told the English sea captains that he had seen the Spanish 

 wreck on the Ambrosian banks. He described the location 

 as near a rock which rose up nearly fifty feet, while the 

 rest of the reefs barely cleared the water. The hull lay 

 about forty feet away, wedged between the rocks, and 

 on the surface of the rock he said he had seen "sows and 

 pigs of silver heaped high." He claimed that the owner 

 of his ship had refused to attempt the salvage of the treas- 

 ure because a gale had come up and he was afraid of losing 

 his ship on the reefs, as he did not have sufficient cable 

 and anchors. 



The English captains engaged Smith to guide them 

 to the spot, but after extracting all the information they 

 could from him. Captain Stanley was so sure they would 

 be able to find the location that they sailed secretly from 

 Puerto Plata one night, leaving Smith behind. The result 

 was that they never came upon the treasure ship. During 

 the search, one of the ships struck a reef. While trying to 

 free it, they lost all their anchors on the sharp coral and had 

 to return to port to replace them. They were recalled to 

 England before they could make another attempt. 



Meanwhile, in New England, a young sea captain, Wil- 

 liam Phips, with adventure in his blood and a desire for 

 quick wealth whetted by tales of lost treasure ships, had 

 just returned from a partially successful trip in search of 

 three valuable wrecks on the north Bahama banks. While 

 on this voyage he had garnered tales of the Spanish treas- 

 ure ship said to be lying beneath the water on the banks 

 north of Hispaniola. What he learned inspired him to set 

 out for England to enlist the aid of the Crown in provid- 

 ing men and equipment to salvage the wrecks on the Ba- 

 hama banks and search for the Spanish galleon. 



He must have been most convincing, for he succeeded 

 in obtaining from King Charles H a commission to captain 



The Silver Shoals 239 



