Legendary Ship of Captain Morgan Discovered in Panama River
The ship captained by the infamous pirate, Adm. Henry Morgan has been discovered by a team of archaeologists, buried under the floor of the Chagres River in Central Panama.
Divers from Texas State University, volunteers from the National Park Service's Submerged Resources Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/University of North Carolina-Wilmington's Aquarius Reef Base participated in the mission.
While scouring the Panamanian river for iron remains with a magnetometer, the team happened to spot a small piece of the ship's hull sticking about two inches out of the sand.
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"It was like looking for a needle in a haystack," said Frederick "Fritz" Hanselmann, chief underwater archaeologist and dive training officer with the River Systems Institute/Aquarena Center at Texas State University.
After uncovering the hull and several wood chests, the team has concluded that the ship was the flagship vessel of Morgan's fleet, Satisfaction.
The team is ecstatic at having found such a historically valuable artifact, but will most like find no "booty" nor make any money from the discovery.
"The treasure is the history," Hanselmann said. "Everything we do is not for profit."
The dig to excavate the ship's remains will be funded by the one of Morgan's namesakes, Captain Morgan's rum, whose use of the pirate’s name and likeness has made the spirit extremely popular.
Captain Morgan's brand manager Tom Herbst says that it was natural for them to get involved.
"The artifacts uncovered during this mission will help bring Henry Morgan and his adventures to life in a way never thought possible."
Most famous for being the quintessential swashbuckler, Morgan was also a privateer for the British government; his duty to protect the American colonies and its surrounding waters. Morgan led a fleet of 36 ships and approximately 1,900 men and 240 cannons. He also served as lieutenant governor of Jamaica and died of a natural death in 1688.
The ship Satisfaction is known to have sunk at the mouth of the Chagres River while Morgan and his fleet battled the Spanish over the control of the Caribbean, along with four other ships in the fleet.
The team plans to excavate beyond the ship site in hopes of finding other relics.
In 2010, a team led by Dominique Rissolo of the nonprofit research organization Waitt Institute, a research organization uncovered six cannons in the same area where the Satisfaction was found.
