Corpus Christi History
By Murphy Givens

Wednesday, Jun. 3, 1998

Coast is loaded with legends of lost treasures

   There's not a cove, inlet, bay or barrier island on the long curve of the Gulf of Mexico, from the Florida Keys to the Mexican border, that doesn't have legends about buried pirate chests or sunken treasure ships.
   This area of the Texas Coast has its share of legends, but one difference is that there's some basis in fact here. It's a fact that Spanish galleons ran aground on Padre Island or sank in waters off the coast. Spanish coins, even silver bars, have been found in the sand. At one time, old coins were recovered so often at one spot on Padre Island that it was called Money Hill.
   The best local treasure story had its start in the spring of 1553. A fleet of Spanish ships set sail from Veracruz for Spain. They were supposedly filled with gold and silver plundered from Spain's New World conquests. Before they reached Havana, an early tropical storm scattered the fleet. Three sank, four sailed to safety, and 13 were forced back across the Gulf and flung ashore on the Texas coast. The cargoes of all but one were salvaged the following year. That one, so the legend goes, carried most of the gold and silver from the mines of Mexico.
   Three ships in that fleet -- the Espiritu Santo, San Esteban and Maria de Yciar -- ran aground on Padre Island, near where Mansfield Cut is today, 75 miles south of Bob Hall Pier. The 300 souls who were stranded had the misfortune of landing on an island with Karankawas, who loved a good meal. Only two survived to tell the tale.
   The ancient remains of two ships were found in 1967 by an Indiana salvage outfit. They didn't find gold or silver bullion. They found a gold crucifix, cannon balls, coins encrusted by time, fossilized cockroaches. Of course, this was a treasure from an historical point of view. Much of it is on display in the Corpus Christi Museum.
   There have been many other treasure ships believed sunk off the Texas coast. On July 4, 1811, the pirate Jean Lafitte sank a Spanish galleon off the beaches of South Texas, and it was reported to be carrying $500,000 in gold. More about Lafitte later.
   In 1904, a Corpus Christi resident said he had found a treasure ship off Padre Island. He was precise about the location and tried to raise the estimated $25,000 he would need to salvage it. He even built a mule-drawn wagon in his backyard to transport the treasure.
   His name was A.H. Meuly (pronounced "Miley") and he said the wreck was 35 miles south of Corpus Christi Pass, half a degree north of latitude 27 and east of longtitude 97 by the shore. He said the ship -- which he thought was a Spanish galleon -- lay in shallow water, resting on the clay bottom, not more than 17 feet below the surface.
   In a letter to a scholar of Spanish-American history, Meuly wrote: "The treasure ship was heavily laden with gold and other cargo, and when it was caught in one of the West India hurricanes, it rode deep, because of its laden , and was heavily pounded, forced back across the Gulf in leaking condition. The boat was filling rapidly with water, and the captain, seeing it was about to sink, headed straight for the shore and ran it hard and fast aground. There I found the resting place of the treasure."
   That ends his letter and no more was heard of Meuly's treasure ship. For all we know, it's still there, or it was never there to begin with. Meuly didn't say how he knew the details of the ship's last voyage.
   There's another legend that may be more myth than fact. That's the story of Lafitte's buried treasure. Lafitte, the pirate of the Gulf, was a piece of work. When the governor of Louisiana offered a $500 reward for Lafitte's capture, he promptly put up a $1,500 reward for the capture of the governor.
   He was eventually run out of Louisiana and he located his pirate headquarters on Galveston Island in 1817; he called the town "Campeachy." One of Lafitte's men wrote that gold doubloons "were as plentiful as biscuits."
   The story has it that when Lafitte was finally banished by the U.S. Navy from Galveston Bay in 1821 he buried an enormous treasure on one of the sandy islands of the Texas Coast. Another story has it that Lafitte relocated to the mouth of the Lavaca River, which was protected by sandbars, where he was able to continue his privateering. But then, a U.S. revenue cutter was able to get close enough to follow Lafitte's ship "Pride" through the channel and bottle it up. Before the boat was sunk, it was said, Lafitte divided his treasure and buried his share nearby.
   Another story says Lafitte buried his plunder at three locations: one near Corpus Christi Pass, another near the Oso, and another at the mouth of the Nueces. One legend says Lafitte buried his gold on the northwest tip of Padre Island beside Packery Channel. For years, this spot was called the Treasure Dunes.
   This is the first of two parts.