Carolina Booty by T. Lynn Ocean

Author:T. Lynn Ocean [Ocean, T. Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: none
Publisher: T. Lynn Ocean
Published: 2014-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Buttering a piece of toast, I studied my hands and realized it was the first time in a long time that my nails weren’t painted. Rumton didn’t have a salon and there was no place nearby to get a manicure, so I’d just removed the old polish and filed my nails short. Oddly, au natural nails didn’t bother me as much as I would have thought. Probably because I had too many other things to worry about.

I spread a spoonful of peach jam atop the already buttered toast, not caring about calories, and bit in. Chewing, I spoke through a mouthful of food, not caring about bad manners, either. “Everybody knows about the sunken boat. Everyone in town. So much for keeping it under wraps.”

Avery took the jar of jam and doctored up his toast. “That’s okay because there is nothing of monetary value down there, anyway.”

“For sure?” I looked at Brent and Tom, who took their turns at the peach jam. Mad Millie made it. It was really good jam. I told Pop he should have gotten to be friends with her years ago and he agreed.

“So, are you guys done exploring?” I said.

Tom nodded. “Yep, and sorry to say we’ve got to leave today.”

Oh, well, I thought. No sunken treasure and no time for a fling with Tom. “So there was nothing at all? I don’t know what I was expecting, but that’s disappointing.”

“We can say with confidence that the boat was in use between the late sixteen hundreds and mid seventeen hundreds. Based on what’s left of it, we did a sketch of what the original ship looked like, and we think it was big. Possibly a three-masted square rigger. And we found a few cool artifacts,” Brent said. “Some ceramics and carpentry tools. There is also an anchor that appears to be intact and in good shape, but it’s still half submerged and covered with barnacles. Too big to get out of there without using heavy equipment.

“A ship of that size would’ve had several anchors, but only one stayed with our wreckage,” Tom added.

“The items we recovered are in Pop’s shed, on the workbench, if you want to take a look,” Brent finished.

I swigged some coffee. “No doubloons? No pieces of eight?”

He laughed. “Spanish explorers and conquistadors certainly traveled the gulf stream, returning to Spain with treasure-filled loads. And pirates certainly ran these shores, to steal from the Spaniards, among others. But if The Aldora was a pirate flagship, and if there was anything valuable on board when she sunk, it’s still out there somewhere.”

I asked why they didn’t want to look for a possible treasure.

Tom shook his head. “Probably, The Aldora went down offshore, but didn’t fully sink and got washed into Devil’s Tail during a storm. And if there’s no historical documentation to indicate that valuables were on board, and where the ship traveled from when it sank, it makes no sense to search the ocean floor. Without knowledge of what you’re looking for, doing that would be a real waste of time and money.

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