The Grifon Did Not Sink But Peter Benchley Gains a Script Anyway July 31, 2010

The Grifon from "The Deep" Was Real and So Was Bisset

Shaw Keeps His Eyes Forward

On this date in 1715, the French ship Grifon survived a hurricane off the coast of Florida. “So what,” you ask?Well, first off when the Spanish came to the new world they were looking for booty and plunder. They wanted to exploit the region for its natural resources and send it back to the king in Spain. So they would gather up all of their gold and trinkets and send them back on ships, usually in a convoy to protect against pirates. The Spaniards were rather formidable in those days and so it was suicide for any marauding pirates to try and take on a fleet of ships. On this date in 1715, 10 Spanish ships and one French ship made its way through the Straits of Florida. 

Shaw wasn't making up the stuff about the Griffon

The flotilla rounded the Florida peninsula in order to follow the Gulf Stream back to Europe.  As it made their way up the east coast of Florida,  the entire fleet ran into a hurricane. Some sources say the fleet hit the hurricane on July 30, 1715 and I suspect the difference is that the ships went down on the night of the 30th or early morning of the 31st as this account implies.    In any event, for some reason, the French ship sailed farther off the coast from the Spaniards. The Spanish ships, filled with hundreds of tons of gold and silver, sunk. Some estimate the value of the treasure in 1975 dollars was about $86 million.  But,  the French ship survived. That French ship was the Grifon.

Painting of 1715 Ship Wreck

The sinking of the Spanish fleet in 1715 was one of the worst of Spain’s New World ventures in terms of lives and treasure lost.  Over 1000 men went to the bottom with the 10 ships and the crown lost over 14 million pesos.  Maritime historians that the ultimate cause of the disaster beyond the hurricane was that the Spanish had a habit of over loading their galleons and speculation is that was the case with the 1715 Spanish fleet.   News of the disaster reached Havana and Spain quickly dispatched ships for salvage operations.  A good bit of the treasure was located in waters shallow enough for breath-holding divers to gather a large number of coins.  The salvage operations took several years to complete and the Spanish built a small store house on the edge of a small island to house the treasure until it could be taken back to Spain.  But, British freebooters caught wind of the operation and in 1716, a bunch of ships under the charge of Henry Jennings raided the island and made off with 350,000 pesos.  Undeterred, the Spanish resumed salvaging until they had gotten all that they could get in 1719. 

A Famous Scene from "The Deep"

If you remember the movie The Deep then this ship is familiar to you. Its the ship that Robert Shaw decided had survived but later came back and may have sunk. I’ve provided a script from the scene below. But anyway, there are two things that come to mind from this. First is that Peter Benchley did a fabulous job of basing his fictitious tale on accurate history. I was very surprised that there really was a Grifon that really was the only ship to not sink in a hurricane. The other thing is that about 80% of that gold was recovered by the Spanish by 1719 but the rest did not come back to the surface until the mid 1960’s, which makes me wonder how much of Benchley’s script was really ficticious. Speaking of scripts, if you can take your eyes off of the photo of Jacqueline  Bisset, you can read the script from The Deep, here.

Weather Bottom Line:  Morning rain should give way to cloudy skies.  I doubt if we get to 90 today.  But, the warm front will slowly lift north and we will become hotter and more humid again.  Look for scattered showers and t-storms for a couple of days and then a big fat ridge noses up from the Southwest which will limit rain chances and take our temperatures back into the mid to upper 90’s probably beginning on Tuesday.

Where is Jimmy Hoffa? The Deep’s Grifon was a true beauty of the sea, as was Jaqueline Bissett July 31, 2009

Take That Boy!

Shaw Keeps His Eyes Forward

Shaw wasn't making up the stuff about the Griffon

On this date in 1715, the French ship Grifon survived a hurricane off the coast of Florida. “So what,” you ask?Well, first off when the Spanish came to the new world they were looking for booty and plunder. They wanted to exploit the region for its natural resources and send it back to the king in Spain. So they would gather up all of their gold and trinkets and send them back on ships, usually in a convoy to protect against pirates. The Spaniards were rather formidable in those days and so it was suicide for any marauding pirates to try and take on a fleet of ships. On this date in 1715, 10 Spanish ships and one French ship made its way through the Straits of Florida where they ran into a hurricane. For some reason, the French ship sailed farther off the coast from the Spaniards. The Spanish ships, filled with hundreds of tons of gold and silver, sunk. The french ship survived. That French ship was the Grifon.

A Famous Scene from "The Deep"

If you remember the movie The Deep then this ship is familiar to you. Its the ship that Robert Shaw decided had survived but later came back and may have sunk. I’ve provided a script from the scene below. But anyway, there are two things that come to mind from this. First is that Peter Benchley did a fabulous job of basing his fictitious tale on accurate history. I was very surprised that there really was a Grifon that really was the only ship to not sink in a hurricane. The other thing is that about 80% of that gold was recovered by the Spanish by 1716 but the rest did not come back to the surface until the mid 1960’s, which makes me wonder how much of Benchley’s script was really ficticious. Speaking of scripts, if you can take your eyes off of the photo of Bissett, you can read the script from The Deep, here.

Where is Jimmy?

On This Date in 1975, Jimmy Hoffa disappeared.  He was last seen the previous day at a restaurant parking lot.  The movie Hoffa took many liberties. The Danny DeVito character was a fictitious character that was based on a conglomeration of other people. Here are the facts regarding the disappearance of James R. Hoffa.  There are many theories on what happened to him, but no one really knows.  Just a couple of days ago,  a story appeared that said a jawbone police found outside of Detroit probably was not that of the former Teamsters leader.  But, it goes to show that people and perhaps law enforcement remain on the case.  There have been stories that Hoffa is in the end zone of Giants Stadium.    There have been many searches, one in which the cops drained a lake. They didn’t find him.  I had a roommate from Pittsburgh whose father was a labor attorney.  He always told me that Hoffa’s body was in a road bed of some highway that I cannot recall.  Whatever, it is, speculation is that he was killed and it was a conspiracy, but by whom?  One of those stories that will probably never have a solution and therefore will never go away.

Ryan Makes A Point with Bob Hill

On This Date in 1990, Nolan Ryan won his 300th game by beating the Milwaukee Brewers 11-3. Here is his career biography. We used to go to every game he pitched when he was with the Astros There was this old man who always screamed out “Breeze him Nolie!” It seemed to reverberate around the Astrodome…that and the beer vendor yelling “coldest foam in the Dome!” I never liked his nickname “The Ryan Express.” We just called him “The Big Heater.” There are a bunch of Ryan tales I could tell but two stand out. Of course, one is represented by the photo on the left. Robin Ventura didn’t like the Ryan threw inside so the youngster charged the mound. Ryan was a big, tough guy and this guy about 20 years his junior didn’t scare him. Instead of backing up, he simply bull-dogged the kid by grabbing him about the neck and pummeling him. It was as if he said “come here, boy!” One of the greatest moments in baseball history. Then there was his final pitch. He tore a ligament in his arm. But, he decided to throw one more pitch. The radar gun clocked it at 98 mph. Nolan Ryan is listed among Texas’ Heroes along with the likes of Davy Crockett.

Rain Totals

Missed it by That Much!

Weather Bottom Line:   As Maxwell Smart would say, “missed it by that much.”  I had said that the reports of rain and t’storms on Thursday evening were a bit overblown and I suspected that the widespread rain would be similar to what happened the previous day, which was wide spread rain after midnight toward day break.  Well, we did have scattered activity in the afternoon but the main blob did roll through much later.  But, it was over by about 4 AM.  So, I was off by a few hours.  Anyway, the map above shows the rain from midnight to midnight on the 30th and from Louisville to a few counties north, the totals were 2-4 inches and then a few counties south of Louisville got 2-3 inches.  My sunflowers are quite happy.

NAM rain 6Z Sunday

The pattern will be pretty regular in terms of consistency but not for the time of year.  Frontal activity is typically limited this time of year but we just had one come through and there will be another weak one on Saturday night.  The main action should be south and southwest of our area where the new front has grabbed on to the old front.  Then another weak front shows up on Wednesday night.  If this hold true, then we’ll probably see a repeat performance of scattered stuff on Saturday afternoon with the bulk of the widespread rain overnight on Saturday into Sunday morning.   Early Sunday church may be wet.  Then the same thing on Wednesday with some scattered stuff Wednesday evening with more widespread rain overnight Wednesday.  The fronts are weak so we don’t get overly cooler or drier behind them but this pattern does not lend itself to 90 degree temperatures any time soon.  For the first time in Louisville recorded history, we did not get to 90 degrees on any day in the month of July, which is quite remarkable. 

The Deep

Remember the Grifon? July 31, 2007

The boys at the NHC have named Chantal. Its a worthless storm moving quickly northeast and will probably live much longer as an extra-tropical storm than a tropical storm. There is also a wave out there that needs the Bee Gees because its having problems staying alive, but we’ll see how it shakes out. No Changes for us. Lazy, Hazy hot Dog Days ahead. Rain chances are still pretty slim for as far as the eye can see. We’ll keep looking nonetheless.

On This Date In History: On this date in 1715, the French ship Grifon survived a hurricane off the coast of Florida. “So what,” you ask? Well, first off when the Spanish came to the new world they were looking for booty and plunder. They wanted to exploit the region for its natural resources and send it back to the king in Spain. So they would gather up all of their gold and trinkets and send them back on ships, usually in a convoy to protect against pirates. The Spaniards were rather formidable in those days and so it was suicide for any marauding pirates to try and take on a fleet of ships. On this date in 1715, 10 Spanish ships and one French ship made its way through the Straits of Florida where they ran into a hurricane. For some reason, the French ship sailed farther off the coast from the Spaniards. The Spanish ships, filled with hundreds of tons of gold and silver, sunk. The french ship survived. That French ship was the Grifon. If you remember the movie The Deep then this ship is familiar to you. Its the ship that Robert Shaw decided had survived but later came back and may have sunk. I’ve provided a script from the scene below. But anyway, there are two things that come to mind from this. First is that Peter Benchley did a fabulous job of basing his fictitious tale on accurate history. I was very surprised that there really was a Grifon that really was the only ship to not sink in a hurricane. The other thing is that about 80% of that gold was recovered by the Spanish by 1716 but the rest did not come back to the surface until the mid 1960’s, which makes me wonder how fictitious Benchley’s tale really was.

One other thing. The people of South Florida today would have nothing in common with the Spaniards of 1715. Nothing except hurricanes. They would be able to use hurricanes as point of reference and commonality. Languages, culture, technology, social systems and political systems all change. But the one thing that is constant is weather. The hurricane that sunk all of those ships and made it possible for Peter Benchley to get rich writing a fictitious story about it and gave us all an opportunity to see Jaqueline Bissett skin diving in her t-shirt, is the same as hurricane Andrew in 1992…or Ivan, or Katrina. The weather has not changed…nor do I think it ever will. In fact, I really wonder how much people have changed. Human nature seems to be constant. Today we run around trying to get ahold of the latest gadget like an I-pod or I-phone or flat screen tv. Maybe we yearn for that new car. Well, the Spanish were no different, they were running around working hard to take people’s gold. Here’s the place for the Ward Cleaver moral to the story about not wasting so much time on chasing for our own personal gold because it may get all washed away by the storms of life….but I’ll avoid that. You’ve probably already seen Ward and June give that speech.

Here’s the script from the scene in The Deep….sorry no pictures of Jacqueline.

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/d/deep-script-transcript-peter-benchley.html