?La Madalena?

In 1563, the 250 ton galleon, ?La Madalena,? commanded by Capt. Cristobel Rodriquez, was returning to Spain from Veracruz, Mexico and Havana. She was cast up on a shoal during a bad storm in Mexico gulf and of the 300 odd souls aboard her, only 16 survived in the small-boat. At the time she carried over 50 tons of silver in bullion and specie (coins), 170 boxes of worked silver (like candle sticks, plates, etc.), 1,110 pounds of gold in small ingots and jewelry, plus other valuables belonging to passengers. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, all of her cannon were bronze. This makes finding her more difficult as a magnetometer can only detect ferrous metals. Hopefully she went down with some of her iron anchors still aboard. The good side is that bronze cannon from this period, depending on the amount of ornamentation and markings on them, can bring as much as $30,000 each and she carried 28 of them. Six months after being lost a salvage vessel was sent up from Havana but failed to find any traces of her or her cargo. A shrimp boat snagged into a bronze cannon in the general area she was lost and the gun just happens to date from this period. The gun was sold to a private collector for $15,000 but could have netted twice this amount if sold to a museum or in an auction. Another bronze cannon was also accidentally brought up in a shrimper's net within two miles of the other, but it dated from the mid-1770's and was from another wreck. Within five miles from where both guns were found, a chest of some 3,000 Spanish four and eight real coins, dating between 1748 and 1751 were also accidentally brought up in a shrimper's net.

Good reading

Luc

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,15244.msg97683.html#msg97683

Hey Harluck

Thanks you, I'm not diver but but with the number of shipwrecks and treasure under the sea to be discovered, why not learn to dive .....  :

Luc


Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,15244.msg97871.html#msg97871

Hello luc and Idaho Jones

I used to dive until I had a burst esophagus at about 20m, filling my lungs with stomach acid. Took a very long time to recover from that one. These days I research and direct others to have all the fun.

Hardluck 

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,15244.msg97880.html#msg97880

Very welcome Luc I love these stories and the mystery behind them.
 
Dang Hardluck, I was all set to look at diving classes till you brought that up. That sounds like a very painful experience guys. 

I remember watching a Titanic documentary where Bob Ballard was going down in the sub with some other scientists. It's like a 6 hour descent if I recall, and he noticed that everyone was glued to the tv monitor and no one was looking out the portholes. I believe his comment was something like "Hey I could be watching the TV in the ships control room..." Maybe staying topside isn't so bad.

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,15244.msg97893.html#msg97893

Hello goldnboy

Nice to read you

Good day

Luc

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,15244.msg97897.html#msg97897