Sunken Ships and Tales of Treasures

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Shipwrecks and treasure have inspired adventurers through the years. Whether it's the hunt or the hunger for riches, it's an obsession that can last a lifetime. Some ships have been found, others not, however they all share an air of mystery that haunts the imagination.

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The ship Keuka

Keuka
The ship was constructed in 1889 and was christened the A. Stewart. These barges were usually towed behind steamships, and the A. Stewart worked in tandem with the Buell as they hauled lumber mostly out of upstate New York. 

In 1927, Captain James Gallagher of the Wolverine Steamship Co. bought both boats and moved them to Boyne City, Michigan. The A. Stewart was renamed to the Keuka, and the Buell became the Elmira. He tried hauling lumber with them, but the ships were in need of repair, so he moved them to Boyne City, Michigan.

The Elmira burned down at the Boyne City dock in 1930, and the Keuka was converted into a party boat that in the summer would be towed around the lake, but then would be moored back at Boyne City.

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The Keuka was brought to the pier at Boyne City before being made into a floating dance and gambling pavilion.

The Keuka was advertised as a floating pavilion, with a dance floor that measured ninety-five feet by thirty feet. There was a restaurant and also an orchestra. The steamship Ossian Beddell towed it from town to town and then offshore. The ship was supposedly supplied by Al Capone with booze during Prohibition. Illegal gambling and drinking catered to the common folk of the area. Once passengers were picked up from the dock, it drifted off to the middle of the lake, making it difficult for police to raid the place. Rumors though were that authorities were paid off to look the other way.

Despite its popularity as she toured around the lake, she was badly in need of repair, and had to be pumped out daily. The caretaker which was to take care of this was paid in whiskey.

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Interior of the Keuka, originally designed to a skating rink then ultimately made into a dance hall (Source - Charlevoix Historical Society)

The beginning of the end started on December 30, 1930. Edward Latham, a manager for the casino was shot in the stomach when he stepped between two patrons — Ellsworth M. Ballant a 22-year-old flyer, and an unnamed man who were fighting on board the ship. It was Ballant who did the shooting. Latham was taken to the hospital in critical condition, and the law caught up to Ballant two days later. 

What became of Ed Latham is unknown, but in 1955, Ellsworth Ballant was operating a passenger airplane service from Emmet County Airport. His plane the Spirit of Petoskey made runs into lower Michigan.

After the shooting Capt. Gallagher shut down the Keuka. On August 14, 1932 she mysteriously sank in about 50 feet of water.

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Shooting on the Keuka c.Dec. 1931

There were several rumors as to how the Keuka ended up at the bottom of the lake. They were: the city's leading ladies that belonged to the Women's Christian Temperance Union had it sunk; the old ship was more a liability than anything else, and the owner wanted to get rid of it and away from the attention of the "revenuers" aka the IRS; or according to Loton Willson, 82, a one-time sax player on the dance boat, who said in a 1991 interview that a boiler fire was to blame.

​Soon after her demise the masts on the ship were dynamited since they were considered a hazard.

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Wreck of the Keuka c.2022 (Source - Chris Roxburgh)

​For almost a hundred years the ship has lain under the surface of Lake Charlevoix, right off Ferry Beach.

Measuring close to 200 feet in length and two stories in height, the uppermost part of the vessel is visible just 15 feet below the surface. Throughout the years it became a favorite diving spot, and scavenger took souvenirs.  The wooden rudder was brought to the surface and became the piano bar top at the Weathervane Restaurant. It's since been sold, and its whereabouts are unknown.

In 1960, Anthony Robbins, 23, drowned while skin diving to see the Keuka. He was with a group of divers, and it was believed he suffered a cramp. Robbins was to have been married the following month.

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Columbus' shps

The Santa Maria
In August, 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail with a crew of 86 men from southern Spain. He had three ships under his command: La Santa Clara (Niña), La Pinta and La Santa Gallega (Santa Maria). The Santa Maria was the cargo and flag ship of the three. The other two were small and swift and known as caravels, each carrying less than 30 crewmen a piece.

On December 24, 1492, the helmsman on the Santa Maria left a cabin boy at the wheel so he could take a nap. Unsurprisingly the ship sailed into a reef on the coast of what would become Haiti on Christmas Day.

Crewmen and Taino natives helped to empty the hold. They also took timbers from it to build Villa de la Navidad, the first Spanish settlement in the New World.  The hull of the vessel sank the following day.

Columbus named the island Hispaniola. With only two caravels left to sail back to Spain, he left 39 of the crew behind. Upon his return a year later he found the fort destroyed with no sign of any inhabitants. It was presumed they were massacred by one of the tribes. They could also have been victims of disease or internal fighting.

There might be different reasons why the Santa Maria has not been found. The warm waters in which it sank is rife with shipworms known as the "termites of the sea". They eat exposed wooden wrecks in the span of 10 years. There were also innumerable hurricanes that passed over the island throughout the years. Due to storms and land use the coastlines have changed.

For over 500 years the location of the Santa Maria has eluded underwater explorers. A discovery in 2014, turned out to be a ship of the 17th century, and so as of today, what's known as the Holy Grail of shipwrecks remains undiscovered.

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Large carrack c.1558

Flower of the Sea (Flor do Mar, Flor de la Mar)
She was a large, 3-masted carrack, built for rough seas and long voyages. She had 50 guns, and a crew of 500 men.

Built in 1502, her purpose was to traverse the route known as Carreira da India, used by the Portuguese Indian Armadas to carry officials, troops, missionaries, colonists and to engage in the spice trade.

On her maiden voyage she sprung a leak around Cape Correntes along the Mozambique Channel, and had to stop at Mozambique Island for repairs. She was loaded with spices, and didn't return to Portugal until 1503.

She became one of 22 ships which made up the 7th Portuguese India fleet. On the return trip, she again was forced to anchor in Mozambique for repairs that took 10 months. Her large size and weight made her hard to maneuver in the fast currents of the Mozambique Channel. Her commander João da Nova, tried repeatedly to take her out, but the heavily laden ship would spring another leak, and he was forced to turn back for more repairs.

Due to the problems encountered by the Flor de la Mar, captains of heavy-laden large ships were ordered to avoid returning via the fast Mozambique Channel, but rather sail a longer but calmer course east of Madagascar known as the "outer route".

In 1506, a fleet of 15 Portuguese ships were sent to conquer the island of Socotra and close the trade to the Red Sea. They arrived in Mozambique and integrated the Flor de la Mar into the fleet. They unloaded her cargo onto another Portugal-bound ship. The Flor de la Mar was never to dock in Portugal again.

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Alfonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa

Between 1506 and 1511, the ship was part of the effort to conquer the cities of Curiati, Khor Fakkan, Ormuz, Kalhat, Sohar, Goa and Malacca.

In 1511, Mahmud Shah, as the Sultan of Malacca fled to the Malay Peninsula. The Flor de la Mar was loaded with all the treasure left behind in the royal palace, and set out for the court of King Manuel in Lisbon.

It's believed part of the cargo was a tribute from the King of Siam, along with the personal fortune of Afonso de Albuquerque who commanded the squadron of ships. Part of this was the bracelet of the Rajah of Sabandar.

Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa (1453–1515) was a Portuguese general, admiral, and statesman. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across the Indian Ocean and built a reputation as a fierce and skilled military commander.

A storm caught the ship in the Strait of Malacca and wrecked it on some shoals. It broke in two, and Albuquerque survived by clinging to a raft, but most of the crew drowned.

As to what happened to the immense treasure there are different stories. Later Albuquerque wrote, "The monies in gold, silver, copper and tin are coined in Malacca. Much of the tin money was lost in the Flor de la Mar." A possibility is that locals took the loot, and another is that it was covered by sediment and carried out to sea.

The estimated value of the treasure is $2.6 billion. Portugal, Indonesia, and Malaysia all claim salvage rights.

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Portuguese Nau or Carrack, Frans Huys 1555

Cinco Chagas (Five Wounds)
The Cinco Chagas was a Portuguese nau (carrack), built in Goa in a dockyard known as Ribeira Grande.

The vessel set out on its maiden voyage in 1593, and carried a crew of 1,400. It was believed she was overloaded, and she wintered in Mozambique. It was found she was in poor condition.

Goa was conquered by Alfonso de Albuquerque in 1510, and it became the capital of the Portuguese State of India. Situated on the Malabar coast, it would remain under Portuguese control until 1961.

In 1594, the Cinco Chagas sunk during the Anglo-Spanish War. It was set on fire and the English killed five hundred people, sparing only 13 of the crew. They described the ship as the most rich-laden vessel to sail from the East Indies.

According to the only eyewitness account available, written by Melchior Estácio do Amaral in 1604:

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The sea was purple with blood dripping from the scuppers, the decks cluttered with the dead and the fire raging in some parts of the ships, and the air so filled with smoke that, not only we could sometimes not see each other but we could not recognize each other.

Before burning and sinking the Cinco Chagas had lost a considerable amount of crew and passenger to plague

The cargo on the ship included goods salvaged from two other ships, the Santo Alberto and Our Lady of Nazareth, along with their crews. What the Cinco Chagas carried in her hold was estimated to be more than 2,000,000 ducats. There were also 22 treasure chests of diamond, rubies and pearls that present-day would be worth $15-20 billion. The treasures were being sent to the King of Spain and Portugal.

The treasure is believed to lie over one mile deep in the Atlantic Ocean, 18 miles south of Pico Island and Faial. The depth of where the Cinco Chagas lies off the coast of the Azores has made it difficult to search for her.

Francesco Vendramin, Venetian ambassador to Spain, came from a rich merchant family. In 1619, he would be made a cardinal. As a historian, his account of the loss of the Cinco Chagas was kept in the Italian archives. He described it this way:

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The trouble caused by the English is felt more acutely every day at Lisbon. A ship, the richest that ever sailed from the East Indies was lost the other day... It was the largest of the four or five that were expected from the East India ports, and also the best armed, was laden with a cargo worth upwards of 2 millions in gold, not only in pepper and drugs, but in a large quantity of oriental pearls, jewels and other precious goods...

The captain tempted by greed, took on board four hundred blacks whom he intended to sell in Spain. The heat and overcrowding brought on the plague, of which upwards of 500 persons died in 10 days. Besides the blacks there were on board 300 passengers, chiefly Italian and Portuguese merchants.

After this terrible mortality, the ship began to draw near the Azores, were she was exposed to the fire of three English corsairs, who followed her up for two whole days with a heavy cannonade. The English drew close and managed to board her with 25 men, but these were all cut to bits.

Seeing there was no hope of capturing her, as she was now in sight of the Azores, the English resolved to fire with Greek fire which was applied to many parts of the ship at once and then uniting made a tremendous flame, in the midst of which she went down with crew and cargo, and not a thing fell into the hands of the English.
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I hear that the loss among only four of the merchants amounts to 600.000 ducats and the total reaches 2.000.000.

Vue de Goa 1752 by Jacques Nicolas Bellin depicting the Ribeira Grande and its adjoining dockyards

The Cinco Chagas was built at the Ribeira Grande, a dockyard in Goa. The Bom Jesus and Madre de Deus were built here as well. It later became known as the Arsenal da Marinha, which was situated in a greater compound, flanked on the East by the Ribeira das Gales, on the West by the Cais de Santa Catarina or Quay of St. Catherine. Further West was the bustling Cais de Fortaleza de Vice-rei or Quay of the Viceroys sandwiched between the Mandovi River and the Viceroy’s Palace. The dockyard continued to function all the way until the 19th century. 

The dockyard excelled in constructing ships for trade and war, and aided in the Portuguese colonial expansion in the East.

José Nicolau da Fonseca, a traveler who visited Goa in 1878, had this to say about the state of the Quay of the Viceroys: 

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A luxuriant but lonely grove of palm trees stands now on the site of this once busy pier, which measured about seven hundred paces in length and two hundred in breadth. There is nothing at present to show the once flourishing conditions of these places. Instead of the bustle that once prevailed here, a complete silence now reigns, broken only by the wind whistling through the branches of the palm-trees which grow luxuriantly on the spot.

The San José was attacked and sunk by the British, as depicted in this 18th-Century painting

San José
The Spanish galleon San Jose was a 64-gun, three-masted, three-decked galleon, about 128 feet in length and 40 feet across the beam, built and launched in San Sebastián in the Basque Country in 1698. In 1708, it was anchored off Isla de Barú along with the rest of the treasure fleet that was preparing to sail for Spain after a stop in Cartagena, Colombia. Four British ships fired upon the galleons. The Kingston fired on the San Joaquin, the San Jose's sister ship, but after two hours of battle the San Joaquin escaped without surrendering.

Then the San Jose came under fire from the Expedition the largest of the British ships. After an hour of fighting, a cannonball hit the San Jose's powder magazine and it sank within minutes. Since they were carrying so much valuable cargo, they also had a lot of ordnance on board. Only 11 of its 600 crew members were saved.

The Spanish might have lost their treasure, but so did the English. The captains of the Kingston and another British ship, the Portland, were later court-martialed for allowing the San Joaquín to escape.

The treasure that sank with the ship included seven million pesos, 116 steel chests full of emeralds and 30 million gold coins. It is estimated to be worth billions of dollars. It's not surprising that because of its value many have staked a claim to it. From US salvage companies to indigenous groups in South America. The case is before the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague.

The Colombian government wants to raise and display the  ship in a museum, but others point out the commercial value of the cargo.

Archaeologists say the wreck should stay where it is in consideration of the 600 people who perished when it was sunk by the British. Sitting 2,000 feet below the surface, the ship became their tomb.

In the 1980s the US salvage company Glocca Mora found it, and tried to partner with the Colombian government to share in the expense of raising it and split the proceeds, however they could not agree and a legal battle ensued.

In 2015, the Colombians said they found the ship without the information provided in the 1980s by the Americans. They state the Glocca Mora now known as Sea Search Armada, has no right to any of the ship or its treasures.

The Spaniards have also staked a claim since the ship and its goods belonged to the Spanish state when it sank.

Indigenous groups from Bolivia and Peru claim ownership, since they believe the Spanish plundered the treasure from Andean mines during the colonial period.

According to Samuel Flores a representative of the Qhara Qhara people, "That wealth came from the mines of Potosí in the Bolivian highlands. This cargo belongs to our people – the silver, the gold – and we think it should be raised from the sea bed to stop treasure hunters looting it. How many years have gone by? Three hundred years? They owe us that debt."

Presently the San Jose is one of about 3 million sunken vessels, most who have no clear indication as to owns them. This would include the rights to explore and salvage any treasure on board.

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A depiction of the Nossa Senhora do Cabo.

Nossa Senhora do Cabo (Our Lady of the Cape)
In July, 2025 archaeologists announced the discovery of the Nossa Senhora do Cabo (Our Lady of the Cape), a shipwreck located at Ilôt Madame, off the coast of Sainte-Marie Island, Madagascar, an area once known as a haven for pirates.

In 1721, the Portuguese treasure ship was captured by Olivier Levasseur a.k.a. La Buse (The Buzzard) and John Taylor, both pirates. Levasseur refitted the vessel, and renamed her the Victorieux. For some unknown reason he abandoned, partially burned and scuttled the ship in the waters where it was found.

Over 3,300 artifacts including exported Chinese porcelain, religious artifacts, coins, cowrie shells and other items have been recovered from the wreck. These items correspond with lists of the cargo and route of the Nossa Senhora do Cabo.

The discovery was the result of 16 years of research by archaeologists Brandon Clifford and Mark Agostini, from the Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation.

The ship had sailed from the city of Goa, which carried not only 700-tons of goods, but the Bishop of Goa and the retiring Viceroy of Portugal. They were returning to Lisbon when a storm damaged the ship, and the mast had been ripped off. Afraid the ship would capsize, the crew had dumped all 72 cannons overboard, then anchored off Réunion island to undergo repairs, thus making it possible for the pirates to board her with little or no resistance.

The Viceroy of Goa, and 200 African slaves were ransomed from the pirates.

The pirates Taylor and Levasseur returned to Madagascar with the treasure. The loot was divided, and each pirate received at least $50,000 worth of golden Guineas, as well as 42 diamonds each. The ship’s cargo was worth about $138 million in today’s currency and included "gold and silver bars, coins, silks, religious artifacts, and an extraordinary array of precious stones."

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Statue of a Madonna recovered from the shipwreck believed to be Our Lady of the Cape c.2025

About this time, the pirates intercepted letters that a squadron of ships were enroute to hunt them down. Each took a ship, Levasseur the Cabo and Taylor the Cassandra. They sailed to Delagoa where they captured the fort, then in 1722, each went their own way.

Taylor reached the West Indies in 1723 and was pardoned by the governor of Portobello, a Spanish settlement in Panama, in exchange for the return of the Spanish ship the Cassandra. Taylor then worked for the Spanish government hunting down logwood cutters in the Caribbean. Taylor left Portobello and returned to his family at Jamaica, and they resettled in Cuba where he ran a plantation and a small trading post as late as 1744.

Levasseur came from a wealthy family and studied to become an architect. Louis XIV appointed him as a privateer for the French crown. At the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714, he was ordered home with his ship, and instead he joined the pirate company of Benjamin Hornigold in 1716. Eventually Levasseur went his own way and looted ships along the Brazilian coast. He then plundered ships in the Caribbean.

By 1720 he was pirating off the African coast, and an eye that had been wounded during the war, had become blind and he wore an eye patch. This was when he settled on the island of Sainte Marie, and partnered with other pirate captains John Taylor, Jasper Seagar and Edward England. 

Three years after the capture of the Cabo, Levasseur tried to negotiate an amnesty with the governor of Bourbon (present-day Reunion Island). This was an offer extended to all pirates, however the French government wanted a large portion of the loot he had stolen. Levasseur was more attached to the treasure than the amnesty, and he settled in secret on the Seychelles archipelago.

He was captured near Fort Dauphin, Madagascar and hanged on July 7, 1730 at Saint-Denis, Reunion.

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Charles de la Ronciere c.1935

In 1934, Charles de la Ronciere (1870-1941) a historian very familiar with the French navy and curator of the Department of Printed Documents at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, told a newspaper reporter he had studied a cryptogram which dated to the 18th century. De la Ronciere had written a book titled The Mysterious Filibuster that same year which told of his investigation into the origins of the puzzle and who had written it.

It told of a young unknown woman, later identified at Mme. Savy, originally from the Seychelles who came to the National Library of France, asking for a work called the Clavicles of Solomon, which is also known as the Key of Solomon or Clavicula Salomonis. This is a medieval grimoire attributed to King Solomon, but its true origin is a stuff of legend. It is a text of ritual practice that provides instructions for preparing for and conducting magical operations, including the use of formulas, symbols, and seals for self-defense, communication with spirits, and invoking or controlling demons. The text is often associated with the Testament of Solomon, which describes the ring that Solomon used to command demons.

She wanted to acquire The Key of Solomon in order to solve the cryptogram of a pirate. This cryptogram would be tied into where Levasseur hid his treasure. It's been hypothesized it could be in  Réunion, the Seychelles, Rodrigues, Madagascar, Mayotte and Sainte-Marie Island.

The legend surrounding the cryptogram is that when Levasseur stood on the gallows, only minutes from death he threw a necklace containing a 17-line-cryptogram into the crowd exclaiming: "Find my treasure, the one who may understand it!"

The necklace was lost but what became known as the Buse Cryptogram has defied time, and none have been able to decipher it. The story of Levasseur's speech prior to execution as well as the necklace and the cryptogram are not mentioned from any 18th century sources. Most believe the story is fiction. What is true, is the treasure he accumulated during his years as  pirate have never been found.

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Sources: Periodicals: Petoskey News Review, City Record Eagle, The Herald Press, The Indianapolis Times
     Amaral, Melchior Estacio Do (2010). Tratado das batalhas e sucessos do Galeão Sanctiago com os Olandeses na Ilha de Sancta Elena: e da náo Chagas com os Vngleses antre as Ilhas dos Açores. Nabu Press. ISBN 978-1149563519. (Portuguese)