The Lost Fleet (26 page)

Authors: Barry Clifford

BOOK: The Lost Fleet

12.6Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

2. In 1891, workmen reportedly discovered “a quantity of elephant tusks, silver coins and gold doubloons” while digging under Paine's house, then owned by the Vose family. Robert S. Cahill,
New England's Pirates and Lost Treasures
(Peabody, Mass.: Chandler Smith, 1987), p. 22.

C
HAPTER
39

1. I later learned that, in one instance, Charles had begun gold-mining operations six years before his permits went into effect, and that in 1984 he had been arrested by the Venezuelan national guard for gold mining in a prohibited area and exporting Venezuelan fauna while using unsalaried Indians as workers. See Tierney,
Darkness in Eldorado,
pp. 153â56.

Acknowledgments

The success of any underwater archaeological survey expedition depends on the help of many individuals and organizations. Aside from the members of the actual project team such as Todd Murphy, Chris Macort, Cathrine Harker, Eric Scharmer, Carl Tiska, and Margot Nicol-Hathaway, I also want to thank Antonio Casado, Pedro Mezquita, Dr. John de Bry, and especially Max Kennedy for sharing with me his boyhood dream of finding the Lost Fleet.

Credit for bringing the Lost Fleet from the reefs of Las Aves to the world's living rooms is due to the BBC and the Discovery Channel. Special thanks are owed to Mike Quattrone, Mike Rossiter, Rebecca Lavender, and the production teams.

In many ways, a book is like an expeditionâit is never the work of one person. I would like to thank my agent, Nat Sobel; Jim Nelson for his work; Diane Reverend and Dan Conaway for their encouragement and support; and Matthew Guma and Nikola Scott for their cheerful and unflagging efforts in the book's production.

Most especially, my gratitude to Ken Kinkor, project historian, comrade, and friend, without whom this book would not have been possible.

About the Author

B
ARRY
C
LIFFORD
, an underwater explorer for the past four decades, is the coauthor of
Expedition “Whydah
” and
Return to Treasure Island and the Search for Captain Kidd.
His projects have also been the subject of numerous television documentaries by such organizations as the National Geographic Society and the Discovery Channel. When not on expeditions overseas, he directs Expedition Whydah Sea Lab & Learning Center, a museum he founded in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in 1996. He is a member of the Explorers' Club and a Discovery QUEST Scholar.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

P
RAISE
FOR
B
ARRY
C
LIFFORD'S
The Lost Fleet

“One of Clifford's bestâ¦. A surprising picture of what it was like to be a high-seas rogue before the turn of the eighteenth century.”

â
Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)

“Entertainingâ¦. A fascinating investigation of the life of seventeenth-century pirates.”

âPublishers Weekly

“A thoroughly enjoyable and aptly recommended read.”

âBooklist

P
RAISE
F
OR
Expedition “Whydah”

“Teems with a wealth of insight into life on the high seas as Clifford reveals all you would ever want to know about Bellamy's adventuresâ¦. Clifford's search for the
Whydah
makes for an entertaining tale: that of a likable rogue moving ever closer to uncovering the history of a time long gone, a time when pirates roamed the eastern seaboard proud and free.”

âBoston Herald

“Readers drawn into the dangerous straits of this quest will find themselves exhilarated as the pirate ship at last yields up her secrets.”

âNational Geographic Adventure
magazine

“Cliffordâ¦fills his account with a great deal of information that should appeal to readers with fond memories of
Treasure Island
and
Robinson Crusoe.”

âBooklist

“An adventurer, enchanted since his youth by pirate Black Sam Bellamy's role in the
Whydah
shipwreck, realizes his destiny is to find the
Whydah
and its treasureâ¦. The real-life story is full of entertaining detail: pirate history, nautical lore, the dangerous work of sea salvage.”

âBoston
magazine

A
LSO BY
B
ARRY
C
LIFFORD

Return to Treasure Island and the Search for Captain Kidd

Expedition “Whydah”

Copyright

Images not available for electronic edition.

THE LOST FLEET
. Copyright Â© 2002 by Barry Clifford. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Adobe Digital Edition August 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-196801-3

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1