Hello all
There is a treasure legend on Santa Catalina island off Californian coast. Could this legendary treasure be connected to a pirate attack of Baja in the 16th century?
The legend claims that a man called Samuel Prentiss, said to have been born in 1782 and who died in 1854 on Santa Catalina Island. According to the story, Samuel was a sailor who served on, and then deserted from, an American ship of war in Lima, Peru. Later he signed onto the bark "Danube" as a ship's carpenter. About 1824 Samuel Prentiss was shipwrecked on the bark "Danube" off what is now San Pedro in Los Angeles County.
Leaving the wreck, Samuel then walked along the coast to the San Gabriel Mission, he alegelly met an elderly or dying Pimungan indian Chief called Turia, who gave him a map marking buried Spanish gold on Santa Catalina Island. The Pimungan indians had lived on Catalina island for generations, but by the mid-1820 they were removed to, Mission San Gabriel on the mainland.
Samuel returned to San Pedro, built a makeshift boat from the wreckage of the "Danube" and sailed back to Santa Catalina Island, losing both his map and his provisions in a storm enroute to the Island. Samuel is said to have spent the next few years digging, fruitlessly, for the buried treasure. Another version claims he looked for a certain tree on the island and dug underneath that tree. However he could not find the alleged correct tree. Was he the victim of a cruel joke by the old indian or was there some thing more to the story?
Strange enough, there is a very old Spanish rumor that the treasure was buried there by some English pirates, possibly by rebelious crew members from the Thomas Cavendish expedition? It is known that Cavendish captured the Spanish treasure galleon, "Santa Ana," and its treasures off the coast of Baja California, and it is known that he had sailed north with his small pirate fleet.
The pirate ships was overflowing with gold pearls and silver and gems on their three small ships looted from raids and from the Manilia ship. To make their getaway across the pacific they badly needed to careen thier vessels. At on a certain place on the mexican coast while doing necesary repairs to thier vessels to make the long voyage across the Pacific, they were attacked by the Spanish. But the Spanish was repelled by the pirates after lossing 30 of their men. This left not enough men to man three vessels. Thus one was claimed to been scuttled coast in the southern Channel Island where part of the treasure and loot was buried on one of the islands.
Another version claims that part of crew was unhappy with thier share and took off with one of the ships. Their fate has never been fully established.
Thomas Cavendish was. born 1560 and died 1592. He sailed with Sir Richard Grenville’s expedition to America in 1585, and upon his return to England began to plan for his own circumnavigation of the globe, this time modeled on sir Francis Drake’s voyage. Cavendish sailed from Plymouth England with three ships in 1586, and generally followed Drake’s route of 1577-80 and reached the Cape Verde islands before starting to head West. He discovered Port Desire (now Puerto Desaedo) in Argentina. After passing through the strait of Magellan, he looted Spanish ships and settlements as far north as California before crossing the Pacific.
Cavendish stopped in the Philipinnes, Moluccas and Java before crossing the Indian Ocean. He rounded the Cape of Good Hope and arrived in Plymouth in the Fall of 1588 with only one ship left, but it was loaded to the brim with treasures. Cavendish had successfully circumnavigated the globe in 26 months, 7 months less time than it had taken Sir Francis Drake.
Cavendish after that success undertook another grand expedition, but died en route in 1592. Was he intending to return to the islands of Santa Catalina, where it it is alleged treasure was buried from the scuttled ship?
Was the alleged treasure map a relic from a pirate shipwreck sailor from the ship that deserted Cavendish with the knowege of buried treasure from the scuttled ship?
Interesting question! But the fact remains Samuel Prentiss failed in his search and by 1854 was reported dead. Just before he died, he told Stephen Bouchette, of the treasure. Bouchette began searching under trees. Needing capital, Bouchette staked a claim and announced he had found a rich vein. He secured generous backing, and spent more than $10,000 for extensive tunnels stretching overt 800 feet.
Some believe that his claim never produced any gold, but was only a ruse used to get loans to dig for the lost gold treasure. In 1878, he and his wife loaded all they could onto a sailboat and were never seen again. Experts are still unable to determine if they found the treasure, were lost at sea, or simply returned to the mainland.
The mystery still remains to sort out the the facts from the legends with this treasure legend. But perhaps Santa Catalina with its long intriguing history will one day give up some of her secrets.
Hardluck
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« Last Edit: May 17, 2012, 08:44:10 am by hardluck »
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