The Lucayan Treasure Find - According to John Potter in his classic book, The Treasure Diver’s Guide, “Years of diving on unproductive wrecks strewn over the Grand Bahama reefs had given Jack Slack immunity to treasure fever.” That all changed on August 27, 1964 when his snorkeling companion Gary Simmons returned to the dive boat and reported finding an old anchor.
The next afternoon he and Dick Tindall, partners in the charter boat business, returned with Simmons to check out the anchor, which Slack thought might be interesting to show diving clients. The anchor was only 1,000 yards offshore from the Lucayan Beach Hotel in water ten feet deep. It measured nine-feet tall, had a round shank with spade-shaped flukes indicating it was indeed quite old. Simmons called Slack’s attention to a peculiar dark glittering formation on the reef nearby. Visible through its coral encrustation were tiny parallel groves like the edges of stacked coins. Slack froze, they were coins - thousands of them, fused together! They stared in awe at the 200-pound conglomeration for several minutes. They worked the wreck until dark, bringing up several thousand coins. The treasure pocket seemed to extend indefinitely across the reef. Eventually the flow of treasure dwindled, with about sixteen thousand coins raised, and salvage was discontinued.
Somewhere along the way, probably with the help of Robert Marx’s book Shipwrecks of the Western Hemisphere, they best-guessed that they had found was one of the treasure laden Spanish galleons captured by Piet Heyn on September 8, 1628, in Matanzas Bay, Cuba.
In the forty years since the discovery, no conclusive evidence has ever come to light to firmly establish the source of the coins dubbed the “Lucayan Treasure Find.” Several maritime historians have gone to considerable efforts to identify this shipwreck. Many feel it was part of the fleet of Piet Heyn, possible the Van Lynden or a prize. Based on ordnance found on the site, Mendel Peterson was of the opinion that the wreck was either Dutch or a Dutch prize of Spanish origin. The saker was some fifty years older than the falconette, indicating that the saker was used as ballast. The Spanish admiralty was rather strict about surveying cannons over thirty years old and completely prohibited the use of cannons as ballast.
Other researchers point to archival documents that seem to eliminate the Lucayan Treasure from having anything to do with the famous Dutch privateer. On September 26, while his fleet was 140 (miles?) west of Bermuda, Piet Heyn wrote a dispatch to Rotterdam and placed it on his fastest vessel, advising Parliament that he captured an entire Spanish treasure fleet stating “We have four galleons with us and hope to bring them in…two of these are still mostly filled with pelts. Apart from the aforementioned ships we are also taking with us another small ship of about 100-tons which is mostly laden with hides and campeche wood.” Somewhere off Bermuda his fleet encountered a storm, and documents indicate that he lost two vessels.
According to noted salvor and author Bob Weller, there are several reasons why the shipwreck discovered by Slack and his companions could not be one of Heyn’s ships. First, Heyn’s fleet was over 1,000 miles from the Bahama Channel when he wrote his letter, and the fleet was still intact at that point. Also, the 1628 fleet would have been carrying coins dated close to 1628. Spanish treasure fleets were sailing almost every year, and they carried back to Spain all the coins minted until the time they sailed. One of Slack’s buddies, Bissell Shaver, stated that the latest minted coins they recovered was dated 1624. (This statement is a point of controversy, as Potter’s Treasure Diver’s Guide states that, “A large portion of the coins bore Mexico mint marks. The latest recognizable date was 1641, while the majority of the coins were minted in 1628. The oldest coins found was dated 1584.”) This discrepancy only adds to the confusion.
In archaeology the concept is called “terminus post quem.” The concept can readily be applied here. Simply stated, the most recent artifact gives the date after which something could have been deposited. Thus a wreck with coin dated 1624, would have to have occurred sometime after that date, but never earlier, as the coin did not exist before that date. If the latest coins were dated 1624, that would lend credibility to the wreck as being that of the Nuestra Señora de los Remedios. However, if the bulk of the coins were minted in 1628, that would exclude the Remedios and the Santiago-Santa Ana and Santa Gertrudes would remain the most likely candidates.
Two Spanish galleons, Santiago-Santa Ana and Santa Gertrudes, both 600-tons, sailing from Cuba to Holland, both carrying over 2,500,000 pesos in treasure, wrecked during the night in a hurricane in 1628. One struck on a shallow reef off present-day Lucaya (Freeport) off the south side of Grand Bahama Island and then wrecked about three miles to the east. The other was reported to have wrecked “a cannon shot” east of the first, near Golden Rock.
Additional research conducted by Jack Haskins indicates it could not have been one of the captured Spanish vessels because all the treasure had been transferred to the Amsterdam, Heyn’s flagship.
All that being said, you still need to take into account the exception of the coin dated 1641. The coin would rule out both earlier wrecks as the source of the Lucayan coins and indicate a vessel that wrecked sometime after 1641. Unless of course, as I believe, the later period coin was NOT a part of the wreck but rather in the words of Romer Treece, was dropped overboard by some drunken old rummy.”
So, basically to answer your question, there are several candidates, but no real smoking gun as yet. You are right on one thing, Finders Looses is a must read.
Hope this helps,
GH
