Cindy Vallar's Blog - Posts Tagged "national-archives"

Hidden Galleon: The True Story of a Lost Spanish Ship and the Legendary Wild Horses of Assateague Island by John Amrhein Jr.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A sunken Spanish ship. Legendary ponies. A barrier island off the Virginia coast. These are ingredients that inspired Marguerite Henry to craft what became a well-known children’s story, Misty of Chincoteague.

Oftentimes, legends have their basis in fact. As centuries pass, divining what is truth and what is fiction becomes difficult. Research plays a key role in this endeavor, as this narrative clearly demonstrates. In this case, the journey begins at the National Archives in Washington, DC. Amrhein discovers a letter, written by a Spaniard, to Maryland’s governor in 1750. The information leads Amrhein to believe it will be easy to find what remains of the sunken vessel. (Yes, that incident actually occurred.) It also leaves him with an unanswered question: If finding the wreck is so simple, why has no one done so? As he soon learns, his supposition is anything but easy. The journey will span years and involve a court-martial, a con man, a ship that never sets sail, fraud, uncooperative governments, and legal battles.

The true beginning of this voyage is neither the ponies nor the hunt for a hidden shipwreck. It starts in August 1750 in Havana, Cuba, where Don Daniel Huony is the captain of La Galga de Andalucia, a worn-out warship built nearly two decades earlier. She can carry 632 tons worth of cargo and measures 120 feet from stem to stern, but numerous tweaks and modifications have left her less seaworthy than in her early days. After taking on cargo and passengers, including English prisoners taken captive by Spanish privateers, La Galga escorts five merchants on their journey to Spain. It is late in the year to be voyaging, but delays have left Huony little choice. They encounter a hurricane soon after their departure, which scatters the fleet. La Galga successfully navigates the seething water and wind until Assateague Island, where she strikes an impediment that damages her hull. Unable to stem the water flowing into the ship, Huony orders those aboard to abandon ship; all but five make it to shore.

Amrhein uncomplicates a series of convoluted episodes from recent and distant history to provide readers with a comprehensive and straightforward account that fascinates and astonishes. To further enhance the reading experience, he provides endnotes, a bibliography, an index, illustrations, diagrams, charts, and two sections of color plates. For those who enjoy mysteries and tales of searching for shipwrecks, The Hidden Galleon masterfully achieves both.


This review originally appeared inPirates and Privateers (March 2023) at http://www.cindyvallar.com/adultpirat...



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