Jose Gaspar? Gasparilla? Little Gaspar? or Gaspar the non-existent ghost?

[ropesfish]

Hello Denizens of Treasurenet - Posters, Coasters, Lurkers and Trolls alike.
I have found myself in conversation with a person for the last few days who believes that José Gaspar was a real, live pirate person and that he left actual goods behind that are worth pursuing. While I am not a 'true believer' myself, in the interest of having an open mind, I am inquiring as to whether someone has some evidence that I have overlooked or that is not commonly available. Therefore, I ask those scholars of José Gaspar "the Last Buccaneer", the man who (since he was taking prizes at the rate of 400+ ships in 32 years) must have belonged to the "Ship of the Month" club, to present some contemporary evidence of him and convince me (and others) that he was a real human person.
Thanks!
I'll be right here awaiting enlightenment.

 

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[BigWaveDave]

I was tempted to get his map as a tattoo....
Got talked out of it by virtually everyone....even my tattoo artist.

 

[agflit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_Gaspar


The internet says so..it must be true!!


ag

 

[aquanut]

I can only think of all the reasons why he DIDN"T exist.

 

[Old Bookaroo]

One of the challenges here at TN is keeping up with all the different threads.

This topic has already been discussed in detail.

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/treasure-legends/384086-jose-gaspar-real-pirate.html

There must be six or eight other threads. If you search for "Gaspar" or "Gasparilla" you'll see there have been several already. Perhaps at this point he deserves a sub-forum of his own?


My copy if packed away so I borrowed this image from Amazon.

I do have a nifty t-shirt put out by one of the searchers. So far, that seems to be the sum total of the recovered treasure. Plus, of course, what Jack Beater made from his various books and pamphlets. Not that I have a problem with that!

There is an interesting parallel between the Gasparilla yarn in Tampa-St. Pete and the Lost Pegleg Mine. Somebody decided it would be a good idea to just move over the legend.


Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo, CM

 

[ECS]

Then there is the Johnny Gomez connection:
Florida's Pirate Jose Gaspar and his Treasure Story
...and then a little help from Tampa Tribune society editor Louise Francis Dodge and George Hardee 's desire for a Tampa version of Marti Gras:
http://www.tbo.com/gasparilla/tbo-seen-how-gasparilla-began-20160126