The Con Man and the Deep State Galleon: 40 years to discovery

On the Island of Assateague on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, there lives a unique breed of wild horses that are genetically tied to a Spanish breed. In 1947, Marguerite Henry, a popular children’s author, wrote Misty of Chincoteague, a story about the wild ponies of Assateague Island and the people of neighboring Chincoteague Island. Chincoteague has celebrated the horses' roundup with a festival and auction for centuries. Millions have read the book, which was adapted into a 1962 movie. The lure for Mrs. Henry to write the story was the legend that says the forbears of these horses swam ashore from a wrecked Spanish galleon centuries ago.
In September of 1750, the Spanish warship, La Galga, ran ashore on Assateague Island, Virginia. The Captain, Don Daniel Huony, wrote a letter to the Governor of Maryland describing the galleon’s location as “two ship lengths” north of the Maryland-Virginia border.
Like so many others, the author believed it would be a piece of cake to find the wreck. But when he didn’t, he was seduced by a con man who was looking for the galleon as well. The con man had other treasure ships in mind as well, but he baited potential investors with stories he had made up.
Soon enough, the author exposed the con man and resumed his search for La Galga. Failing to locate this easily discoverable shipwreck, the author located a survey in the county courthouse that had been prepared for the federal government for its planned takeover of Assateague Island in 1943. This survey proved that La Galga was actually buried in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. The author then informed federal agencies where the wreck would be found. They did nothing about it.
In 1998, Sea Hunt, Inc. claimed it had found the wreck. But it was a mile north of the historic boundary line documented in the federal 1943 survey. The wreck they found was an American merchant wrecked in 1852.
Sea Hunt filed its reckless claim in federal court, and the federal government notified Spain and lured them into the litigation, promising Spain free representation by the Department of Justice.
The litigation ended with an award of the wreck to Spain, without the court being presented with any evidence of its alleged discovery.
What the federal government and Spain won was a legal precedent to be used in future cases of treasure discovery. In 2010, Spain used it effectively to recover 17 tons of silver from a Spanish warship sunk off Portugal in 1802, which Odyssey Marine Exploration had salvaged. The Sea Hunt precedent is presently being used to bolster Spain’s claim to the San José, the richest shipwreck ever found.
In 2008, the author hired professional archaeologists to pinpoint the location of La Galga within the Refuge. The government refused to address the application for six years, while they ran to the Spanish Embassy for help to block the author’s permit application. The author later filed a new application pinpointing the wreck in a mound located within 200 feet of the colonial boundary between Maryland and Virginia. The Deep State says that the author must admit that La Galga is Spanish property and obtain written permission from Spain before a permit will be issued. Spain had abandoned La Galga centuries ago.
Finding La Galga in the Refuge will destroy the ill-gotten precedent found in Sea Hunt, and while the prospect of treasure is dim, the author proves by a preponderance of the evidence that not only did the world-famous Assateague ponies come from La Galga, but La Galga was escorting the galleon Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, whose treasure was stolen at Ocracoke, North Carolina, and buried in the Caribbean, providing inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. One fleet, one fateful hurricane, would become the inspiration for two children’s classics in literature centuries later.