The Bitter End

By Captain J. Gary "Gator" Hill

Humans are curious creatures. We also love our lives to fit into compartments and follow orderly trains of thoughts and actions. But seldom does life fit into boxes, instead it sometimes runs willy-nilly along meandering paths. When chasing shipwrecks that is more often the case than not. In addition, time has little respect for our hopes and wishes, and when searching for and identifying lost ships or treasures, years, decades and sometimes centuries pass before the truth is brought forth.

Treasure hunter Mel Fisher spent over fifteen years in his search for the Atocha, a 17th century Spanish galleon found in the Florida Keys, holding treasure valued at over $400 million. During the years of searching, Fisher was often quoted as saying “Todays the day!” Many shipwreck hunters approach life with this attitude.

Tommy Gregory Thompson, an Ohio marine engineer, spent years researching the route of the SS Central America which sank off the South Carolina coast in 1857. What made the Central America a unique find (other than the gold valued at $150 million when it was found) was the economic panic that her sinking caused. Very much like the little incident with Ever Given, the Evergreen container ship that recently got stuck in the Suez Canal.

For me, shipwrecks don’t have to be laden with gold, their holds filled with gems and treasures plundered from around the world, to be significant. Sometimes it’s about the story.

Most of us have seen the movie Titanic, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, directed by James Cameron, but have you ever heard of Robert Ballard? Ballard was the lead guy involved in finding the wreck of the real Titanic. But did you know the search for the Titanic was a ruse? Yes, they did find her, but that wasn’t the mission. In 1985 when word broke that the Titanic had been found, everyone thought that years and years of scientific and nautical research had gone into it. Not so much. The search was a cover story for a naval operation trying to determine the state of and hopefully recover two Navy nuclear subs, the Thresher and the Scorpion, that were lost in the same area as the Titanic. The Navy was concerned about nuclear weapons left onboard as well as the impact of the reactors on the environment. A cover story was generated to throw the Russians off the scent.

Reminds me of a Clive Cussler novel.

Speaking of Clive Cussler, this author and marine researcher is credited with finding and recovering the CSS H.L. Hunley, America’s first submarine to successfully sink a warship. Cussler’s non-profit research organization, the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) is given credit for the find. I’ve visited the Hunley a few times through the years since she was first publicly displayed at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston. But I later learned of another story, just below the surface. Cussler says his team discovered the Hunley in 1995, however, a gentleman named E. Lee Spence says he discovered it in 1970 as a 12-year-old boy with homemade dive gear.

Let’s circumnavigate back to the ship artifacts found in the

A cannon recovered from the Savannah River in February. Photo by Captain J. Gary Hill

Savannah River. Is it the HMS Rose? It’s still a little early to tell. I would love for that to be the case as it would fit in a nice, neat, little compartment. However, this mystery is a long way from being answered, and we may never know with certainty. I think the pivotal information lies in what the artifacts reveal, and I hope to revisit this story down the road.

As always, peace and love, shrimp and grits, wash your hands, and I'll see you on the water!

Email: TheOriginalCaptainGator@gmail.com

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