In Search of Spanish Treasure

Description

In Search of Spanish Treasure includes the stories of the excavations of ships ranging from a second-century Roman ship off Sicily to a nineteenth-century steamer off the North Wales coast, but most of the expeditions described were in search of some of the most important and historic ships of the Elizabethan era. in 1968/9, one of the flagships of the Spanish Armada, the Santa Maria de la Rosa, was excavated, and in 1970 another flagship, the Gran Griffin, was the subject of an expedition off Fair Isle, Scotland. The conclusions drawn from these excavations have substantiated the author's hypothesis that the inability of the Armada to inflict hull damage on any of Queen Elizabeth's ships was due to the poor quality of Spanish cast-iron shot. He also casts doubt upon Drake's almost legendary reputation as a captain and leader of men, comparing him unfavourably with Sir John Hawkins and Sir Richard Grenville. The excavations have generally been preceded by research in archives at home and abroad, and the lively accounts of the ships and their career reflect the thorough scholarship that accompanies underwater archaeology at its best. This research is often necessary to locate the approximate position of the wreaks in the first place, but it is equally important in enabling divers to interpret and piece together what they find. The accounts of the expeditions convey their excitement and frustration: how a fortune in gold bars was covered by shifting sands between dives; how Sir Richard Grenville's famous ship, Revenge, eluded the expedition after six months of intensive diving and a number of false discoveries; and of the long search for Drake's coffin off Porto Bello, where he died of dysentery in 1596. -- Inside jacket flap.

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