TREASURE SHIPS AT THE TIP OF TEXAS
In the last ten years the Padre Island and "Tip of Texas" area has become known in treasure circles as the equal of the Florida Keys or The Silver Bank, one of the historic treasure fleets of all time was the one in 1553 which dumped the first sizeable number of Europeans in what is now these United State, and more especially Texas.
While no great amount of precious metal has been recovered, the artifacts in the residue are beyond valuation, purely as archaeological items. And it is this fleet which lends credibility to other treasure tales of this area.
Some facts have to be remembered as common to all these tales. Brazos Santiago Pass has always been at least partially blocked by a shifting sand bar of varying depth. There is probably not a foot of the Rio Grande that has not changed course radically in the last 125 years. Since 1910 the mouth of the Rio Grande has moved about three miles, and about five miles since the first hydrographic survey of 1853. There always was a sand bar at the river's mouth, but after the water flow diminished about 1910, the Gulf Stream carried the mouth some three miles to the north, parallel to the rest of the shore, where it is now crossed with a salt water barrier on account of the zero flow.
Some facts about river steamers are important to remember, too. The largest were only about 450 tons. It was absolutely essential that they be not over thirty inches draft fully loaded, on account of the shallow depth of the Rio Grande as well as the shallow water over the sand bars. The most efficient were side-wheelers, though many were stern-wheelers. At times it was necessary for the steamers to stay for months upstream because the water was too shallow top return, even with a reduced load. In other words, the water was less than two feet deep. Low water would last about half the year sometimes.
There are a few river steamers which are not on any list of treasure ships but deserve mention because I have seen the remains of them, and know about their condition and the river's. The Bessie, owned by a Captain Kelly and skippered by his son-in-law, Jesse Thornham, was abandoned between Fort Brown and Matamoros soon after the arrival of the railroad at the turn of the century. A couple more (names unknown) were abandoned when tied just upstream from the Missouri Pacific Bridge at Brownsville. Several lighters were scuttled near the pier at old Point Isabel, about the time of the railroad's arrival, where they finally disintegrated, I last saw them in the middle-twenties, practically rusted away. These could be a rule of thumb for the rest when and if they are found. Now let us get on with the list:
The extreme west end of an island that is 125 miles long and practically straight north and south-where would that be? Every Spanish ship is called a galleon by treasure authors (except me), such as the Santa Rosa, alleged to have two million and to have been scuttled in Matagorda Bay. Actually it was captured by Renato Beluche, Lafitte's cousin, off the coast of Haiti, where a cargo worth $40,000 was sold for $30,000 cash, for its load of island produce. All ships lost in this period were attributed to Lafitte, and are just about as doubtful as this one attributed to Lafitte.
Anson Jones: This one is not on the published list; sunk in 1849-50 while under charter to the State of Texas.
The Miller and Bourland Commission was to authenticate Spanish and Mexican land grants after the Mexican War. This boat was chartered as a traveling office. At the end of the charter the safe was being delivered around from the Rio Grande to Point Isabel for trans-shipment to Galveston when the boiler blew and the ship sank. Land covered by the titles said to have been in this safe are today worth billions. There are a thousand legends about this mysterious wreck, and not one of them provable, but it is certainly the most historic of all the wrecks.
S. J. Lee: American steamer sunk December 6, 1873; $100,000 Gold and Specie. Off Brazos Bar, Texas, 3 fathoms.
Off Brazos Bar? That could cover about a mile and a half in length by a mile or more in and out. There was always a shifting and dangerous bar at this pass, due to the tides in and out of the bay and the cross current of the Gulf Stream meeting. This was probably a river steamer. There were packets to Galveston and Corpus, but all were mainly very shallow draft as we measure it across the bars like a toboggan. Sand is up to forty feet deep here, as we measure it today. Most of the time they just skidded across the bars like toboggan. Sand is up to forty feet deep here as well as the water over it. This ship and whatever was on board is long scattered. The coins of the 1553 fleet are scattered as much as three miles along the beach. who knows what wreck they came from?
Little Fleta: American Steamer sunk September 5, 1874; 4 fathoms; off La Balsa, Texas; $30,000 Gold and Specie.
Off La Balsa? (Balsa is a raft.) No! La Bolsa? (The Pocket)--yes. Here we have pay-dirt. Twelve miles or more above Brownsville-Motamoros is a bend called La Bolsa. On adjacent land one Domingo Allala, in the 1940's, plowed up the ironwork of a stern-wheel, or a side-wheel, and allegedly he found some double-eagle twenties. However no competent witness ever saw any. My first memories of Don Domingo were about 1919, and he was always fairly affluent. If he's found treasure nobody would have ever known it.
One book mentions a sinking in the "Storm of 1867," but a storm would have no effect on that narrow river. There are also several wrecks attributed to "The Galveston Flood' an what we call "The Indianola Storm." It is known that several ships sank at anchor at a transshipment point called White's Ranch, a few miles up from the mouth of the river. If these on this list are some of those, the locations are given differently.
Texas Ranger: American Schooner; June 5, 1875; 3 fathoms; Sandbar off Brazos, Texas: $2000,000 Gold and Silver Bullion, Specie.
Assuming that Brazos Santiago is meant, and not Brazos River Bar, 3000 miles farther north, the ship was probably salvaged, since it is claimed to have broken up in less than 3 fathoms. Strange that all three ships wrecked at this time were alleged to have carried respectable amounts of specie. The sand bar of Brasos Santiago most of the time had less than two fathoms. A ship grounding and breaking up here would have spilled everything into the sand and the next time the sand moved, the cargo would have been scattered to no telling where. This is assuming that it ever existed.
Ida lewis: American Steamer; June 5, 1875; 4 fathoms; Off North Breakers, Brazos Bar, Texas; $20,000 Gold and Specie.
In this storm several river steamers were wrecked at a trans-shipment point a few miles up from the mouth of the Rio Grande, in the river. These were in shallow water and no treasures, great or small, were claimed. The ownership of the ships is pertinent.
The Jessie: American Steamer; sunk June5, 1875 3 fathoms; On sand bar at mouth of Rio Grande; $100,000 Gold and Specie.
Here is a more realistic location, and a more conservative treasure claim, but no more probable. In this storm several steamers were destroyed at White's Ranch, just a few miles above. Since none is on the "treasure list" this might be one of them. The owners claimed no treasure loss.
These river steamers had to draw less than thirty inches fully loaded, and would have had to ground in a lot less than three fathoms. If there were waves of much consequence a boat would have grounded on what normally would have been dry land-where salvage would have been 100% as occurred with the 1554 galleons at approximately the same place.
Riene des Mers, also called Riena de las Mares: French Brigantine; Lost November 15, 1875; 3 fathoms, Inside Passage off Brazos, Texas: $100,000 Gold and Specie.
If it was in the "inside passage," how could it be off Brazos, Texas (Brazos Santiago Pass)? However, this one presents no problem. It was found in 1927 by the Corps of Engineers dredge Absecon, with competent scouring pumps and two hard-hat divers who were experienced. There were people there who were present when the Riena was sunk and the divers had the roofs of all cabins yanked off with a clam-bucket and jetted out the inside, but found no gold and specie.
The cargo that they did find was worth many times the $100,000 but it was not legally salvageable. This five-master was loaded to the hatches with bottle French wines and brandies, only about fifty years under water in well sealed bottles. The divers brought up a few for the crew to sample (I was present), then a few days later 6,000 pounds of high-percentage gelatin was made into demolition charges by engineers from Camp Bullis. The charges were set by the divers and blown at high noon and high tide, past. A 300-foot geyser effectively removed the old Riena from the possible salvage list, though it is still carried among the possibles.
The Paisano: Side-Wheeler, cleared Point Isabel and the Brazos Pass for Corpus and Galveston a little ahead of the June 5, 1875 storm. Numerous credible witnesses put over 10,000 pounds of silver pesos in bags in her cabin, when she sailed into oblivion with all hands. $200,000.
Lea: June 10, 1880; 3 fathoms; $100,000 Gold and Silver Specie; ½ mile off river mouth Matamoros, Mexico.
Here is a curious reference to Matamoros. While at that time larger than Brownsville, it was not as important commercially. Both towns were eighty miles upstream from the mouth of the river as it flows, though only twenty-odd air miles. However, it might be moot, for the river's mouth has moved about four miles since that time-three miles in the last seventy years. The ship is not alleged to have sunk on a sand bar, though steamers crossed the mouth of the river bar long after that. The three-fathom depth would indicate another thing: Most steamers from keel to top were a lot more than eighteen feet, and at the time of the sinking it would not have been hard to spot for salvage.
Maria Teresa: French Barque; Lost June 15,01880; 4 fathoms; One mile up Brazos Pass, off Padre Island, Texas; $120,000 Gold and Silver Specie.
Here is one that we pretty well have the dope on. The Corpus Christi Gazette of August 29, 1880 had quite a write-up: "The French Barque, Maria Teresa, partly loaded for this port was lost on Padre Island.
This one was remembered later years by Captain Andrew Anderson. Most of the load of the Maria Teresa was rails for the Aransas Pass Railroad. She foundered in the "first breakers," where it was difficult for salvage boats to aid in the unloading. Captain Anderson had the Flour Bluff; Captain Peirce had the salvage scow Gertrude and the lighters Venus and Rest.
If there was a treasure on board, the salvage people never heard of it. The barque broke up almost immediately, with only the cabin boy surviving. Other sources said there were a number of coins, about $600 found in the foam on the beach, but nobody remembers what kind they were.
The wreck was listed as "oak, single decked, iron framed and yellow-metaled." We also know what became of the cargo of rails. Some of them today are used as fence-posts and parts for corrals at the Pat Dunn Ranch about a third of the way from Corpus to point Isabel on Padre Island.
Clara G. Woodhouse: American Steamer; October 1, 1877; 5 fathoms; On Sand bar off Breakers, Brazos, Texas; $80,000 Gold and Silver Species.
Another one off Brazos Pass, presumably. The average 10,000 ton freighter today does not draw thirty feet, which is what 5 fathoms is. Chances are it was five feet, and the steamer was salvaged as was the Maria Teresa and others. If it was not, it broke up and scattered in the sand, and has been.
The Carrie A. Thomas: Lost June 16, 1880; River bed, Rio Grande City, Texas; 4 fathoms? $120,000 Gold and Silver Specie.
Here we have the wildest tale of all! This was a river steamer that drew no more than thirty inches loaded, and was over 100 miles upstream from the mouth (almost 300 the way the river flows). Up here there would be trouble finding four feet to sink a boat in, much less four fathoms, or twenty-four feet. In such shallow water the boat would be 80% out of the water 80% of the time. Many, many times a boat would spend months upstream sitting idle because the water was too shallow to return, even with a reduced load, because the less-than-thirty-inch-draft would not clear the channel. Most of the year the Rio Grande can be forded on a burro without getting you feet wet. This treasure is about as lost as if it were in a swimming pool.
Emily P. Wright: 1914: American Steamer; 6 fathoms; On reefs at entrance to Laguna Madre, Mexico, $40,000 Gold and Silver Specie.
Laguna Madre, Mexico? There are lagunas down the Mexican coast that conceivably could be called Laguna Madre or considered an extension of Laguna Madre, but in the last sixty years I have never hear them called that. The longitude and latitude given for this one, however, is identical with the mouth of Brazos Santiago, which has not been Mexican Territory since 1846. In 1914 I was living at Brownsville, only twenty-five miles away, and I would surely have been impressed with this one if it had happened at that time. I have also asked contemporaries and they have no memories either of such a wreck.
There they are-quite a list, but without much meat. Some of the tales are tragic and others ludicrous, but all are alluring to the treasure hunter. In the last ten years I have had probably fifty letters from divers all over the United States looking for information about these well-preserved wrecks in such shallow water. They disregarded the fact that if salvage was that easy, most of the ships would have been salvaged a century or more ago. Treasure hunting is that way.
SOURCE
Frontier Times January 1977, By Ford Green