❖ Cannon Hunters Expedition –– Seattle to Cozumel Island ❖ 1966

Hunting treasures of the deep off Mexico,
divers returned to a fishing boat with underwater finds.
Cannon Hunters Association of Seattle, WA.
Expedition date of 1966.
Photograph from the archives of
Saltwater People Historical Log©

Janice Krenmayr, Seattle Times, 7 August 1966 ▼

"Cozumel Island, according to early Spanish colonizers, was the Rome of the Mayan kingdom.
      The remains of causeways, they wrote, could be seen traversing the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. From the great city of Chicken Itza, they fled across the sea to Cozumel, hanging 12 miles offshore like a jewel in the Mayan crown.
      Pilgrims from all over Mexico and Guatemala visited Cozumel as a sanctuary, to seek advice or remission of sins from an idol which like the Greek oracle of Delphi, gave mysterious replies. 
      Tourists in the past few decades have flocked to see the ruins of Chichen Itza. Until only four years ago, Cozumel remained a forgotten sanctuary, her coverlet pulled over a brilliant past. 
      The island has been 'discovered' and is drawing modern pilgrims, seeking unusual vacation spots.
      So CHAOS, the Cannon Hunters Association of Seattle went to Cozumel to dive and locate cannons from centuries-old wrecks. I went along to discover the forgotten sanctuary like a modern pilgrim.

On the beach at Akumal

      Only a hundred yards distant from my door was a solid, impenetrable wall of green. Who knows what lay behind that forbidding, green grille? Long forgotten Mayan temples, hidden in their jungle shrouds?
      Cozumel was the cradle of the Latin American conquest.
      Juan de Grivalja was the first navigator to set foot on Mexican soil at Cozumel in 1518 and to open a friendly intercourse with the natives.
      Pablo Bush Romero, explorer, and director of CEDAM, the Mexican underwater exploration association, which was cooperating with our CHAOS expedition, made us feel like modern conquistadores as we sipped cool drinks on the hotel dining patio overlooking the ocean.
      Romero has made many rich finds as head of CEDAM by searching the remains of ships which followed Cortez into the Caribbean seas.
      'You have no idea of the rich possibilities of this area, it is virtually undiscovered.' 
      'There is not even a passable trail across Cozumel Island, and there are Mayan temples and cities throughout Yucatan that remain to be explored.
      'A man from your own area, Robert O. Lee, of Portland, led a team of scientists across the Yucatan jungles last year and discovered many new ruins.'
      CEDAM divers, in another activity, brought up more than 15,000 items from the MATANCERO wreck, described as the riches find."

Janice Krenmayr, Seattle Times, August 14 1966 ▼

Hewitt Jackson,
Cannon hunter expedition from Seattle, WA.,
 snorkeling at Cozumel 1966

The great day had finally arrived. CHAOS was going on its first treasure hunt.
      Gathering at the hotel dock on Cozumel Island, were a motley looking crew, bags bulging with suntan lotion, masks, snorkels, cotton gloves, and long winter underwear for protection against sharp coral.
      Duffle bags stuffed with camp gear were piled in the hold of the 32-ft auxiliary sloop. Cases of beer and soda were packed in ice by the hotel, with sandwiches and fruit.
      We sailed southward for a point opposite Cozumel on the Yucatan mainland.
      Shortly after noon, the captain anchored behind a long reef donned mask and snorkel and jumped into the sea. Manuel and Alfonso, our happy crew boys, helped with tanks and weight belts. We watched Melicio, the captain, bobbing close to shore, then saw him raise a hand, and point down. 
      'Aqui!' he yelled. Here it was.
      Over the rail went Clark, head hunter, Cannoneers Leeds, Cliff Worner, and Dr. Jim Carver jumped after him. Al Salisbury, Jane and Hewitt Jackson and I watched from aboard.
      In ten minutes, the four cannoneers were back, hanging on the ship's dinghy and chattering like magpies.
      'Did you see that anchor? And that cannon!' They're enormous!
      'Two cannon, they're welded together in the coral.'
      Salisbury, Jackson, and I could stand it no longer. We jumped in with masks and snorkels.
      All afternoon the men swam and dived, bringing up chunks of coral with buttons, pins or beads they had seen glistening.
      The afternoon's take grew –– pins, buckles, buttons, earrings, cuff links, handles. 
      It had been a rich day for the treasure hunters when we finally called a halt to our first day of diving and turned into Akumal, a quiet sandy cove fringed by waving palms where we camped overnight.

Jance Krenmayr, Seattle Times, August ? 1966 ▼

"Members of the CHAOS, Cannon Hunters Association of Seattle expedition to Cozumel Island were back in Seattle with deep suntans and treasures from the deep.
      'It was a dream come true, and the most memorable experience I have had' said Donald R. Clark, head hunter and chief of the expedition.
      Clark, Seattle advertising and public-relations man, is the son of the late Donald H. Clark, who founded CHAOS in 1949 with the whimsical purpose of hunting and recovering ancient cannon. It had gone international, counting 1,500 members in 31 nations, and more than 500 ancient, muzzle-loading cannon have been recovered since 1949.
      Cozumel Island, a few miles off the northeast tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, was the site of the beginning of the Spanish conquest of Latin Americal. Its surrounding waters have disclosed many shipwrecks.
      Though the wrecks we visited have been thoroughly explored and most of the important artifacts recovered by CEDAM, the official Mexican underwater and archeology organization, our CHAOS group received full cooperation from CEDAM with permission to dive and recover what 'goodies' were left.
      The booty which our CHAOS team brought back in its two weeks of sea scouting included about 20 small crucifixes, a couple of boxes full of trade beads of various colors, which were carried by old merchant ships, some cuff links and earrings, buttons, fragments of spoon and knife handles, buckles, pins, and many promising chunks of coral.
      Clark brought up the first crucifix, the first five minutes of diving over the wreck of the MATANCERO, off the Yucatan mainland.
      The MATANCERO was believed to be a Spanish merchant ship, which sank about 1741, and is, according to the Smithsonian Institution, the richest sunken ship ever explored in America."


Krenmayr writes of long ago forgotten jewels in the Mayan jungle? What an amazing discovery has been made very recently under the forest floor in nearby Guatemala. No cannons but lots and lots of excitement ––
Results from the research using Lidar technology, which is short for "light detection and ranging", suggest that Central America supported an advanced civilization more akin to sophisticated cultures like ancient Greece or China. BBC News February 2019 Click here.