Customer Reviews

The Hidden Galleon: The true story of a lost Spanish ship and the legendary wild horses of Assateague Island

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"The Hidden Galleon" is a magnet that will draw readers through its wonderful historic "connect the events" content......this beautifully illustrated adventure is detailed with archival maps and drawings and pictures that brings the reader into a fascinating adventure of the last days of the Spanish warship La Galga to its final resting place in Maryland's Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.
Author John Amrhein takes the reader on his lifelong journey to prove that the wreck of La Galga in a terrible hurricane in September, 1750 included the descendants of Chincoteague Island's pony population that attracts tens of thousands of tourists yearly to Maryland.
As a native of Baltimore, Maryland and a high school US History teacher here in Virginia with 40 years of classroom experience, I found that the book was impossible to put down and a delight to read. In truth, it brought back wonderful memories of the pony pennings that I loved so much to see whenever we traveled to Maryland's eastern shore in the 1950s.

The Hidden Galleon brings the thrill of many years of treasure hunting right into your own living room and makes you want to continue reading as you participate in the progression of the hunt. The final conclusions are rewarding and exciting.

I purchased this book because of the positive reviews I had read and also because I have Chincoteague Ponies. I was hoping to learn more about the ponies and their actual origin than the authors personal life and legal battles. Way deeper than I expected. I would have to say that even after reading this book cover to cover, I still don't know any more of the ponies lineage than before I spent a month reading. I was disappointed and felt that I was left hanging, only to search more on my own or have to purchase another book. This was 95 percent personal and legal battles over ship wrecks and 5 percent or less about the ponies. The information and research on the ships was excellent, but I can't recommend this book to someone wanting information on the ponies.

Mr. Powell, I respectfully disagree. It is a historical event that weaves itself into todays events. To understand that impact, you need the details the author lays out. Add the current case between Spain, Odyssey Marine (and now Peru), in which this case has been cited, and it brings to life the current ongoing drama. I can't believe what has happened in the court cases discussed in the book and how it may throw a monkey wrench in this current one - fascinating!

The Hidden Galleon is the story of the author's exhaustive search for the La Galga and the byzantine legal morass he had to navigate to solve the mystery. The hunt began in March of 1978, when he was researching Civil War records for shipwreck locations, and he found a letter concerning the Spanish ship the La Galga. The letter was written by the captain of the La Galga when she grounded on a disputed border area on the shifting Maryland Virginia state line. This letter became the start of a three decades long journey filled with many long days of endless searching, strange twists, lots of disappointments, multiple court cases, intentional fraud, and governmental indifference and incompetence.

When the journey ended; a mystery was solved, a con man uncovered, and the State of Maryland was exposed as reckless, selfish, and dishonest. The most curious participant in the bizarre journey is the United States Justice Department when they entered the legal fray in the Sea Hunt legal case; well documented in the book; resulting in bad legal precedent by establishing foreign sovereignty over wrecks in United States territorial waters affecting treasure hunting and salvaging operations today and into the future.

The Hidden Galleon proves that sometimes when you search for treasure you may find it but it does not always come in the form of gold and riches; sometimes the treasure is the finding of one's true self and character, surviving the trials and tribulations, and the personal satisfaction that your research, gut instincts, perseverance, and conclusions were right all along and that your efforts solved a great maritime and historical mystery.

The Hidden Galleon is a well written and documented book that shows the tough, tedious, and heartbreaking side of the search for treasure. I recommend all would be treasure hunters to read this book to get a good understanding of the challenges involved in pursuing the passion and the dream of finding treasure! This is not only a great narrative of maritime history but it is the playbook everyone must read who follows treasure discoveries and the subsequent intervention of government. It will change the way you view historical preservationists, and the role of government.

This saga is not yet over, presently, the author of this award winning book finds himself in the center of the controversy between Spain and Odyssey Marine Exploration. La Galga and the bad legal precedent surrounding her discovery, has become the pawn in Spain's fight to seize 17 tons of Spanish treasure. The author, John Amrhein, recently testified about the invalidity of the Sea Hunt case cited by Spain as legal precedent.

I cannot wait until the next book in this saga is written!

As someone who has been going to Pony Penning since childhood and hearing (and reading) the legend of the Spanish galleon all of my life, I could not put this book down. It was a relief to read a possible explanation of the source of Chincoteague ponies that did not start by dismissing the beliefs of locals as romantic legends with no basis in fact. Things passed down through the generations in a family just may have some value after all. The legal battle that continues over sunken Spanish ships is facinating, but I would really like to read is the next chapter- when the suggested location of the wreck on Assateague is very carefully(and ecologically soundly) uncovered.

The book was way too long and overrun with facts that the average reader does not need. The title was what prompted me to buy the book as I am an Easten Shore native and have known about the horses for over 70 years. However, the book was MORE about the author and his problems than how the horses got to Assateague Island. I'm not sure that I would recommend it to someone who wanted to know about the horses....

Tom Powell