Merchant Royal

- Archaeologist Maria Jacobsen holding Dixon's gold coin. This photograph was taken only minutes after the coin's discovery.

THE LEGEND: For over a century, an oral tradition-a legend-was passed down involving Lt. George Dixon, who commanded the important missions in naval history. According to the legend, Dixon was in love with a beautiful young woman from Mobile, Alabama, named Queenie Bennett.

To keep her sweetheart safe from harm, Queenie gave George Dixon a gold coin, as a good luck charm. Again, according to the legend, George kept the coin with him always, in his pocket, rubbing it with his thumb while he dreamed of the day when he and Queenie would be reunited.

During the Battle of Shiloh, George was shot point blank. A bullet ripped into the pocket of his trousers and struck the center of the gold coin. The impact was said to have left the gold piece bent, with the bullet embedded in it. Queenie's good luck gift had saved his life. Many such legends were created during the war. Was this one true? For 137 years, no one knew whether the story was true or merely a romantic tale from long ago.

During the excavation of the H.L. Hunley, the gold coin was discovered next to the remains of Lt. George Dixon. It was deeply indented from the impact of a bullet and traces of lead were discovered on the coin. The coin, a $20 dollar gold piece, was minted in 1860. One side bears an image of Lady Liberty. The other side, which has a federal shield-and-eagle symbol, had been sanded and inscribed by hand. It clearly bears four lines of cursive script with the following words:

Shiloh
April 6, 1862
My life Preserver
G. E. D.

Maria Jacobsen, Senior Archaeologist on the Hunley project and the one who actually first found the coin, said shortly after her amazing discovery, "Some people may think this is a stroke of luck, but perhaps it's something else. They tell me that Lt. Dixon was a lady's man, perhaps he winked at us yesterday to remind us that he still is."

CSI Hunley: Fate of historic sub a cold case file

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090105/ap_on_re_us/confederate_submarine

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – It could be one of the nation's oldest cold case files: What happened to eight Confederate sailors aboard the H.L. Hunley after it became the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship?

Their hand-cranked sub rammed a spar with black powder into the Union blockade ship Housatonic off Charleston on a chilly winter night in 1864 but never returned.

Its fate has been the subject of almost 150 years of conjecture and almost a decade of scientific research since the Hunley was raised back in 2000. But the submarine has been agonizingly slow surrendering her secrets.

"She was a mystery when she was built. She was a mystery as to how she looked and how she was constructed for many years and she is still a mystery as to why she didn't come home," said state Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston and chairman of the South Carolina Hunley Commission, which raised the sub and is charged with conserving and displaying it.

Scientists hope the next phase of the conservation, removing the hardened sediment coating the outside of the hull, will provide clues to the mystery.

McConnell, who watched the sub being raised more than eight years ago, thought at the time the mystery would be easily solved.

"We thought it would be very simple ... something must have happened at the time of the attack," he said. "We would just put those pieces together and know everything about it."

But what seemed so clear then seems as murky now as the sandy bottom where the Hunley rested for 136 years. When the Hunley was raised, the design was different from what scientists expected and there were only eight, not nine, crewmen, as originally thought.

The first phase of work on the Hunley consisted of photographing and studying the outside of the hull. Then several iron hull plates were removed allowing scientists to enter the crew compartment to remove sediment, human remains and a cache of artifacts.

Gold coins from the S.S. Republic

Read full article from the April/May 2008 issue of Success Magazine.
http://www.shipwreck.net/pdf/Success08April2008.pdf

In May, 2008, Odyssey Marine filed a complaint on two shipwrecks in the English Channel.
We have suggested that one of them may be the La Vierge du Bon Port

Scroll down to May 29th: http://www.merchantroyalshipwreck.com/2008/05/

Now Odyssey claims that one or the other may be the "Le Marquis Tournay".

http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/florida/flmdce/8:2008cv01044/214516/16/

Odyssey states that the ship "is believed to be LE MARQUIS TOURNAY, a vessel thought to be privately owned which likely sank in the late 18th century. This identification has not been confirmed, but is based on the general location of the shipwreck, characteristics of the wrecksite and certain artifacts recovered therefrom including a ship's bell."

The Discovery Channel, which has a new program about Odyssey Marine called "Treasure Quest", has a video clip of the recovery of a ship's bell (pictured above).

http://blogs.discovery.com/ocean_odyssey/2008/09/video-a-bell-co.html

Could this be the bell from Le Marquis Tournay? We'll find out in the upcoming episodes of "Treasure Quest", every Thursday at 10PM on the Discovery Channel.

There are 19 other clips from Treasure Quest here: (WARNING: you have to suffer through a commercial before each one) http://dsc.discovery.com/video/index.html?playerId=203711706&categoryId=3125043001&lineupId=7335084001&titleId=7271817001

In the second episode of Discovery Channel's "TreasureQuest" the crew of Odyssey Marine has identified the bell they recovered as being that of "Marquis de Tournay". This coincides with the court filings that Odyssey made on Jan. 14, 2009 in which they call the shipwreck "Le Marquis Tournay".

Towards the end of 'TreasureQuest' they gave a brief history of the shipwreck. The Marquis was a French privateer from the Bordeaux region that would sail to North America and the Caribbean. It was captured at least three times by the British. During the final capture they were set upon by a French warship and instead of allowing the return of the Marquis to the French the British set fire to her and she sank. This was in 1757.

The only reference that could be found on the Marquis de Tournay is from the very interesting book "History of the Liverpool Privateers" by By Gomer Williams & David Eltis.

http://books.google.com/books?id=QoCIlf10H0sC&pg=PA128&dq=%22Le+Marquis+Tournay%22&lr=#PPA128,M1

An excerpt from page 128:

"The Liverpool sailed from the Mersey on June loth, 1757,
and in going down Formby Channel lost one landsman,
who was drowned. " On Saturday, June i8th, 1757,"
writes Captain Hutchinson in his journal, "in lat. 48-018 mins.
long., from London, made a sail from the masthead
bearing S. from us, called all hands to quarters, and
gave chase with all sails set. At 8, the ship hauled up her
courses, and by appearance seemed to prepare for action.
At 10, they threw out a French ensign and fired a gun.
We answered them only with French colours, but they, not
trusting us, began to fire their stern chase pretty briskly,
upon which we gave them two of our bow chase. The ship
yawed and gave us her larboard broadside. Several of
their shot went through our sails, and one of the crossbar
shots (a six-pounder) struck the fore topmast and fell upon
our deck. We immediately gave her both our broadsides,
upon which she struck. Sent our boats on board the prize
for the prisoners. On examination she appears to be the
Grand Marquis de Tournay, Francis Dellmar, commander,
from St. Domingo for Bordeaux ; is pierced for 24 guns
(20 upon the upper deck and 4 upon the lower deck), but has
only 12 six-pounders mounted. She came out of St.
Domingo with 31 sail, under convoy of six men-of-war,
one of 80 guns, four of 74 guns, and a frigate of 36 guns,
who saw them through the windward passage and then left
them. Found on board the prize, Captain John Mackay,
and his crew, of the Sarah, brig, bound from Bristol for
Boston, whom they had taken on the 3rd ult. The English
prisoners report that the brig was retaken on the i5th by two
men-of-war, and that the Frenchmen had behaved extremely
civil to them."

The cargo of the Le Grand Marquis de Tournay, valued
at upwards of ^20,000, as advertised to be sold by the
candle at the Bath Coffee-house, consisted of 494 hogsheads,
<3 tierces, and 4 barrels of sugar ; 19 butts, 35 hogsheads,
30 tierces, and 83 barrels of coffee ; 2 butts, 7 hogsheads,
24 tierces, 31 barrels, and 4 ankers of indigo ; 22 whole, and
117 half hides ; and 8^ tons of logwood. The vessel, also
sold by auction, was described as "a firm, good ship of
about 450 tons burthen, pierced for 22 guns, prime sailer
and very fit for a privateer or merchantman." Referring to
this capture, the Liverpool paper tells us that " all the officers
and the whole ship's company gave Captain Hutchinson
the best of characters, both as to conduct, courage and
humanity. He would not permit the least article to be taken
from any of the French prisoners, and to the honour
of the whole crew, each man behaved well in his station.
Some of the landsmen, who had not been at sea before,
could scarcely be kept within bounds, they were so eager
to come to action. Several who had entered themselves for
seamen, on trial proved to be incapable of their duty, and
have been since they came into this port discharged."

Thank you Odyssey for once again bringing history to life.
Fascinating.

Odyssey Marine in their never ending quest for the Merchant Royal has made an interesting find in the English Channel. Early in 2008 they were working in an area off of Guernsey. On May 29th, 2008, they filed two arrests that were in the English Channel "between 25 and 40 miles from the Coast of the United Kingdom and beyond the territorial waters or continguous zone of any sovereign nation." which corresponds to the area they were working.

In the previous episodes of TreasureQuest they recovered a ship's bell which, according to Odyssey, came from 'Le Marquis Tournay'. The second arrest identification has yet to be announced. The third episode find of "42lb cannons" almost certainly relates to this second arrest.

Just before the show aired, Odyssey made the following SEC filing:

http://biz.yahoo.com/e/090129/omex8-k.html

Item 7.01. Regulation FD Disclosure.

� Odyssey has discovered a shipwreck in the English Channel that it has code-named the "Legend."
� Odyssey has found at least 16 bronze cannon at the Legend shipwreck site.
� At least four of the cannon are of the type that fired 42-pound projectiles.
� At least one of the cannon bears the royal arms of King George I of England.

Speculation as to the identification of this shipwreck centers around the HMS Victory.

Six ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Victory.

* HMS Victory, purchased by the Royal Navy in 1569 and broken up in 1608.
* HMS Victory, a 42-gun great ship launched at Deptford in 1620.
* HMS Victory, a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line launched in 1675.
* HMS Victory, a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line launched in 1737.
* HMS Victory, an 8-gun schooner launched in 1764.
* HMS Victory, a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line launched in 1765. The present day HMS Victory.

From "The Balchin Family Society" is the following (note the reference to 42 pounder cannons):

http://www.balchin-family.org.uk/family_history/people/admiral/search_casquets.html

"The 18th century HMS Victory was the fourth of the name, and was built from the remains of the Royal James which was burnt in a fire in 1721. She took eleven years to build, starting in 1726, and was finally launched on 23rd February 1737 at Portsmouth. The ship carried 100 guns as follows:
4 6-pounders on the forecastle
12 6-pounders on the quarter-deck
28 12-pounders on the upper deck
28 24-pounders on the middle deck
28 42-pounders on the main gun deck"

"The cannon that HMS Victory carried are of particular interest, as she was the last First rate to be armed entirely with brass guns. The advantage of brass is that it does not rust, and archaeologists have recovered brass guns from the sea virtually undamaged, in comparison with iron guns which have been unrecognisable. The guns were distinctive in that they had a decoration known as a dolphin on the upper surface. These were lifting handles situated on the upper part of the barrel between the trunnions. Most guns had two dolphins, some four, but a few had only one. Brass guns were also much more heavily decorated than iron ones. Coats of Arms were engraved, and most of the guns on the Victory would probably have George II's monogram on them."

I believe that the reference to "brass guns" is really a reference to "bronze guns". There are a few references to "brass guns" but I'm not sure that there were ever any "brass guns" used as armament aboard a ship.

The "dolphin on the upper surface" is clearly seen from the video of Odyssey lifting one of these massive cannons from the deep. Also, the cannon that Odyssey recovered has a George I monogram instead of George II's. George I ruled from 1714 to 1727. George II ruled from 1727 to 1760. The construction of the HMS Victory began in 1726 during the reign of George I. Greg Stemm has said that the guns of the "Legend" (aka HMS Victory) were delivered BEFORE the ship was built, so George I monograms would make sense.

"The Loss of HMS Victory
On 28th September 1744, Sir John Balchin decided to return home after successfully freeing Sir Charles Hardy, who had been blockaded in the Tagus Estuary. He entered the Bay of Biscay on 30th September, and on 3rd October a violent storm blew up. All the squadron returned safely to Plymouth or Spithead except the Victory. She was last seen on the morning of the 4th October, but then vanishes. Nothing has been found of her remains. It is believed that she hit the Black Rock off the Casquets in the English Channel."

An interesting note: The Odyssey Explorer has been in Hull for a "five year Special Survey plus repairs and modifications, which will necessitate a dry dock period." She left a few days ago and is reported heading to London. There was a note at the end of a recent Discovery Channel video that requested you "Visit www.discovery.com/treasurequest Monday February 2 to learn about Odyssey's ground breaking discovery."

Interesting chain of events. We will probably know more on Monday Feb. 2nd. Stay tuned.

Nelson’s flagship-the 1765 HMS Victory - Portsmouth Dockyard

http://tinyurl.com/cw37fv

UPDATE: Odyssey was going to make an announcement on Monday but this excellent Discovery Video from the UK shows that they have definitely discovered the HMS Victory.

The fact that they recovered a 42-pounder gun means that they also have made some sort of arrangement with the UK for recovery. There may, or may not, be treasure on board.

Spectacular video of the HMS Victory Firing Broadside: http://tinyurl.com/d37tvh