NEPTUNE'S FORTUNE

Fireworks and treasure off the Spanish Main.

Journalist and historian Sancton, author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth, emphasizes the story of Roger Dooley, a self-described underwater archeologist who found a great sunken treasure ship. Sancton sets the scene in 1708 in the Caribbean, where a Spanish treasure fleet met a hostile British squadron. In the battle that followed, the galleon San José sank somewhere in waters off Colombia. Early chapters describe undersea treasure hunting, a wild-west get-rich-quick occupation dominated by larger-than-life characters who chew through fortunes from naïve investors and rarely hit the jackpot. The treasure hunters employ violent methods, including dynamite that destroys historical artifacts and gives them a terrible reputation among archeologists. Born in 1944 New Jersey to a Cuban mother who returned to the island with her son, Dooley quickly adapted to his new country. Fascinated by diving and the newly invented Aqua-Lung and mostly self-educated, he turned himself into a skilled underwater archeologist. He was intrigued by the San José, thought to contain unimaginable wealth. Commercial treasure hunters had found a wreck that they claimed was the San José but produced no convincing evidence. Immersed in Spanish archives, Dooley discovered documents and maps that revealed the treasure fleet’s route more accurately. Organizing his own investors, he contracted with Colombia’s government and in 2015 found a wreck 2,000 feet deep and extracted artifacts that proved it was the San José. A national celebration followed discovery of this icon of Colombian history, during which Dooley’s name was not mentioned. It is likewise rarely mentioned in the avalanche of lawsuits that continue to clog the courts from Spain (the ship’s original owner), Peru (whose mines produced the treasure), Indigenous groups (whose enslaved people extracted it), and former treasure hunters (whose contracts are supposedly still in force). Now in his 80s, Dooley remains a peripheral figure in stalled efforts to raise or simply celebrate this precious relic.

A rousing historical treasure hunt.