Puerto Rico Mona Island and Silver Shoals

A poetic justice in a tragic form took place on july 4th 1502 a fleet of 32 caravels had assembled at santo domingo four days before making ready to sail for spain among the passengers on antonio de torres's flagship which was el dorado was this ever-skimming bobadilla he was an interesting character he actually imprisoned columbus two years earlier um and by coincidence that paths crossed again right there and columbus uh over there put in at santa domingo on his return from a voyage he didn't like the feel of the heavy still air the atmosphere recognizing the familia uh for warning of hurricane i mean you have to remember columbus was a very experienced sailor navigator so despite all that happened in the past between them he told boba dela that he was fearing the incoming storm but his advice was scorned perhaps boba dela remembered the famous navigator's warning four days later as he struggled for his life in the watery fury of the worst hurricane ever recorded at that time during 12 hours of july 4th its cyclonic winds and massive waves tore the flora to shreds swamping a dozen of ships in the mona passage and breaking most of the rest against the shores of puerto rico santo domingo and mona islands only five people survived that day 27 caravels among them el dorado were lost with over 500 lives including boba dillas there was treasure in quantity on the destroyed ships perhaps half of its gold nuggets and dust and pearls had been stole aboard el dorado the single richest item was a solid gold table reputed to one and weigh half tons through which boba dylan intended to express his gratitude to the catholic king for his appointment as governor so yeah he was a governor and that's why he had the power to imprison columbus for whatever reason so the flagship was believed to have gone down in the mona passage where depths of thousand feet are encountered no trace of its wreckage was discovered during the salvage work along the coast after the seas had subsided much was recovered from wrecks which had been thrown up on reefs and beaches but at least 3 million and of course that value was in 1962 in gold and pearls were gone so obviously the value is much much higher right now so in the accounts of boba dilla's 3310 pound golden table if his accounts were true about two million dollars in treasure lie in the remnants of el dorado and again this is in old dollars today much much higher value so it remains in el dorado way down under mona passage some of the other wrecks against the coast partly salvaged or beyond reach of uh beyond the reach of uh 1500 indian skin divers might make worthwhile targets for modern scuba divers but el dorado and had treasures will be difficult to find since they were not found as of yet according to the records but we do know that it was close to the shores so the depths are not going to be that that deep to encounter now let's focus on mona island puerto rico so mona island m-o-n-a mona island is the our hippolygo of