Before anchoring off the seven islands, Pinzon already had discovered the Amazon River and had taken red pearls off the island of Margarita. ''Pinzon wrote he could see seven islands in a crescent shape from his mast, and that's when I said to John, 'we've got it,' '' recalled Mr. In a journal recording a later trip, Pinzon referred to anchoring his four-boat fleet off an area known as the ''Bajos de Babulaca,'' or dangerous shallow waters, on the ''seven islands of the Baneque north of Haiti.'' Later he found a reference to such a crescent while reading an account of the voyage by Vincente Pinzon, who belonged to one of the wealthy ship-building families in Spain and had been the captain of Columbus's Nina in 1492. What he saw were ''seven little humps, the high points on the islands, in a crescent shape on the horizon.'' Frick stumbled across another piece of the puzzle while observing the island group from the 70-foot-high crow's nest of his salvage ship. This dated the wreck before 1550, after which iron and lead together were used in the manufacture of cannonballs. Later they returned and removed two cannonballs, which turned out to be solid lead. Gasque removed two early cannons that first trip. Wood also believed to be part of the hull has been seen in the seabed by a number of explorers. Frick were searching the area for wrecks five years ago. The object of this intense rivalry appears as a pile of ballast rock covered with coral on the ocean floor 30 feet below the surface. Desautels and her group continue to voice anger over their inability to pursue the Pinta, contending they knew its whereabouts before the institute did and, in fact, provided the information that would eventually make it possible for Dr. However, it was unclear to him when a contract would be in hand so he could go ahead with the work. Bass said last week that he had reached an oral agreement with the authorities. The salvage contract for the site believed to be the Pinta, he said, was to be given to the institute but was not yet drawn up. He expressed some displeasure at the length of time the job had taken so far. But in a recent telephone interview Stanford Missick, the Minister of Economic Development, said Caribbean Ventures' contract had been terminated. George Bass, president of the institute, will not speak to the specifics of the case because of the legal fight, but he unhesitatingly expressed his qualms about allowing professional treasure hunters, rather than scientists, the right to excavate valuable historical wrecks.Īll three groups contend they have valid contracts with the Turks and Caicos administration. They assert that the institute maligned their ability to handle the job professionally.ĭr. The two men have been negotiating with businessmen for books, films and even computer games based on their expedition. Gasque, whose firm Caribbean Ventures is located in Key West, Fla., said last week they and their backers intend to file a $100 million suit against the institute for damages to their program to salvage the wreck. The team countered that they had permission to be where they were and intended to continue the fight. Desautels said she and Roger Miklos, her treasure hunting partner, and their 20-man team left Turks and Caicos waters abruptly last week after charges against them were filed by a representative of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, a nonprofit group affiliated with Texas A&M University and an influential archeological organization.Īmong other things, the institute charged the team had been on a site claimed by the institute. ''And everything you bring up has to be properly preserved or it's not worth anything,'' she said.ĭr. Nancy Desautels, an archeologist from Santa Ana, Calif. ''Possibly the local people will attempt salvage, thinking anything they get off it will be worth millions of dollars, not knowing it has to be proven first,'' said Dr. Since then, for reasons not made publicly clear, he has lost his Turks and Caicos contract to excavate and others have learned of the site. Frick knew the site and was working on verification. Gasque returned to the reef and discovered what they believe to be the wreck of the Frailia, the second ship that sank. While the ships were anchored off the Caicos Islands in 1500, a hurricane struck, causing two to founder. Olin Frick and John Gasque, the two treasure hunters who found the wreck in 1976, say the records show the Pinta was part of a four-boat fleet that left Spain for the New World in 1499. The Pinta, which was once believed to have disappeared from history after the first voyage led by Columbus, may actually have foundered eight years later on Molasses Reef, part of the West Caicos Bank in the waters of the British crown colony, according to material unearthed in the Spanish archives.
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