Re: Gold bars recovered in the 1930"s, 70 lbs+- average weight
ghostdog,
Popular Mechanics can hardly be viewed as a reliable source for historic information.
Nobody knows yet what happened to the Content. She went missing immediately after the looting of the Santa Ana, and was never seen again, at least not by European eyes.
The "official" account of the voyage in Richard Hakluyt's 1589 edition of "Principall Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation" does not even mention her disappearance, and anybody reading it would conclude that the Content returned to England with the Desire. This was a deliberate misrepresentation, that I could address at some time.
The 1600 version, however, says "and night growing neere, we left the Content asterne of us, which was not yet come out of the road. And here thinking she would have overtaken us, we lost her companie and never saw her after." Later, in the East Indies, a pilot that Cavendish had taken out of the Santa Ana tried to send a letter to the Spanish Authorities saying that the Cointent had gone in search of the North West Passage. Cavendish hanged him. presumably this prisoner had overheard something. I can't think why he should have been lying.
The fate of the Content will remain a mystery until somebody finds the wreck, or her cargo. Last year, I posted on this forum pictures of a cast iron face mask of a woman, which I think is that of Queen Elizabeth, and which I think came from the Content. It was found on an Oregon beach. Also, about ten years ago now, somebody approached me with a story about somebody finding a cache of silver bars in a virtually inaccessible sea cave in the same area. This person claimed to have been shown and held one of the bars that was found, plus an engraved sword that was found with it. The sword was supposedly sent to the Smithsonian, who identified it as English and 16th century. They asked the finder to donate it, but he would not. My informant said that he had seen the sword and read the letter from the Smithsonian. I have been to the National Archives and tried to find a copy of the letter, but without success.
I have hit a blank wall in trying to trace the people involved in the find, and don't think there is enough evidence yet to start searching the Ocean in that area with detection devices.... too expensive without better information.
However, I am not sure how true the story is. That cave is now empty, but the silver was supposedly taken away by a group of miners from Arizona. That is why I was so interested in your photograph. Although it seems unlikely that a cache of silver should just lie in a sea cave undiscovered for centuries, there was a great earthquake off the Oregon coast in 1700 that caused the land to sink 6-10 foot into the Ocean. Thus a cave that was easily accessible in the late 1500s would have become almost inaccessible in the 1930s. I thought for a moment that your photo might have offered the break I have been hoping for, but I think not.
Good luck in your attempts to find the Content. Let us know if you find anything.
Mariner
