Puerto Rico Mona Island and Shoals

A poetic justice in a tragic form took place on july 4th 1502 a fleet of 32 caravels had assembled at santo domingo four days before making ready to sail for spain among the passengers on antonio de torres's flagship which was el dorado was this ever-skimming bobadilla he was an interesting character he actually imprisoned columbus two years earlier um and by coincidence that paths crossed again right there and columbus uh over there put in at santa domingo on his return from a voyage he didn't like the feel of the heavy still air the atmosphere recognizing the familia uh for warning of hurricane i mean you have to remember columbus was a very experienced sailor navigator so despite all that happened in the past between them he told boba dela that he was fearing the incoming storm but his advice was scorned perhaps boba dela remembered the famous navigator's warning four days later as he struggled for his life in the watery fury of the worst hurricane ever recorded at that time during 12 hours of july 4th its cyclonic winds and massive waves tore the flora to shreds swamping a dozen of ships in the mona passage and breaking most of the rest against the shores of puerto rico santo domingo and mona islands only five people survived that day 27 caravels among them el dorado were lost with over 500 lives including boba dillas there was treasure in quantity on the destroyed ships perhaps half of its gold nuggets and dust and pearls had been stole aboard el dorado the single richest item was a solid gold table reputed to one and weigh half tons through which boba dylan intended to express his gratitude to the catholic king for his appointment as governor so yeah he was a governor and that's why he had the power to imprison columbus for whatever reason so the flagship was believed to have gone down in the mona passage where depths of thousand feet are encountered no trace of its wreckage was discovered during the salvage work along the coast after the seas had subsided much was recovered from wrecks which had been thrown up on reefs and beaches but at least 3 million and of course that value was in 1962 in gold and pearls were gone so obviously the value is much much higher right now so in the accounts of boba dilla's 3310 pound golden table if his accounts were true about two million dollars in treasure lie in the remnants of el dorado and again this is in old dollars today much much higher value so it remains in el dorado way down under mona passage some of the other wrecks against the coast partly salvaged or beyond reach of uh beyond the reach of uh 1500 indian skin divers might make worthwhile targets for modern scuba divers but el dorado and had treasures will be difficult to find since they were not found as of yet according to the records but we do know that it was close to the shores so the depths are not going to be that that deep to encounter now let's focus on mona island puerto rico so mona island m-o-n-a mona island is the our hippolygo of puerto rico la is as the spanish call it is a natural paradise with no native inhabitants as of that riding which we're talking about six years ago at uh just 11 kilometers by seven kilometers this is in fact the location where the infamous english pirate hang henry j king's jennings known not only for his cruelty but also for his knowledge and good manners hate his treasure an expedition in 1939 discovered the da bloon filled chest and was auctioned in chicago for a fabulous sum back then a million dollars i mean we're talking about 1939 uh dollar value but that wasn't the only treasure on the island kept hidden every once in a while i gold coins were washed ashore by the tide

the island was not inhabited as of that riding so whoever found it kept it for himself now i'm gonna go to different sources to expand on our knowledge of this island of mona island so he is riding from a piece called the treasures of silver shoals and the isle of mystery well-informed treasure hunters have by now discovered that the mysterious island in waldo logan's tale is mona at the time the chapter was written in late 1956 and checked by wildo logan for accuracy we decided the author of the story refers to himself we decided not to name the place as he uh as he hoped to interest rebecca to go for the treasure my last letter from him was received on january 9 1957 waldo hancock logan died on january 11 1957 in miami florida at the age of 58. he was a true treasure hunter and had spent a large part of his life in search and actual hunting and surveying locations and he was well known in his field he was one of those adventurous men who work and dream and now that he has gone on the great adventure may his spirit be with those of the pirates and buccaneers he knew so well the author has in his possession unpublished information

written by walder logan on details of procedure for further work on mona island which might be valuable to future expeditions this information will be held private and not released except by the approval and permission of his ears so if you're really serious about it you better contact his ears and see if they'll let you have the information the attempt made by uh the falcon captain george churchill to find the silver shoals treasure guardians was taken from three-page manuscript letter uh from on board his majesty ship the falcon jamaica ss 14th 1683

signed general churchill see the man who missed the boat in manuscript volume eight number three spring 1956 page 153 157 the original letter is now in the pierpoint morgan library in new york the details of the captain phipps treasure are told in the hispaniola treasure by cyrus carracco

university of pennsylvania in philadelphia in 1934 coin contains a fine blog bibliography of sources now the reason why i mentioned sir william phipps is because uh he was the most successful treasure hunter of all times and i have another piece coming up regarding him he was a poor boy of new england who became governor and was knighted because of his salvage from the los spanish galleons on silver shoals his adventures and his success of of finding those uh salvaging those treasures is legendary and was the basis of many tales and books if you do enjoy fiction uh based on fact you can read silver shorts by hamilton cochrane

in any any case william phipps was actually ready for his next adventure his main aim was to find that solid gold table and he would not undertake such adventure if he didn't know the chances were very high to find it and it was not in deep waters as they did not have the the technology to dive deep so if he was ready to undertake this adventure this this new search and he was apparently having a lot of good information then it is very possible probably to find it still

now more in regards to that island so someone found emerald and a diamond in one of the caves right in the center of that island just be aware that if you go there you will not gonna find good or clean facilities as of that riding and the last information was that you could camp there you could set up a camp uh but you have to find out what the current uh regulations are so

this island is considered the most important for treasure hunter this this is crossroads of buccaneers and it is believed that it could yield a great treasure estimated of about 110 million dollars in the old money we talked about 50 years ago there are at least that we know of two other treasure hordes on the island one is possibly the remains of the cash from which a beachcomber digging in the sand took uh forty thousand dollars in 1935 another one is believed to be discovered but the finder went insane and was removed without giving any sensible information the island a favorite pirate hideout had an earthquake in 1700s and is partly covered with dense jungle the beaches are wide and were used in pirate days for careening and crowsing the pirates took over the fort built by the spanish it was natural that some pirates would use the island as a deposit box for the tons of loot so

it is definitely a place to go if you have the ability of course bring some good metal detectors and other equipment uh treasure searching equipment of course there is um on this island there is a single cave that formed the entrance to an inner treasure-filled cover

and it was blocked with the dirt and was the doorway was covered by a huge flat stone cunningly filled

obviously they were trying to hide that treasure the pirates in a way that no ordinary visitor would find it

but then on top of that there was uh denote detonated large amounts of dynamite and the dirt above the entrance covered this this area at the entrance and they say it would take 50 hard-working people working about a month to uncover that face of the entrance of the cave

so uh another reference to it it it talks about that during a war a german submarine uh fired two new shells into the cave thinking it is a military installation before leaving and said uh logan friend of robert nesmet author of dig for pirate treasure and i quote i have altered the landscape enough to make the correct location possible to detect and i have a complete plan of attacking case i find it possible to return the treasure consists of piles of thick golden coins blackened pieces of eight rubies from the minds of mogok emeralds and pearls etc now here's another reference to the cave and i quote there is one cave on mona known as the pirate cave it is a magnificent piece of natural architecture within recesses and long low passages leading away into a mysterious distance stalactites and stalagmatites line up like groups of organ tubes screening entrances to rooms that open up new vistas of beauty

the peculiarity of pirate cave is the ghostly light that is shed throughout its mysterious precinct the light is pale shimmering yellowish green and comes from the phosphorus in the damp walls imagine just to find yourself in a place like that here's another source that continues my quote and the caries of the rough boxes of silver pieces were happy and unobservant as as they staggered down long passes through them lit holes and down to the lower recesses of the further reaches of the cavern this describes actually uh

placing the treasure placing those many boxes of silver and perhaps gold into that cave at length they came to um let me just get the best part at length they came to a low voltage room through which a small stream ran where the stream passed over a sort of natural aqueduct a small grotto was disclosed by the latter held by the pirate chief there in the dry recess under the stream's bed the boxes of spanish coins were laid away good luck hunting if you enjoyed this program please subscribe like it and share