Read Online Fallen Mangrove (Jesse McDermitt Series Book 5) by Wayne Stinnett - Free Book Online
Authors: Wayne Stinnett
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we’re looking for might even be underwater now.”
“It probably is,” Chyrel said. “I’ll check into it some more tomorrow. Erosion data for most coastal areas has been collected for several decades. I might be able to extrapolate that data and create a computer model that could simulate what the coastline of the island looked like four hundred and forty years ago.”
“You can do that?” Doc asked.
Tony laughed and said, “Doc, when it comes to computers, there’s not much beyond her capability.”
“Thanks, Tony. Now all of you scram. I’m going to bed,” Chyrel said. As we left the little office, Charlie said she was also going to bed and headed off to their little house.
“You guys really think there’s a treasure?” Tony asked.
“Maybe Chyrel can find out more about the fleet tomorrow,” I said. “I know the Spaniards had a full manifest of every ship’s cargo and most of the time, there was more aboard than what the manifest said. I just put some beer in the fridge on the boat—you guys wanna join me?”
We sat in the salon and Tony pulled the sheet of paper out of his pocket along with a printout of the satellite view. “Let’s suppose for a minute that this ship, Magdalena , was the ship that Doc’s chest came from. Do you think they all wrecked there?”
“September’s still hurricane season,” I said. “And the clues point toward their being sunk during a storm. That’s what most likely happened, since none of the eight ships made it to Spain. The history books are full of entire fleets being wiped out by hurricanes.”
“Okay,” Tony said. “So what happened to the other treasure ships? I’m just guessing here, but wouldn’t they all have been carrying treasure?”
“Probably,” Doc said. “Chyrel said the carrack was much larger than the caravels and galleons, which were very heavily armed. Being larger, you’d assume they were much sturdier and slower. Maybe the other ships broke apart in the storm and never made it to land, or maybe they made it further south, trying to run from the storm.”
Tony shuddered. “Nasty way to go.”
I grabbed a pencil from a drawer and handed it to Tony. “Let’s write down everything we have questions about. The manifest, for one. The size difference between a carrack and a galleon, for another. Also, if they were driven onto the island by a hurricane, the storm didn’t stop there. We think it crossed Florida, looped around to the south, then west, and it probably made landfall again on the mainland somewhere else. Maybe she can look through early American archives for hurricanes that made landfall in September of 1566.”
“What would that tell us?” Doc asked.
“I’m wondering if it was this one ship, or the whole fleet, that strayed so far out of the shipping lanes,” I replied. “They should have been well to the north of the Abacos and if they were caught in a storm, they would have been sunk at sea, or driven onto the mainland. If we knew the storm’s track, we might even have a starting point for where the rest of the fleet went down.”
“Chyrel said it was bigger than the others,” Tony said. “Maybe during the fog, they steered away from the smaller ships to avoid a collision.”
“That makes perfect sense,” Doc replied. “If we know the location of one ship and the track of the storm, we might be able to predict where the others sank also.”
“You want to find the whole fleet?” I asked.
“Finding a deep-water wreck would probably be beyond what we can do,” he replied. “But narrowing the location would be something, wouldn’t it?”
“That takes us to the next step, Doc. There’s two options for if and when we find any treasure and you should decide up front which route you’re gonna take.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“About twenty years ago,” I began, “me and Deuce’s dad found some treasure. A bunch of silver coins. We found it in a place we shouldn’t have been
“It probably is,” Chyrel said. “I’ll check into it some more tomorrow. Erosion data for most coastal areas has been collected for several decades. I might be able to extrapolate that data and create a computer model that could simulate what the coastline of the island looked like four hundred and forty years ago.”
“You can do that?” Doc asked.
Tony laughed and said, “Doc, when it comes to computers, there’s not much beyond her capability.”
“Thanks, Tony. Now all of you scram. I’m going to bed,” Chyrel said. As we left the little office, Charlie said she was also going to bed and headed off to their little house.
“You guys really think there’s a treasure?” Tony asked.
“Maybe Chyrel can find out more about the fleet tomorrow,” I said. “I know the Spaniards had a full manifest of every ship’s cargo and most of the time, there was more aboard than what the manifest said. I just put some beer in the fridge on the boat—you guys wanna join me?”
We sat in the salon and Tony pulled the sheet of paper out of his pocket along with a printout of the satellite view. “Let’s suppose for a minute that this ship, Magdalena , was the ship that Doc’s chest came from. Do you think they all wrecked there?”
“September’s still hurricane season,” I said. “And the clues point toward their being sunk during a storm. That’s what most likely happened, since none of the eight ships made it to Spain. The history books are full of entire fleets being wiped out by hurricanes.”
“Okay,” Tony said. “So what happened to the other treasure ships? I’m just guessing here, but wouldn’t they all have been carrying treasure?”
“Probably,” Doc said. “Chyrel said the carrack was much larger than the caravels and galleons, which were very heavily armed. Being larger, you’d assume they were much sturdier and slower. Maybe the other ships broke apart in the storm and never made it to land, or maybe they made it further south, trying to run from the storm.”
Tony shuddered. “Nasty way to go.”
I grabbed a pencil from a drawer and handed it to Tony. “Let’s write down everything we have questions about. The manifest, for one. The size difference between a carrack and a galleon, for another. Also, if they were driven onto the island by a hurricane, the storm didn’t stop there. We think it crossed Florida, looped around to the south, then west, and it probably made landfall again on the mainland somewhere else. Maybe she can look through early American archives for hurricanes that made landfall in September of 1566.”
“What would that tell us?” Doc asked.
“I’m wondering if it was this one ship, or the whole fleet, that strayed so far out of the shipping lanes,” I replied. “They should have been well to the north of the Abacos and if they were caught in a storm, they would have been sunk at sea, or driven onto the mainland. If we knew the storm’s track, we might even have a starting point for where the rest of the fleet went down.”
“Chyrel said it was bigger than the others,” Tony said. “Maybe during the fog, they steered away from the smaller ships to avoid a collision.”
“That makes perfect sense,” Doc replied. “If we know the location of one ship and the track of the storm, we might be able to predict where the others sank also.”
“You want to find the whole fleet?” I asked.
“Finding a deep-water wreck would probably be beyond what we can do,” he replied. “But narrowing the location would be something, wouldn’t it?”
“That takes us to the next step, Doc. There’s two options for if and when we find any treasure and you should decide up front which route you’re gonna take.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“About twenty years ago,” I began, “me and Deuce’s dad found some treasure. A bunch of silver coins. We found it in a place we shouldn’t have been
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