Charles Kenworthy vs. the CIA and Howard Hughes

[Peerless67]

I think the ship that Kenworthy was after was the ship (capitana) lost in 1600.
Juan de Velasco had recieved orders from his uncle the viceroy of Peru to escort the annual silver galleons to Panama with an additional order to persue the dutch corsairs who had arrived on the south American coast in January 1600.
The "Capitana" (I could not find the ships real name) was lost off the coast of Mexico / Santa Catalina Island, probably whilst looking for the dutch.

Juan de Velasco had 5 ships in his squad and his uncle sent a further 2 squads, one of 5 ships and one of 3 these were sent north and south to locate the corsairs (De Lint & Van Noort) who had already taken several ships including the Buen Jesus and Los Picos.

I believe the letter above was despatched by the viceroy to be delivered to his nephew or to ask that his nephew recieve any help he may need, however by the time the letter reached Manila his nephew was already dead his ship and all the crew lost.


Gary

 

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[Peerless67]

From : The Circumnavigation of the Globe by Pieter Esaiasz. de Lint 1598-1603

The Viceroy of Peru had received news from Spain about Dutch intentions in
June 1599. On November 8 the Viceroy had been informed by the Governor of the
Province of the River Plate of Van Noort’s dilatory progress along the Atlantic Coast in
August and at Rio de Janiero the previous February18. On December 2 he was informed
of the Chilean intrusion of the Dutch Mahu-DeCordes fleet, and on December 8, the
Blijde Boodschaap, of the Mahu expedition, was taken from Valparaiso, where she had
surrendered, to Callao, with her captain Dirck Gherritz.


On 1 January
1600, with eight ships at his disposal, he sent, under the command of Pedro Ozores de
Ulloa, two galleons and the Buen Jesus to stand off Santa Maria until 20 March. Then the
galleons were to break away to accompany the silver ship from Arica (carrying the
annual production of the mines of San Luis Potosi) to Callao, while the Buen Jesus
continued the patrol. The five remaining ships he sent for sentry duty off Pisco, about two
degrees south of Callao, until they should be required, in turn, to escort the silver
shipment, just transferred from Arica, from Callao to Panama19


Van Noort knew nothing of this of course, but lusted after the prize, and
subsequently did nothing to conceal himself from Spanish attention. The chase carried
Van Noort far to the north. The captain of the Buen Jesus, now a prisoner aboard the
Mauritius, advised him that the prevailing winds are southerly, so Van Noort decided he
could not manage the rendezvous at Santa Maria


On 25 April, the Viceroy of Peru, in Lima, Luis de Velasco, Marqués de Salinas,
learned of Van Noort’s presence. Van Noort had been sailing in full view along the coast
since taking the Buen Jesus. On 28 April Van Noort reached Valparaíso. There he
released the prisoners from the Buen Jesus, excepting only Emanuel, another slave and
the pilot, Juan de San Aval, who would be useful for coastal navigation. While at
Valparaíso, Van Noort seized the Los Picos, another victualling ship


His captured prize ships Buen Jesus and Los Picos
now accompanied him. On 1 May he put in at Huasco where he obtained fresh meat and
fruit23 and burned the Los Picos. Having some apprehension of the Viceroy’s strategy,
Van Noort gave Spanish Naval Base at Callao24 (and fortunately at Pisco) a wide berth as
he continued his northward sail.


In Lima, the viceroy was not slow to respond to this threat. The five-ship
squadron under the command of the viceroy’s nephew Juan de Velasco, now patrolling
off Pisco, well armed and carrying 400 men, was already assembled to accompany the
annual silver shipment to Panama for transshipment overland to the Atlantic.


The
viceroy gave his nephew Velasco the additional task of searching for the corsarios as
soon as the silver was safely transferred to a Spain-bound ship in the Atlantic. One of the
prisoners released from the Buen Jesus told the Viceroy that the pirate wanted to capture
the Manila Galleon at Cabo San Lucas, as Thomas Cavendish had done in 1587.
Velasco’s first assignment was not completed until months after Van Noort had turned
west to commence his passage over the Pacific Ocean


After leaving Panama on 13
August, the squadron reached Acapulco, the Galleon’s traditional landfall, on 26 August.
Velasco reported that they had “counted the rocks along the shore” from Panama north,
and found no trace of the enemy, whom he believed had already turned west. The search
for Van Noort had the happy result of placing five Spanish ships nicely out of De Lint’s
way.


The corregidor of Santa40 received information on 17 July from the Callao-bound
frigate that a Dutch pirate had pursued him and was headed in the direction of Santa on
11 July. As soon as the corregidor heard this news he sent a boat out to try to observe the
pirate’s activities at the anchorage, but De Lint had already moved on, if he stopped there
at all. This was lucky for De Lint, for the following day vice-admiral Hernando Lamero
came with a task force of two of his ships and a pinnace.41 In August young Velasco
spent ten days scouring the Baja California coast, from La Paz to beyond Cabo San Lucas
– the whole of the southern tip of the Baja. Finding nothing, he began to doubt that the
Dutchmen were ever there. Hernando de Lugones, one of his captains, said, “There is
news of the enemy everywhere, but they are like phantoms, which appear in many places,
whereas we find them in none.” Unfortunately, the task force was overtaken by a great
storm in mid-August on their return from Lower California, and the flagship was lost
with all hands along the coast of Mexico at Salagua, near Acapulco. The battered
remnants limped into Acapulco for repairs. On 4 November they resumed the search,
both for their missing admiral and for Van Noort, finally sailing back to Callao in
February

www.hakluyt.com/journal_articles/2007/pieter_de_lint.pdf


http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...#v=onepage&q=Don Juan de Velasco 1600&f=false


http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...#v=onepage&q=Don Juan de Velasco 1600&f=false


http://www.tshaonline.org/publications/journals/shq/online/v023/n4/contrib_DIVL3355.html


http://www.ifeanet.org/publicaciones/boletines/22(2)/497.pdf

 

[Peerless67]

cuzcosquirrel

The San Pedro seems to be going back to Manila in 1598, not to Acapulco.

The San Pedro seems to have sailed from Acapulco in 1598 and arrived back in Manila in summer, 1598.

looking at Cruikshanks list here http://home.windstream.net/cr33856/


In 1568 San Pedro lost en route from the philipines (this could be a possible if the dates are messed up on the kenworthy papers)

There are no further San Pedro's mentioned until 1595 which is in brackets on the list (which I understand means supposition)

Here you can view over 200 pages (register of San Pedro 1595) on the AGI site

http://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas/...n=4&txt_accion_origen=2&txt_id_desc_ud=102135

That register indicates the ship was in Mexico in 1595

On Cruikshanks list it indicates that the San Pedro was in Mexico on 28th March 1596 and then in the philipines on 22nd July 1596. (arrival dates)

There is no further mention of the ship until 10th March 1598 where on Cruikshanks list the ship is in both Mexico and the Philipines at exactly the same time (obviously impossible) But based on the time the ships usually leave and arrive the arrival in the Philipines of March 10th seems more likely.

There is no indication of when the ship left the Philipines.

The next time "a" San Pedro is mentioned is in 1607, and I do not believe it to be the same ship it is listed as the "San Pedro y San Pablo".

It does appear that the San Pedro disapears from the record after its Arrival in the Philipines in March 1598.



Although not related something of interest since the San Felipe has been mentioned being salvaged in Baja. Is that the AGI has papers that say the San Felipe was wrecked in Japan. which leaves the possibility for the ship salvaged in Baja, actually being the San Pedro.

Link

http://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas/...t?accion=3&txt_id_desc_ud=424541&fromagenda=N

google translation of papers held:

Relation of the voyage of the galleon San Felipe de Her Majesty arrival he made to Japan and its loss, and what else has happened. Year 1596. "
The galleon left Cavite on July 12, 1596, with General Matias de Landecho. They reached Ticao Bay 22 this month, and 28 September and near Japan, started a storm that caused severe destruction in the ship, many wounded and some drowned. In the galleon were Juan Tamayo, prior of the convent of San Agustin, Fray Diego de Guevara, Fray Mateo de Mendoza and Fray Diego de Vivar, Augustine, Martin de Leon, a Dominican and Fray Juan Pobre and Fray Felipe de Jesus or de las Casas Franciscans. They managed to reach meac (Japan), anchored in a bay 17. They were welcomed by King Taycosama, but were later locked up and looted the ship. The general got the license on December 3 to go talk to Taycosama. They went to USAC [Osaka] and learned of some Franciscans who were condemned to die crucified. On January 2, 1597 began to run the sentence against the Franciscans and Japanese Christians who were with them. They cut off his ear, dragged onto the streets of Fujima (sic) and meac and imprison them again in Osaka. The condemned were 26, six friars, Fray Pedro Bautista, curator, native of the bishopric of Avila, who four years earlier had come as ambassador, Fray Martin de Aguirre or the Ascension, natural de Vergara, Fray Francisco Blanco, a native of Oviedo; Fray Felipe de las Casas, a native of Mexico, who arrived in the galleon San Felipe, Fray Gonzalo Garcia, a native of India, Fray Francisco de San Miguel, natural lay of Palencia, and 20 Japanese Christians. On February 4 were taken to Nagasaki, they were put in the crosses and each was speared in the side. It has detail the martyrdom and miraculous events that occurred later. The relationship ends with the list of martyrs.



Gary

 

[cuzcosquirrel]

There were two ships named San Felipe, that is why I put a I and a II after the names. The 1576 San Felipe is the one wrecked in Baja California.

I agree with you that the 10 March, 1598 dates for the sailing and arrival of the San Pedro do seem to be in error somehow. I would have expected the San Pedro to have arrived in Manila in June or July of 1598. I think the May date is correct for both ships, and the March date a repetition of the Acapulco sail date that was somehow left in.

Look at the Acapulco sail dates for 1596 and 1598, almost the exact same ships supposedly sail, which means they would have had to sail back in 1595 and 1597. But they are not listed.

The 1594 (San Pedro?) citation is a nod to several people who have written that Ceremeno sailed from Acapulco to Manila on it.

You can expand the list yourself and write in where the ship must have sailed either to or from the ports to complete the list. I don't think this list is an end-all for accuracy, but does list a lot of the ships that I from other sources know sailed.


A squadron was sent From Manila to Cambodia in 1596, and three other ships in 1598 with the hope of adding it to the Spanish Empire. Two of the 1598 galleons were blown onto the coast of China and wrecked. This is probably known as the Dasmarinas expedition.

 

[Peerless67]

Hi cuzcosquirrel

There were two ships named San Felipe, that is why I put a I and a II after the names. The 1576 San Felipe is the one wrecked in Baja California.

You are correct, somehow I missed that ship on the list.



Gary

 

[mariner]

Cuzco,

That list of Cruikshanks is very interesting. I had not seen it before.

You may be right about the wreckage found on the Baja coast. It was deduced as being the San Felipe by dating some of the pottery shards that were found. There was nothing, I think, that actually identified it as the San Felipe. I know the guy who played the key role in bringing it to light, and he gave me a personal description of what they had found and showed me the photographs.

I must admit that this thread was the first I knew about the San Pedro going missing, and I thought I knew most of the stuff about missing Manila Galleons. Just shows you, you live and learn. What was the basis for Kenworthy believing it had wrecked off Santa Catalina. Were they any survivors who made their way back to Mexico, as happened in the case of the Santa Ana in 1587 and the San Agustin in 1595. Incidentally, although people refer to the San Agustin as a Manilla Galleon, it wasn't a regular Manila Galleon, but a ship that was exploring the possibility of a port in Northern California that could be used as a respite on that long journey to Acapulco. Cermeno was allowed to bring back some trade goods as a reward for undertaking the search mission.

It amused me to see on Cruikshank's list a note that the Santa Ana was ALMOST taken by Cavendish. He captured it, loaded both his ships with as much cargo as they could hold, which was only a quarter of the Santa Ana's load, and then set fire to the Spanish ship, after putting the crew ashore. The crew managed to salvage timbers from the Santa Ana and built a make-shift ship that managed to get them home.

I am particularly interested in any ship that might have gone missing on or slightly before 1632, and note with interest the gaps in the Cruikshank list around that time. I would welcome any information about ships missing around 1632. One of the marked rocks at Nehalem, on the Oregon coast, carries the number 1632, and I have always believed that it was a date, though I could never identify a ship that had gone missing around that time. It is almost certainly the case that either the San Christo de Burgos or the San Francisco Xavier also wrecked there in 1696 or 1704 respectively, depositing the many tons of beeswax that have been found there over the years.

Mariner

 

[cuzcosquirrel]

Even experts appear to disagree, based on where they got their reference sources from, and what they have seen of the evidence. I was just reading last night some 1590's correspondence from the govenor of Manila to the King of Spain that had some good information.

I will have to look at that AGI site later and get some documentation from it and maybe work up my own list as part of a paper. Right now, I'm too busy with the other stuff I have to complete before summer.

 

[gollum]

Mariner,

To answer your question, Kenworthy had put out feelers to many archivists and subarchivists for several years dangling large amounts of cash for any period documents that had anything at all to do with Treasure. He received hundreds of pages of copies of documents from all over the world (Rome, Seville, Mexico City, and Acapulco). Much of what he was actually looking for was proof of land based treasures as big as some of the sunken treasures that have been found.

Kenworthy was a multimillionaire. He made his money in Southern California Real Estate in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He also had a keen interest in treasure hunting, and was willing to spend a lot of his money for proof of his ideas.

Regardless of that, he also received documentation of some sunken treasures. One was just off the coast of Catalina, Ca. and the other was near Sebastian Inlet, Fl. The second one was where he came into conflict with Mel Fisher. The first one was the reason for this thread. It was not widely known after the fact, because of the intervention of the Hughes Glomar Explorer.

Best-mike

 

[mariner]

Gollum,

Thanks for that, but did he actually receive any documents, in response to his requests? The only indication I know of a wreck off Santa Catalina was the information cited in Vizcaino's diary that the locals told him in 1602 that a ship had wrecked on the island a bit further north, and that the people from it had gone over to the mainland.

Thanks for starting this thread. It has been very interesting.

Mariner

 

[gollum]

Hey Mariner,

He wrote three books on land based treasure markers and monuments based on some of the hundreds of documents he received.

The people he had with him for this wreck weren't some gullible shoe salesmen from Nebraska. He had originally approached John Wayne trying to rent his yacht the Wild Goose for the expedition. After he explained the reason and showed his evidence, Wayne signed on as a partner. His other partners on the project were three of the head Research Physicists at SRI (Stanford Research Institute) The main one being Dr. Lambert Dolphin who remained close with Kenworthy until he passed away. The reason Kenworthy signed on the SRI Physicists was so they could bring all their modern and experimental equipment to use (Dr. Dolphin is pretty much the father of Modern Ground Penetrating Radar).

Best-Mike

 

[mariner]

Mike,

I guess I should read his books.

Bob aka Mariner

 

[gollum]

Mariner,

He didn't write any books specifically on shipwrecks. As I said, most of his treasure hunting was for land based treasures and caches.

Dr. Dolphin refers to the project on one of his websites:

http://ldolphin.org/rpl/ch5.html

Kenworthy had a novel plan in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He wanted to get the best minds (sparing no expense) from the Physicists at SRI to utilize all their latest high tech equipment to find treasures. Seems to have worked pretty well for him.

Best-Mike

 

[cuzcosquirrel]

I was looking back through some notes in Schurtz, and I ran across this: Viceroy Monterey ascribed the loss of the Santa Margarita and San Geronimo in 1600 to overloading.

There was another repetition of the Cristo De Burgos burning at sea in 1693 and pieces of wood were found in the Ladrones Islands. It looks like either the Christo De Burgos or San Francisco Xavier wreck may have been found at an island in the Pacific. Whichever one it is, the other one is the one at Nehlam.

A squadron was sent From Manila to Cambodia in 1596, and three other ships in 1598 with the hope of adding it to the Spanish Empire. Two of the 1598 galleons were blown onto the coast of China and wrecked. This is known as the second Luis Dasmarinas expedition to Siam.

It appears that Manila galleons could be privately owned in the period before about 1640. Schurtz states that Desmarinas had indeed owned two of them, and that they were used in the Siam Expedition. This may well account for the disappearance of two Manila galleons around 1598 from the sailing records. I cannot track the Luis Desmarinas' second Siam expedition ship names down though. Very annoying.

Here is a exert in Spanish:

"El nuevo rey nombro a Belloso y a Blas Ruiz gobernadores de 2 provincias y autorizo la presencia de misioneros catolicos. Una embajada llego a Manila en agosto de 1598. Perez Dasmariñas decide mandar 2 religiosos junto con 200 soldados españoles a Camboya."

"La expedicion, en 3 buques, fue un desastre. Unos de los navios se hunde y solo se salva el piloto. Otro pierde parte de la tripulacion, pero logra llegar a Tagayan, en las propias Filipinas. El Tercero acaba en la costa de Kwantung , en China. Consiguen salvarse pero se pierde el barco. Tras pasar incontables calamidades son rescatados por un junco que parte de Macao."

This seems to indicate all three of these ships were either wrecked or abandoned. I still don't know their names, but they are described as "two ships of medium size and a galliot." Yeah, the two larger ships were wrecked: one sank in deep water and the other founderd on shore and eventually broke up. They are referred to as his "admiralanta and his capitana." The galliot was able to return to the Phillipines. Someone else in a letter describes his two boats as "Frigatas."

I tracked down part of it. For 1596: To Diego De Velosso from Captain Esteben Rodriguez, requested that the Nuestra Senora de Rosario and the Santiago be used for the expedition. It seems the ship put back out into a storm and ended up wrecking on the coast of China. Esteben Rodriguez then bought a junk at Pinal that developed a leak, and he had to put back in. The other two junks more or less made it to Siam. I put this is in the wrong place. Belloso and Blas Ruiz were each sailing on one of these junks. There is a notation that two other manila galleons were redirected to support a military campain, and so no galleons sailed that year (1592 I think).

Seems like the Rosario sailed after this so it might be a different ship. There was a mention of one "Chinese trade" galleon being sent from Pinal in about 1596 to Acapulco, and Govenor Tello later sent a letter to the King asking if they had any record of what had ever happened to it. Presumed lost en route. This I think was the "Christo."


There seems to have been a San Pedro y San Pablo (Flagship) built in Peru in about 1600 for the defense of the coast against forays like Sir Francis Drake's. It appears to have been broken up and scrapped in 1606.

There was a third San Felipe in the late 1590's that wrecked on the coast of Luzon, and most of its cargo was saved and transported overland back to Manila.

 

[Klems]

Sorry to dig up this old topic, but I've been researching every lead on wrecks on Catalina and found this on another forum:

http://s181686668.onlinehome.us/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10943

In the post, the author says the Glomar Explorer parked off Avalon to do her transfer, HOWEVER look at the following pictures of the transfer.





That is NOT avalon harbor, but in fact Isthmus Cove at Two Harbors. Bird Rock is visible in the first photo and Ship Rock is visible in the last two.



to me, it doesn't look like the Glomar Explorer was conducting any sort of "extra" dive operations, it looks like a mate-up of the Explorer and the Clementine. And really, Two Harbors is the only protected, deep, harbor in the SoCal area. If you've been to Avalon, you know why that's out of the question.

 

[ropesfish]

Very good addition to the thread.
Thanks for posting it.
It is fascinating to see what engineers can do with unlimited funding and no one in the way.

 

[Jimi_X]

Mike's copy of Kenworthy's permit, strangely does not have the Seal of the State of California upon it, as I would expect an official document to have.
Likewise this document appears to be dated 7/74.

Mike's Playboy article states "Then along came the Glomar Explorer. On August 20, 1975, she arrived, anchored a quarter mile off the coast, over the very area from which Kenworthy planned to raise the galleon"...

I would like to know, in the period intervening from Kenworthy's discovery of the site, to Glomar's anchoring, what artifacts did Mr. Kenworthy and associates bring to the surface? Are there any photos?

Also, it seems incomprehensible to me that in a little over a year from Kenworthy's permit acquisition, that the "bureaucracy" would move with LIGHTNING LIKE SPEED to both, fund, man, and move, the Glomar Explorer to explore Kenworthy's site, without hard, incontrovertible proof!

 

[Physics guy]

Hey Folks,

I don't post much in this section because most of my treasure hunting is land based.

There is very little around regarding this story, so I thought I'd post what I know and see what you guys can add.

The Story:

Charles Kenworthy was a millionaire real estate mogul in Southern California in the late 1960s-1970s. He was also an avid Treasure Hunter. He used his money to get information from archivists all over the world. IOn one caae he received the location of a Manilla Galleon that had been wrecked just off the coast of Santa Catalina Island in Southern California. His research showed that it had never been recovered.

He took his information to the State of California and received Exploration Permits. He got his friend Dr. Lambert Dolphin (Chief Physicist for the Stanford Research Institute and father of modern ground penetrating radar) and a few others from SRI to go along. He then approached John Wayne to see if he would rent them his yacht (The Wild Goose). When he explained all the details and showed him the evidence, John Wayne signed on as a partner.

In the September 1976 issue of Playboy, there was an article entitled "Puppets and Puppet Masters". It was a story about the secret story of the CIA involvement in Watergate. A part of the larger story was the story of Chuck Kenworthy. I will post the entire story here:



I'm sure you all know about the Hughes Glomar Explorer. In case you don't, here is a link to a good description of the ship and its' mission:

http://files.asme.org/asmeorg/Communities/History/Landmarks/12708.pdf

I don't believe Kenworthy ever saw any of that $30,000,000. Anything you all can add would be greatly appreciated.

Best-Mike

I’m new to Tnet so I just now discovered this. I worked at SRI in the early 1970s. Charles Kenworthy asked us to see if we could do a survey of Cocos Island. I think Lambert Dolphin’s ground-penetrating radar was what was being considered for the search. The project didn’t go forward, one reason being concerns about the safety of the search personnnel.

The Santa Catalina Island site was where the Hughes “Mining” Barge (HMB1) was mated and de-mated to the Glomar Explorer. I don‘t think the CIA even knew about the galleon until Kenworthy sued them. The recovery claw inside the HMB1 wouldn’t have been suitable for recovering a fragile and likely mostly disintegrated wooden-hull galleon.

Re Cocos Island, l read that part of the treasure was discovered by a Park Ranger in 2015:
https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n11a22.html

Also this story from 1940:

http://www.maritimequest.com/daily_event_archive/ww2_as_it_happened/1940/01_jan/07/04_sydney_hr.jpg

This is probably old news to TreasureNeters, but maybe not.