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.

Have a Coke and a Smile with DeSoto’s Pig Brigade May 8, 2008

The map on the left is the severe outlook from the SPC for Thursday.  I think the northern extent is probably a CYA factor as the main low will be to our South which would tend not to promote strong storms around here.  We should get rain and some thunderstorms for Thursday midday through the evening.  Then there’s a break for a couple of days. Friday should be cool and cloudy and Saturday will have some sun and be more seasonable.  Sunday the rain returns with perhaps some thunderstorms.  Depending on the track of the shortwave and timing, the risk of strong storms may be a bit more interesting but certainly not a slam dunk.

On This Date In History:Hernando De Soto was promised the governorship of Florida by the King of Spain if he explored and settled the land at De Soto’s expense. No one else had ever been successful doing it but De Soto gave it a try.  Now, the Spanish were pretty lousy at foraging for food and so if the Indians didn’t give them any, then they went hungry. In 1539, De Soto landed near Tampa Bay with 622 men and other supplies, including 13 Spanish hogs.  They were going to breed the hogs along the way and use them for food in case of emergency.  Pigs are also great snake killers so they may have served a duel purpose.  Even though the men got hungry, De Soto refused to allow the pigs slaughter, forcing the men to even eat the dogs before they touched the pigs, which grew in number to 300.  On This date in 1541, De Soto crossed the Mississippi River with his pigs.  He was the first white man to see the “Big Muddy” but he found no treasure.  So he returned back across the river, pigs in tow, much disheartened.   By 1542, De Soto died.  He probably got malaria around the swamps of the river that he discovered.  The pig herd had grown to over 700 and with their benefactor six feet under, they were quickly auctioned off.  However, many Spanish pigs escaped and mated with the wild pigs native to the land.  The result may have been this:

This boy in Alabama in May 2007 shot this wild pig of over 1000 pounds measuring over 9 feet from snoot to tail.  The boy used a .50 caliber pistol!  The Spanish pigs are characterized as small range pigs with prick ears, heavy coats and long snouts.  This “Monster Pig” or “Hogzilla II” has some of those characteristics.  Here is more about it:

MONSTER PIG LINK

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On This Date in 1886 A new and exciting drink was sold in Atlanta, Georgia. It was made with Coca, which is the derivative of cocaine. It proved quite popular. It is known as Coca-Cola but the formula was changed long ago. I’m just not sure when the slogan “have a coke and a smile” was coined….perhaps shortly after the first one was sold!