anyone know of any books about the pear ships or any info relating to them?

jackrook

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Nov 1, 2010
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first time poster, long time troller.....


....Being a Socal native, the story of the pearl ship lost in the desert has always intrigued me. in large part because i have been to alot of the areas mentioned in this story. and no matter what version being told, me being from Los Angeles, i am always just a few short hours away. anyone know of any good books with lots of facts? hell, i will even take some made up facts, as long as i can read about my beloved pearl ships.
 

Oroblanco

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Jan 21, 2005
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Jackrook - sorry for the late welcome but welcome to Treasurenet!

15012386.jpg


Just keep telling everyone "there is no such thing as a lost ship in a desert!" :thumbsup:
Oroblanco
 

Old Bookaroo

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Dec 4, 2008
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Re: anyone know of any books about the pearl ships or any info relating to them?

Apparently there is a book titled The Lost Ship of the Desert by Bill Pfost. Perhaps someone out there in TreasureNet land has read it, has an opinion about it, and/or knows how to obtain a copy.

Good luck to all,

~The Old Bookaroo
 

GaBnn3

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Dec 10, 2004
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Perhaps there are other written works about this treasure. But, as part of your research I recommend the book "Lost Treasures and How to Find Them", by Emile Schurmacher. I can tell you first hand that his account of the Dutch Schultz treasure was right on. If the other accounts in this book are as well researched, you will consider this to be your definitive account.
 

Isayhello2u

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Sep 15, 2006
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Re the Bill Pfost booklet. it was a self printed book with all copies donated to the indio pioneer museum/ cultural center gift shop to sell.
as a way to help raise money for the museum. They will never be getting any more.
The master computer file disk though is about to be given to someone who is working to save the salton sea museum. if they will use it or just store it i dont know.
as for the location the book gives its not really helpful as it ends at the bombing range which was as close as he could get following the vague directions of
the eyewitness he had talked to. (the eyewitness who died earlier this year had only made the trip once with a coachella jeep group who was shown the way by an Imperial valley jeep group some thirty or so years ago)
 

ECS

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WEIRD CALIFORNIA-Greg Bishop,Joe Oesterle,and Mike Marinacci (2006) Page 61
Legend claims the Spanish Pearl ship was Captained by Juan de Iturbe in 1615 and it has been reported to be somewhere in the Imperial Valley near the Salton Sea.
 

Old Bookaroo

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Dec 4, 2008
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Howdy, Friends!

Anyone interested in a copy of Bill Pfost's booklet can send me a PM.

The best work I know of on The Pearl Ship is Harold O. Weight's booklet - but I haven't seen a copy for sale for many years.

Eugene Controtto's Lost Desert Bonanzas (reprinted by Dover in trade paperback as Lost Gold and Silver Mines of the Southwest) mentions three versions, but only references one Desert Magazine article - January 1939, by Charles C. Niehuis. Probert lists another one by Dan Galbraith (March 1966). I guess you'd have to plow through the back issues to find the third article - if there is one (Galbraith's article may contain two stories).

Ed Bartholomew can always be counted on to be reliable - see More Western Treasures by "Jesse Rascoe (1962). And Philip A. Bailey's excellent Pegleg book (Golden Mirages 1940, 1941 per Probert - my copies are boxed up at the moment) apparently at least mentions it.

Finally, it might be worthwhile for a serious hunter to read Antonio de Fierro Blanco's The Journey of the Flame (1933).

Good luck to all!

~The Old Bookaroo
 

Old Bookaroo

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GaBnn3:

You mentioned "Lost Treasures and How to Find Them", by Emile Schurmacher. The late, great Bill Hanks - a successful treasure hunter and gold prospector, and a great treasure book collector, told me that he thought this book presented the first real account of the famous "Four Corners" Gold Act cache. There were several paperbacks published within a few years of each other on lost treasure - Warren Smith's Finders Keepers, for example (Thomas Penfield's Lost Treasure Trails was another). For quite some time I've thought Schurmacher's book has been overlooked and under-rated.

Good luck to all,

~The Old Bookaroo
 

cactusjumper

Gold Member
Dec 10, 2005
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Howdy, Friends!

Anyone interested in a copy of Bill Pfost's booklet can send me a PM.

The best work I know of on The Pearl Ship is Harold O. Weight's booklet - but I haven't seen a copy for sale for many years.

Eugene Controtto's Lost Desert Bonanzas (reprinted by Dover in trade paperback as Lost Gold and Silver Mines of the Southwest) mentions three versions, but only references one Desert Magazine article - January 1939, by Charles C. Niehuis. Probert lists another one by Dan Galbraith (March 1966). I guess you'd have to plow through the back issues to find the third article - if there is one (Galbraith's article may contain two stories).

Ed Bartholomew can always be counted on to be reliable - see More Western Treasures by "Jesse Rascoe (1962). And Philip A. Bailey's excellent Pegleg book (Golden Mirages 1940, 1941 per Probert - my copies are boxed up at the moment) apparently at least mentions it.

Finally, it might be worthwhile for a serious hunter to read Antonio de Fierro Blanco's The Journey of the Flame (1933).

Good luck to all!

~The Old Bookaroo

OB and jackrook,

Some of Harold O. Weight's books can be found here: https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Se...tn=&kn=&yrl=&yrh=&prl=&prh=&recentlyadded=all

I have found the site to be a great source for many old books.

Good luck,

Joe Ribaudo
 

audigger53

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Wonder if you can get Infrared Satellite images of the Salton Sea? The remains of the ship would show up different than the bed or the shore. Because of the difference of the heat signature. Just a thought.
 

Shortfinger

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Wonder if you can get Infrared Satellite images of the Salton Sea? The remains of the ship would show up different than the bed or the shore. Because of the difference of the heat signature. Just a thought.

I doubt that you would be able to distinguish that old of a shipwreck from the heat signature, especially since it would most likely have been covered in sand long before the sea was formed. With that being said, there are several more modern ship/boat wrecks that may show up.

JB
 

franklin

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Wonder if you can get Infrared Satellite images of the Salton Sea? The remains of the ship would show up different than the bed or the shore. Because of the difference of the heat signature. Just a thought.

You have Infrared images already on Google Earth. All you have to do is tilt your computer screen and look from the bottom left of the screen towards the top right of the screen. Or southwest to northeast. A reflection will show on land and in water you will be able to see a ship glowing. Go to the Broad River where the Pacolet River comes into the Broad River use the time and go up and down in years and you will see a ship washing down the Broad River supposed to be a ship that sank with gold coins but it looks to be a yacht to me. Try it you will find that it works.

By the way Infrared penetrates the sand.
 

Steve Baldwin

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Mar 5, 2019
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Re: anyone know of any books about the pearl ships or any info relating to them?

Apparently there is a book titled The Lost Ship of the Desert by Bill Pfost. Perhaps someone out there in TreasureNet land has read it, has an opinion about it, and/or knows how to obtain a copy.

Good luck to all,

~The Old Bookaroo
Yes, Pfost's book can be found at the Coachella Valley Historical society. John also had a rough draft of a book but the story also appears in over a dozen "lost mine" type books.
 

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