The Sands of Time: Part One | Columnists | coastalbreezenews.com – coastalbreezenews.com

When full summer arrives and the rainy season is upon us, morning and afternoon thunderstorms always set the stage for stories from the past. One of the most intriguing island legends to haunt Marco Beach captured the searching eyes of Hollywood and one of the most famous families of oceanography. Jacques Cousteau remains as one of the most celebrated maritime explorers ever, and in 2018, his grandson Phillippe Cousteau and wife Ashlan arrived on Marco with veteran producer and director Bob Asher to film and document a Marco mystery that truly could be under the sands of time.

Almost every islander that calls Marco home has heard the tale of an old Spanish treasure ship that remains, to this day, under the sand at the original Marco Beach Hotel. The following is the tale of Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read, and a plausible scenario of what can happen to a lost ship when a modern beach becomes bigger and bigger, year after year.

According to nautical lore and legend, Captain Calico Jack Rackham became a pirate when he assumed command of a sailing ship in 1718. Charles Vane was the original captain but when the cautious commander refused to attack a French ship, Calico Jack ignored the order - he fired his cannons and won the day, and a new pirate captain claimed the quarterdeck and the former Captain Vane was reduced in rank to that of a common seaman.

During the following months, Calico Jack became infamous and known for his flamboyant style as he took women onboard as female pirates. He created his own pirate flag with two crossed swords - instead of crossed bones - but he became most known for his fashion sense as he chose to dress in calico cotton instead of the heavy wool that was so hot and uncomfortable in the tropics.

Calico Jack sailed his pirate ship from the Caribbean to the Carolinas and often raided the Atlantic shores of the Bahamas. He was feared during his career as no smaller ship was safe from his spyglass, and with a hardy and ambitious crew, he soon began to acquire a dastardly reputation and a good deal of wealth. His exploits and adventures forced his ship from the Atlantic Ocean and into the Gulf of Mexico where he soon found a safe haven along the southwest Florida coast and the Ten Thousand Islands. San Marcos and Caxambas were the names inscribed on a stolen Spanish chart warning of dangerous shoals and vengeful Indians, but also promised deep-water channels and springs with drinking water.

During the particularly stormy month of September in 1719, tropical storms and hurricanes ruled the seas. With every week, it seemed, a new tempest arrived out of the south and drove westward into the Gulf of Mexico. Any ship afloat during the squalls of September was busy trying to stay above the waves, and many valuable vessels that would have normally sailed with a defensive escort, were often alone and unprotected.

After a week of weathering storms between towering shell mounds and a vast archipelago of mangrove islands, Jack and his pirates became restless. Locked among the mangroves, the buccaneers on the ship soon became quarrelsome and maddened by the endless mosquitoes that were the plague of the safe harbor. With the wind brisk and offshore, Jacks pirate ship soon weighed anchor, set all sails, and rounded a large headland. In the distance, a spyglass revealed a strange sailing vessel. The unknown ship was larger than was safe for the shallow coastal waters, but it was clear the misplaced vessel had been storm-damaged and was moving forward under jury-rigged sails.

As Jacks crew hoisted the skull and swords and began to attack, a menacing squall darkened the horizon, and the wind whipped the water into dangerous battering waves. Long before Jack and his crew could reach the unknown ship both sailing vessels were battling the storm and were too busy to fight.

As the curving white edge of a large crescent beach appeared closer with every breaking wave, and as the rising wind howled, Jack and his crew watched as the heavy ship ran aground and the largest mast fell from the staggering impact.

Fearing that they too would be lost on the leeward shore, Jack ordered his ship about and once again, the calico pirates headed for the shell mounds, the deep-water channel, and the protection of the mangrove archipelago.

After two full days of storms, the sea became calm and once again, Jack and his crew ventured out beyond the headland to investigate the unknown stranded ship. When Jacks pirates anchored and went ashore, they found the wrecked vessel pushed high and dry upon the beach with not a soul aboard. All three masts were a wreck on the deck and the Spanish hull was almost covered in sand.There were no smaller boats remaining onboard and Jack and his pirates surmised that the Spaniards had taken their longboat and were bound for Havana. What did catch Jacks eye, however, was a single silver peso resting near the steps that led down into the ships hold. After lighting a lantern and going below, stout little kegs were found filled with silver Mexican pesos.

Jack and his pirates were delighted and overjoyed but as Jack explained, they could only take a small amount of the newly found treasure as the silver was too heavy and the storm season was far from over. The Spanish ship, however, was a perfect vault as the entire hull was almost covered by sand and the ship could be easily found again as it was clearly in the center of the large crescent beach. After a few kegs of the silver Mex was shipped aboard to appease the female pirates, Jack ordered the jubilant crew to cover with sand what remained of the stricken vessel so that no one could stumble upon the newly found treasure of the Calico pirates.

During the next year, with the treasure of the Ten Thousand Islands safely hidden away, Jack and the pirates sailed happily south and into the Caribbean. The good times, however, did not last as in October of 1720, a British navy ship led by Captain James Barnett was sent to find Calico Jack and his band of buccaneers and place an end to the pirates with a female crew.

Caught one evening under a full moon and a sea of stars in an anchorage in Jamaica, Captain Barnetts bullyboys boarded the calico pirate ship and found everyone fast asleep with a belly full of rum.

When Jack and his pirates were hauled ashore, the women begged for mercy, as they were heavy with child. Awaiting his fate, Jack was locked in a cell where he could stand on a bench and still see the sea. As he contemplated the gallows against the open water, he decided upon a plan.

The British officials were sticklers for record keeping, and when Jack was taken out of this cell and brought before the magistrate, he began to confess all the names of the ships his pirates had captured and supply the details of the cargos booty.

When it came to the mysterious ship that had wrecked on the broad crescent beach that was still filled with Mexican silver, Jack launched his plan. He asked to speak to the magistrate in private, and bargained that if the women on his ship could be sparred a hanging, and if Jack himself could be freed, he would reveal the exact location of the wrecked and sand-buried ship that lay on the crescent beach in the Ten Thousand Islands

Since the women pirates were soon to be mothers, they were spared the death sentence for piracy, but the British magistrate did not believe Jacks story of the lost treasure of St. Marks and Caxambas. After only one week of captivity, Captain Calico Jack Rackhams pirate career was over as he was hung in Jamaica for piracy on the high seas.

To this day, Captain Calico Jacks treasure remains undiscovered but is believed to hold 300,000 in silver Mexican Pesos.

Please look for the Beach Boy Chronicles next week and the Deltona Treasure Hunters on Marco Beach.

Caribbean Pirate TreasureSeason 1, Episode 1, is the Travel Channel feature of Marco Island and Calico Jack with Phillippe and Ashland Cousteau.

Tom Williams is a Marco Islander. He is the author of two books: Lost and Found and Surrounded by Thunder - The Story of Darrell Loan and the Rocket Men. Both books are available on Kindle and Nook.

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The Sands of Time: Part One | Columnists | coastalbreezenews.com - coastalbreezenews.com