There’s a hidden secret that lies just off the coast of Disney’s Vero Beach Resort! A secret that only the likes of Captain Jack Sparrow would know about. Only this secret isn’t part of the next installment of Pirates of the Caribbean! This legend is real!
The area at the south end of Disney’s Vero Beach Resort is believed to be the location where Jennings, the English “pirate”, landed to commence raids upon the Spaniards who were wrecked several miles north at present day Sebastian Inlet State Park in 1715. Another wreck from this fleet is strewn in front of the Disney DVC Resort!
This real life pirates tale is chronicled in the book The Rainbow Chasers: In the Great Florida Treasure Hunt
Tommy Gore was the most widely recognized field authority know to all the treasure salvors (aka Treasure Hunters) in Florida during the last three decades of the 20th Century! He functioned as a marine agent of Florida’s State Board of History and Archives, now the Bureau of Archaeological Research. Tommy knew everybody and heard about every wreck! He dove on most of them. Below is a photo of Tommy Gore with a treasure chest full of coins recoved in 1967. (Image courtesy of T.L. Armstrong)
Here are some excerpts from The Rainbow Chasers…
“…It was during this period of time that Tommy came into contact with McKee at the Wedge Wreck. As he tells it, there was some belief that Roger King had actually picked up four or five bronze guns on the Green Cabin Wreck, another known wreck site much closer to BR 134 in the area of the present-day Walt Disney Beach Resort at Wabasso. The Green Cabin Wreck, so named for the green house or cabin that stood nearby on the beach, sank in 1618 and had been the Honduran Almirante, or one of the major ships in a Spanish plate fleet. Years later Tommy questioned King about these cannons, but King could not be pinned down on the issue of location. King did not argue that he had recovered them. “
“Tommy relates that Carl Wild specifically warned him to stay away from diving anywhere north of Vero Beach, particularly at the Green Cabin Wreck. …Wild implied that “booby traps” had been set at some of the wrecks. All the treasure hunters were almost completely unregulated at this time, and they certainly got no protection from one another through the government. Simple gentlemen’s rules of “finders – keepers” applied. That was about to change.”
“We worked several more sites after that. We moved on down the Green Cabin Wreck and found a lot of silver and copper coins which were badly corroded and not worth the time to pick up. We also found layers of indigo dye and other artifacts, but the coins were really in bad shape. The Green Cabin wreck is probably the wreck from which Roger King had recovered five or six bronze cannons…”
Yes folks…It’s a real life “Pirates of the Caribbean” tale just off the coast of Disney’s Vero Beach Resort. In fact, the most valuable coin from the 1715 fleet (a Royal escudo made for the King himself) was discovered under the sand in the immediate vicinity of Disney’s Vero Beach Resort!!! That single coin would fetch somewhere in the vicinity of $10,000 today! Who knows what undiscovered treasures lie just within reach of your next Disney Vacation????!!!!!
If you would like an autographed copy of The Rainbow Chasers, I have an extremely limited supply of them signed by both Tommy Gore and T.L. Armstrong. Just shoot me an email at amanda@disneyeveryday.com
Until Next Time,
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