The Hidden Galleon: The True Story of a Lost Spanish Ship and the Wild Horses of Assateague Island

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About The Hidden Galleon: The True Story Of A Lost

On the island of Assateague, along the seacoast of Maryland and Virginia, there is a breed of horses that has run wild for centuries. Legend says they originated from a long lost Spanish galleon. This centuries-old tradition is remembered every year when 50,000 tourists descend on the island of Chincoteague to witness the annual pony swim and auction. On September 5, 1750, a Spanish warship named La Galga drove ashore on Assateague and came to rest close to shore and partially submerged. Her captain described her location as within two ship lengths of the Maryland and Virginia boundary. These precise directions seduced many in the future who would choose to seek her remains. In 1947, Marguerite Henry, wrote Misty of Chincoteague, a fictional account of real people of Chincoteague and a beautiful young pony named Misty. Her story documents the shipwreck legend that she was told of during her stay on the island. In 1961, 20th Century Fox released the movie based on this book. In 1980, the author was convinced like others that he could easily locate the wreck of La Galga after researching American and Spanish archives. He made no connection with the legend of the wild horses and La Galga as they had been attributed to another ship called the San Lorenzo. But that ship was the invention of a convincing con man. Soon, the author found himself in a federal courthouse where the State of Maryland had laid claim to the fictitious wreck. Maryland s attorney general fought to keep the author s evidence of the fraud out of the public record. The make-believe ship was awarded to the state based solely on a fraudulent affidavit. Now, armed with knowledge of the shipwreck legend obtained from a descendant of an Assateague Indian and great nephew of a real life character in Misty of Chincoteague, the author's search for La Galga resumes, not in the ocean, but on the sands and marshes of Assateague where he discovers that the ship s remains are hidden in a forgotten inlet. After dis