Reviews SHIP'S LOG DECIASSIFIED, THE TRUE JOURNEY CAN HOW BE TOLD.
T
his colorful memoir of a young officer's journey half way around the globe aboard a fighting Coast Guard man-o-war during WWII, includes the USS BISBEE as guide ship at the entrance to Leyte Gulf. Illustrated with archival photographs.watercolors and sketches this book is a "must have" for seafarers and marine historians.
Historic, antique U.S. , . Coast Survey maps . from the 1800s ; Original lithog raphs, most America n sea ports and shores. Reprints, too. Unique framed, great gi fts. Catalog, $1 .00. Specify area.
EXT VOYAGE •
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Will be Different
The Treasure of the San Jose. Death at Sea chival records do n ot reveal the precise loin the Wtzr of the Spanish Succession by cation of her sinking, but they do enable a Carla Rahn Ph illi ps Qohns Hopki ns Uni- reconstruction of the ship and provide data versity Press, Baltimore, M D , 2007, 258pp, on building practices, while advancing our illus, m aps, appen, biblio, index, ISBN 978- understanding of shipboard life. The Archi0-801 8-8 580-8; $35hc) vo General de Indias in Seville ho uses extenA story of! ost treas ure, shipwreck with sive fin ancial records that the author used to enormous loss oflife, adventure on the high establish condi tio ns of life aboard a Span ish seas, d rama in the law courts, and the dis- galleon . The British Archives hold records entangling of fact from fic tio n await the documenting the sinking of the ship, and reader of The Treasure of the P hillips used material from the British Pub li c Record San Jose. Mariti me histoTl l r-: rian Carla Rahn Phillips has O ffi ce and other archives to TR em ployed her research skills sketch a portrait of the fo ur and determination to proEnglish ships under Comm odore Charles Wager, who vide an account of perhaps ch allenged the sixteen-ship th e most fab led shipwreck '" in the Caribbean, the SpanSpanish fleet at the entrance to Cartagena harbor. The ish galleon San Jose. battle began the evening of In his book Love in the Time of Cholera (1 985), Co8 J une 1708 and las ted until lombian novelist Gabriel the fo llowing mo rni ng. The devastating loss of the San Garcia Marq uez wrote that the San Jose was sunk by an Jose and her nearly 600 men English squad ro n at the enis poignandy expressed in a trance to Cartagena de Indias in 1708 while table listi ng the names and particulars of the carrying a cargo of gold, silver and precious fo urteen survivors . gems valued at half a billion pesos. CuriMeanwhile, the English were not celously, in the English edi tion, this am ount ebrating their victory. Co mmodore Wager was increased to 500 billion th ro ugh a mis- bro ught charges against two of his three translation . For treasure hunters with vi- captains for their lack of zeal in batde and sions of the larger figures dancing in th eir for allowing the treasure-laden San Joaquin dreams, this was perhaps trou bling. But this to escape. There was also disappointment was only the begi nning of the revelations by in English circles that the San Jose had been Phillips concerning the value and signifi- sunk when she was known to be carrying a rich cargo. A court m artial co ncl uded that can ce of the San Jose. Phillips's revised estimates are certain- bo th captains should be rem oved from their ly unwelcome to those who have so ught to commands. And the treas ure? The Colombian Sufind and claim the ship. O ne gro up of treasure hunters reported that they spent $ 10- prem e Court has ruled against the salvo rs, 12 million in the 1970s and 80s search - Sea Search A rmada, and perhaps even ing fo r the w reck. More recent initiatives against Spain. The court determined the San have surfaced, th eir efforts complicated Jose to be part of their national patrimony. by claims o n the San Jose fro m the gov- The reporting, h owever, was unreliable, and ernments of Spai n and Colombia. These no evidence was produced to confirm that claims are of interest because of Spain's the wreck had actually been found. This increasing efforts to recover her maritim e decision m akes it unlikely that Colombia heri tage, especially h isto ric shipwrecks will sign the UNESCO agreement on the laden with valuable cargoes. protectio n of underwa ter cultural heritage Maritime archaeologists hunger fo r the because that d ocument suppo rts the right info rmatio n so richly derailed in this study. of a state to claim its sunken property, even If the ship is never fo und nor her treasure within an other state's waters. excava ted, her story has been reclaim ed We have not heard the las t of the San thro ugh Phillips's efforrs. For Phillips, "the Jose. This is an excellent and timely book. men and the ship herself constitute the real T IMOTH Y J. R UNYAN historical treasure of th e San Jose." The arGRÂŁEENVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA SEA HISTfORY 123, SUMMER 2008