrecks
from their discoverers in the name of historic preservation. Based on research
that resumed six years ago, he now believes that the lower hull and many
artifacts are well preserved in the wrecks’ 257 year-old tomb on Assateague.
Because the wreck sits under Assateague Island, the government had clear title
to the wreck when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals made the award in July of
2000 and was required to give the public notice that they intended to dispose of
government property. Janet Reno and her gang of lawyers failed to do this.
Contrary to the premise of the award, Spain claimed that if La Galga was ever
found it would be their’s. Amrhein found in the court records that the wreck in
the ocean was never identified by any government official but in The Hidden
Galleon he names the probable suspect and it’s not Spanish.
Almost everyone in Virginia and the surrounding states are familiar with the
horses that run wild on Assateague. Every year, nearly 50,000 spectators go to
the rural island of Chincoteague to witness the pony swim and auction that
benefits the local fire department. This event became world famous after
Marguerite Henry published her children’s book, Misty of Chincoteague in 1947.
In 1961, 20th Century Fox released the movie. Now, on pony swim day, when these
enthusiastic spectators hear the announcer describe the legend of the horses and
the lost galleon, they may ask themselves “What is historic preservation? Has
our government let us down again?”
More questions come to mind. If the court gave away the wrong ship, does the
real warship buried under Assateague still belong to the federal government? If
so, will they someday seek its excavation?
Amrhein says that there is some hope to save the ship. In 2003, President Bush
signed Executive Order 13287 entitled “Preserve America.” This order establishes
new mandates for identifying, protecting, and using historic properties in its
control or ownership to contribute to local economic development and it
reinforces the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.
Amrhein won’t be alone in his hopes. Victoria Stapells Johnson, his researcher
in Spain for the last 27 years who has worked with many notable treasure
hunters, historians, governments and even National Geographic said that she
found the Hidden Galleon project to be the most satisfying research job she has
done since she first began archival research in Spain in 1977. Ellsworth Boyd,
columnist for Sport Diver Magazine, said that the author, who started out as a treasure seeker, has become a meticulous, reputable maritime historian as he portrays the history of the ship and its connection to the popular legend of the
wild ponies of Assateague Island coming from a lost Spanish galleon.
The story of the hidden galleon has no ending. As the book goes to press, the Kingdom of Spain, in its attempt to claim what it believes to be Spanish treasure from Odyssey Marine Explorations, has cited the case the La Galga as
precedent even though they were awarded a non-Spanish shipwreck.
Buy The Hidden Galleon
For much, much more on this amazing story, visit www.thehiddengalleon.com and read the July/August issue of Chesapeake Life magazine for the story "Ponies’ Secrets." New Maritima Press, 536 pages, $32.95. Expected release date: August 20, 2007
Submitted by: New Maritima Press