CT-Rich
Contributor
I just finished Robert Kurson's second installment of the Dirk Pitt, I mean John Chatterton series. Actually, snarky comments aside, Pirate Hunters, Treasure, Obsession and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship was a very interesting book. Kurson is an excellent writer and he present his multi-layer tale in an engaging format. The story follows real-life NUMA agent, I mean wreck diving legend, John Chatterton and his partner John Mattera on a quest to locate and identify the rarest and most mythic of all wrecks, a golden age pirate ship.
With only one other confirmed pirate wreck known (the Cape Cod wreck of the Whydah), Chatterton is looking for what might be a capstone accomplishment for one of the most spectacular wreck diving careers of all time. Chatterton and his Partner, Mattera, a ex-security specialist, with a passing association with the Gambino crime family are planning on locating there own Spanish treasure galleon off the coast of the Dominican Republic. Their plan is derailed with an offer from Tracy Bowden to a newer and more lucrative quest: Finding the wreck of The Golden Fleece, the ship Captained by the pirate Joseph Bannister.
The theme of the book is Chatterton's and Mattera's investigation in to the history of Bannister, the golden age of piracy and the modern business of treasure hunting. Although one can never really see into the mind of a man three hundred years removed from today, Chatterton and Mattera make some very interesting suppositions about what drove Bannister, a successful and well respected sea captain, to suddenly take up piracy and giving up his otherwise respectable and safe existence. One of the disappointments of the book was that it mentioned the UNESCO treaty that will grant ownership of shipwrecks, but it never did any significant analysis of the issues.
While I can understand that treasure hunters would seek out a ga-zillion dollar gold hoard and because of the risk of theft and poacher's might not be the most thoroughly observant archaeologists (although several of them have taken considerable pains to treat the sights in a archaeologically appropriate manner), the focus of this story is identifying and recovering artifacts from a unique site. A 17th century wreck that has lain undisturbed for more than 300 years. And unlike most treasure ships that were ripped open on coral reef in the midst of epic hurricanes, this wreck was a casualty of combat and sank in a protected area. The book has Bowden and his team excavating the site by hand and simply removing artifacts from the site, destroying any historical context there might have been. This may not be a fair depiction because Mr Kurson may have been adjusting the narrative to make the story work better. But it also cuts to the heart of one of the most important complaints against treasure hunters doing archaeology for profit. If a historically valuable wreck is excavated for profit, some of the most valuable treasures may be overlooked in the grab for gold. Certainly there is a cash value in a pirate beads, bowels and muskets, but if it is removed from its context we lose the chance to fill in the story of how these men lived, fought and died.
Over all it is a great book, filled with interesting histories of all the characters, historic and modern. This book is much lighter on the diving aspects, since there is little drama in diving to thirty feet in the Caribbean. Even so, there is still plenty of action on the high seas and in the streets of the Dominican Republic. I think the book would have been better served if it had taken a more critical look at treasure hunting versus maintaining archaeological integrity. There are valid arguments to be made on both sides of the debate especially since not all treasures are created equal.
With only one other confirmed pirate wreck known (the Cape Cod wreck of the Whydah), Chatterton is looking for what might be a capstone accomplishment for one of the most spectacular wreck diving careers of all time. Chatterton and his Partner, Mattera, a ex-security specialist, with a passing association with the Gambino crime family are planning on locating there own Spanish treasure galleon off the coast of the Dominican Republic. Their plan is derailed with an offer from Tracy Bowden to a newer and more lucrative quest: Finding the wreck of The Golden Fleece, the ship Captained by the pirate Joseph Bannister.
The theme of the book is Chatterton's and Mattera's investigation in to the history of Bannister, the golden age of piracy and the modern business of treasure hunting. Although one can never really see into the mind of a man three hundred years removed from today, Chatterton and Mattera make some very interesting suppositions about what drove Bannister, a successful and well respected sea captain, to suddenly take up piracy and giving up his otherwise respectable and safe existence. One of the disappointments of the book was that it mentioned the UNESCO treaty that will grant ownership of shipwrecks, but it never did any significant analysis of the issues.
While I can understand that treasure hunters would seek out a ga-zillion dollar gold hoard and because of the risk of theft and poacher's might not be the most thoroughly observant archaeologists (although several of them have taken considerable pains to treat the sights in a archaeologically appropriate manner), the focus of this story is identifying and recovering artifacts from a unique site. A 17th century wreck that has lain undisturbed for more than 300 years. And unlike most treasure ships that were ripped open on coral reef in the midst of epic hurricanes, this wreck was a casualty of combat and sank in a protected area. The book has Bowden and his team excavating the site by hand and simply removing artifacts from the site, destroying any historical context there might have been. This may not be a fair depiction because Mr Kurson may have been adjusting the narrative to make the story work better. But it also cuts to the heart of one of the most important complaints against treasure hunters doing archaeology for profit. If a historically valuable wreck is excavated for profit, some of the most valuable treasures may be overlooked in the grab for gold. Certainly there is a cash value in a pirate beads, bowels and muskets, but if it is removed from its context we lose the chance to fill in the story of how these men lived, fought and died.
Over all it is a great book, filled with interesting histories of all the characters, historic and modern. This book is much lighter on the diving aspects, since there is little drama in diving to thirty feet in the Caribbean. Even so, there is still plenty of action on the high seas and in the streets of the Dominican Republic. I think the book would have been better served if it had taken a more critical look at treasure hunting versus maintaining archaeological integrity. There are valid arguments to be made on both sides of the debate especially since not all treasures are created equal.
