DIVING ON SHIPWRECK TREASURE
In 1656, 118 drowned - 300 yrs later she almost took my life too!.
I ALMOST DROWNED & I CALLED OUT!
1656 VOC wreck 'De Vergulde Draeck' (The Gilt Dragon)
I was only 19 years old when a boy's dream of finding treasure came true!
I usually dived with my friend Graham Hill, but today my adventure was with one of my dive instructors from the Underwater Explorers Club (UEC) - The infamous Allan Robinson, who at the time had the salvage rights to the treasure of the Gilt Dragon.
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In the photo above, I am the skinny kid on the right at about 14 years old with diving buddy Graham Hill. Shoalwater Bay about 1960. (Graham Hill went on to dive on the Batavia with Hugh Edwards and is mentioned in Hugh's book 'Islands of Angry Ghosts' Hugh Edwards was also a UEC member with us. Other famous UEC members included the war hero Jack Sue.
THE 1656 VOC SHIPWRECK 'GILT DRAGON' by Rex Woodmore
A true story from my treasure hunting site 'Oztreasure'
In 1656, 227 years before Robert Louise Stevenson wrote ‘Treasure Island’ the Dutch East Indies (VOC) treasure ship The Gilt Dragon (Vergulde Draeck) struck a reef 5.6 kilometers off the coast of Western Australia. On board were Elephant tusks, eight chests of Silver coins, thousands of Ballast bricks, Earthenware jugs, large Iron cannons and at least one smaller Bronze canon. Out of a crew of 193, 118 drowned.
300 yrs later the Gilt Dragon almost claimed my life too! |
NEWS! 13th August 2022
I just found out that I was mentioned in "Holland Focus Magazine" 2015 with my painting 'Dragon Drowning' and the true story I am about to share with you: Email Rex: [email protected]
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DIVING on THE TREASURE of THE GILT DRAGON
1964 as a 19 year old, 56 years ago (I was 77 in January 2022)
Our treasure hunting party consisted of Allan Robinson, Garry (?) a local young rock lobster fisherman, my girlfriend Ann and me. Garry seemed to be living like a castaway on the beach and I thought to myself
"We already have Robinson, so this guy must be Crusoe".
Garry impressed me, he was a larger than life guy and I envied his lifestyle.
"We already have Robinson, so this guy must be Crusoe".
Garry impressed me, he was a larger than life guy and I envied his lifestyle.
On the beach he drove an unlicensed, topless ex-US army jeep with kangaroo skin seat covers. He worked with his Dad as a Rock Lobster fisherman and he lived alone at Ledge Point in a corrugated iron shack, among the sand dunes of the beach. Gary had dived with Allan before and at the rear of his shack he showed me a large Elephant tusk (Part of the Gilt Dragon's valuable treasure) worm eaten from three hundred years in the sea.
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We were in a small outboard motor boat about three and a half miles (in those days considered to be outside of Australian Territorial waters) from shore, at Ledge Point on the 1656 wreck of the Dutch East Indies vessel, the Vergulde Draeck (Gilt Dragon) with its tons of ballast bricks, eight chests of silver coins, elephant tusks, pottery, iron cannons and at least one gleaming bronze cannon, which I saw and touched.
The sea was eerily calm and Allan thought it was safe enough for us to snorkel from his boat to see a cannon that stood vertical from the reef with its muzzle protruding just a fraction out of the water. I was a skinny kid, my wetsuit jacket was too big for me and I had a borrowed weight belt made of an old ex-army webbing belt with homemade weights bolted onto it.
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Allan, a professional experienced salvage diver, was one of my dive instructors from the Underwater Explorer's Club, I had dived with him on shipwrecks before, so I took him very seriously as he briefed me on the three massive king waves, that would come up from time to time (even on calm days) and crash over the wreck. The plan was to keep watching out for the waves, turn and face them and dive under them before they broke on the reef.
We were anchored on the seaward side of the wreck site and we swam in close to the reef where the water was shallow, Allan pointed to a protrusion just above the mirror calm water that swirled gently around it.
We were anchored on the seaward side of the wreck site and we swam in close to the reef where the water was shallow, Allan pointed to a protrusion just above the mirror calm water that swirled gently around it.
“Wow!”.... An ancient bronze cannon with its muzzle just breaking the surface, pointing skyward from the the reef. Polished, literally by the sands of time, it gleamed like gold in the clear water.
Taking a quick breath I dived down and touched the clear VOC crest on its gleaming sand polished muzzle. |
I I was vaguely aware of Allan shouting something, but I was too overcome with excitement to respond. I came up for a breath of air and realised something was terribly wrong!
A huge shadow was folding over me like a giant hand above me and (as if the awesome site of the cannon hadn’t been breathtaking enough) the first of an unheard of six king waves tore my mask and snorkel from my face, scooped me up and hurled me onto the jagged rocks, knocking out the remnants of my breath of air and stunning me. I then fell back off the reef and plunged to the bottom where, even without my mask, I could see more cannon lying dark on the white sand. I grabbed hold of one but the next wave was too strong for me, almost ripping my fins from my feet. Again like a giant hand the wave rolled over me and seemed to be squeezing me like a tube of toothpaste. My grip was torn from my anchor point and again was hurled savagely, like a dog might toss a rag doll, onto the sharp rocks.
I knew I was in trouble and although I was frightened for my life, I remained relatively calm and thankful to the UEC (Underwater Explorers Club) training and experience.
I knew what to do, drop my weight belt and the buoyancy of my wetsuit would work like a life jacket. But I had one big problem; the safety release on the homemade weight belt, borrowed from my best friend and workmate Graham Hill, wouldn’t work. The belt was jammed and with each receding wave, every time I tried to raise my head for a gulp of air, the weights dragged me down to the bottom. One moment I was swirling around on the bottom in the sand among the cannon and the next I was stranded on the ragged rocks.
A huge shadow was folding over me like a giant hand above me and (as if the awesome site of the cannon hadn’t been breathtaking enough) the first of an unheard of six king waves tore my mask and snorkel from my face, scooped me up and hurled me onto the jagged rocks, knocking out the remnants of my breath of air and stunning me. I then fell back off the reef and plunged to the bottom where, even without my mask, I could see more cannon lying dark on the white sand. I grabbed hold of one but the next wave was too strong for me, almost ripping my fins from my feet. Again like a giant hand the wave rolled over me and seemed to be squeezing me like a tube of toothpaste. My grip was torn from my anchor point and again was hurled savagely, like a dog might toss a rag doll, onto the sharp rocks.
I knew I was in trouble and although I was frightened for my life, I remained relatively calm and thankful to the UEC (Underwater Explorers Club) training and experience.
I knew what to do, drop my weight belt and the buoyancy of my wetsuit would work like a life jacket. But I had one big problem; the safety release on the homemade weight belt, borrowed from my best friend and workmate Graham Hill, wouldn’t work. The belt was jammed and with each receding wave, every time I tried to raise my head for a gulp of air, the weights dragged me down to the bottom. One moment I was swirling around on the bottom in the sand among the cannon and the next I was stranded on the ragged rocks.
"I CALLED OUT TO THE GOD I DIDN'T THINK I BELIEVED IN"
In a surreal, silent, slow motion moment, my whole life, like a movie, replayed in front of my eyes. In the final episode it was as if I saw myself lifeless, dead, bloated and blue slowly drifting backwards and forwards among the strands of seaweed with blow fish nibbling at my flesh. I came back to reality.... and was hit by a very disturbing thought
"Where will I go, Heaven or Hell?" ..Suddenly my brain screamed out to the God that I didn’t think I believed in “God please save me!”
With that, my whole being seemed to explode with a super charge of Adrenaline, enabling me to throw myself to the surface.
Allan, oblivious to my drama and thinking that I was following him, had made it to safety back at the boat. I caught a glimpse of him in the water near the boat and on board was Garry and my girlfriend. When I saw her I thought “This is the last time I'll ever see you”.
"Where will I go, Heaven or Hell?" ..Suddenly my brain screamed out to the God that I didn’t think I believed in “God please save me!”
With that, my whole being seemed to explode with a super charge of Adrenaline, enabling me to throw myself to the surface.
Allan, oblivious to my drama and thinking that I was following him, had made it to safety back at the boat. I caught a glimpse of him in the water near the boat and on board was Garry and my girlfriend. When I saw her I thought “This is the last time I'll ever see you”.
I was still in trouble with the heavy weight belt dragging me down. There was just enough time, before the final wave broke, for me to yell out to Allan for help. Strangely it had seemed so natural and so easy to shout out to God for help, yet I found it unnatural and embarrassing to call out to man. I quickly overcame my embarrassment and was able to get out two or three shouts for “HELP!” before the next wave grabbed me. Strangely this wave (the seventh) behaved differently to the preceding six. It still effortlessly scooped me up, but it didn’t smash me onto the reef, instead it gently rolled me, like a bag of bones, over the full width of the reef and into deeper but calmer waters. There was no way I would be able to swim back to the boat with the weights dragging me down, so while blocking out stories of sharks waiting on this side of the reef for an easy feed of stunned and injured fish, I renewed my effort to drop the belt. Quickly Allan Robinson was alongside me, he always carried a spear with him on this side of the reef to fend off the sharks that I was trying to not think about. He seemed perplexed as to why I had not dropped my belt. He grabbed at the buckle and gave it a wrench. Nothing happened. His expression and manner changed. Reaching for his knife he dropped his brand new spear and it sank into the depths. Then while he partly lifted me with one hand, with the other he sawed through the tough webbing belt. It was difficult and seemed to take ages. Eventually I was free and bobbed around like a cork in my oversize wet suit. Allan took the lead and we swam quite a long way around the reef and back to the boat. Bruised and extremely tired, the swim back was long and painful, so I used a clumsy combination of overarm, breast stroke and side stroke, then while I was in the middle of a dog paddle, Allan said in an unusual serious tone of voice :
“Have a look under you!” then suddenly as if to correct himself he said
‘’Oh! It’s Okay. You can’t see without your facemask” “Why, what is it?” I asked “Nothing, just part of the wreck” he said unconvincingly. I didn't think there was any wreckage this far from the reef. We were in open waters and thoughts of sharks crept back into my mind. I brought my legs up and avoided splashing like an injured fish. |
On the way home in the car, Allan admitted that there was no wreck under me, but there was a ten foot (3 meter) Bronze Whaler shark ‘sniffing’ at my scratched and bleeding legs. He was concerned that had I known, I might have exacerbated the severity of the situation by splashing in panic.
It was a strange journey home and I had mixed emotions. I was confused and yet was sure that something, far more mysterious than possible death, had happened to me. I had called out to the God that I thought I did not believe in.
But who did I thank that day? I thanked the man that cut off my weight belt. And to what did I credit the surge of power that came over me when I needed it most? I credited my own system for its production of Adrenalin. |
Even though I had thoughts of needing to get to know the one to whom I had called out to in my distress, sadly it took me about three decades and another tragic episode in my life, before I reflected on my near drowning, my close encounter with an inquisitive shark and how I had called out to the God that I did not think I believed in!
And then, I thanked God for the love, grace & undeserved mercy that He showed me that day. Again he picked me up and made me the new man that I am today. I know I am far from perfect, but God has not given up on me. Instead he has blessed me in innumerable ways. |
Today I know firsthand, that we all have an inherent knowledge of the one and only true God and in every heart there is a void that can only be filled by the Spirit of God.
DO YOU EVER FEEL LIKE YOU ARE DROWNING IN PAIN & PROBLEMS?
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Do you ever feel like you’re drowning? Like there’s an ocean of pain and problems and you can’t breathe? But there is One who saves and Who rescues.
Who brings your life out of the deep and into the light and He wants to rescue you. Thanks to ODB for this youtube. |