DATE: Thursday, September 18, 1997          TAG: 9709180522

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ASSATEAGUE ISLAND, VA.            LENGTH:  131 lines

SILVER COIN MAY BE LINK TO TREASURE SHIP IF VERIFIED, SPANISH FRIGATE COULD YIELD A $500 MILLION TROVE.

The ocean has yielded up the first convincing evidence of sunken Spanish treasure off the Virginia coast.

In 1802, the heavily armed and guarded frigate Juno went to the bottom after being battered by storms. Its exact location is keenly disputed by two companies searching for treasure that could be worth as much as $500 million.

But Ben Benson, president of Sea Hunt Inc., who has a permit from the state to retrieve the contents of several wrecks closest to shore, no longer has any doubt.

Tuesday as he was diving on the site that he believes to be Juno's burial place, Benson scooped up a silver ``eight reale'' coin.

The ``piece of eight,'' as it was popularly called, could have been clutched by one of the 425 passengers who went down with the ship as it sank or could have been part of what has been estimated at up to $500 million stored in the ship's hold.

``Finding an actual coin, this is as good as it gets,'' a smiling Benson said, palming the well-preserved coin onboard the small work boat he has used in the initial investigation of the shipwreck.

The actual excavation could begin as early as next week. The entire ship is buried under a blanket of mud and sand on the sea floor.

If the sunken ship is definitely identified as the Juno, it will be the first Spanish treasure ship ever uncovered on the Atlantic coast north of Florida.

The coin, about the size of an American silver dollar, bears the likeness of Spanish King Charles IV (1788-1808) and the words Dei Gratia (``by the grace of God'') as well as the clear 1799 date.

Several residents of nearby Chincoteague - some who lived on Assateague Island before it became a national park - have shown Benson collections of Spanish coins, all dated prior to 1802, which they have found on the beach near what he is now convinced is the Juno site.

A Virginia Beach company, Quicksilver Inc., has been exploring a different site 40 miles offshore for almost 10 years. The company believes its evidence, a large church bell and rudder post found by a fisherman, as well as electronic images showing other metal debris, firmly support its claim.

Benson, a New Hampshire entrepreneur, believes that the Juno left a debris trail as passengers and crew fought to keep the battered boat afloat as it drifted, mastless and rudderless, toward the Virginia coast.

The Juno, a three-masted frigate, began its ill-fated journey from Veracruz, Mexico, in January, 1802. After its first encounters with storms, it retreated to San Juan, Puerto Rico, then left for Cadiz, Spain in October. On Oct. 28, she disappeared off the coast of Assateague Island.

Benson's site, repeatedly indicated by electronic and sonar images, is only three-tenths of a mile from the national seashore public beach in about 30 feet of water.

In March, Benson became the first to be granted a permit under a 1987 law giving states ownership of everything within three miles of their coasts. The state will retain 25 percent of the proceeds and its pick of some of the artifacts.

Benson was originally most interested in the wreck of La Galga, another Spanish ship, which foundered and broke up off Assateague near the Maryland border in 1750.

But he learned of a Chincoteague fisherman who recovered a huge, barnacle-incrusted anchor close to shore. Attached to the anchor was a pewter plate with the letter ``J'' on the back, along with lettering that could spell ``Jane,'' ``Juno'' or ``Jolle.''

The fisherman sold the plate and anchor to the owner of Payne's Sea Treasures, a nautical curio shop, where they now serve as leading attractions.

Juno was guarded by a battalion of African soldiers as it left for Spain. Some of their wives and children, as well as the ship's officers and crew, were on board when the ship went down.

All souls were apparently lost.

From early maps, Benson believes the ship was lost about one mile from shore, but the shoreline has grown out from its position nearly 200 years ago, greatly shortening the distance.

Glynn Rogers, the chairman of Quicksilver, has estimated the treasure, including millions of silver pesos, at up to $500 million.

Motoring out from his dock at Chincoteague on Tuesday, Benson did some more sonar scanning. The onboard computer screen showed a hull-like outline of hard-packed sand.

Benson decided to don scuba gear and dive to the wreck site, carrying a small metal detector. As he scanned the bottom, the small clump about the size of a baseball gave off a metallic signature and he scooped it up and brought it to the surface.

Along with mud and sand were a small piece of wood, with tooling that might be from a gunstock, and a bright silver coin.

``It was a one-in-a-million chance,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

``Dei Gratia,'' 1799 date mark the coin.

STEVE EARLEY color photos/The Virginian-Pilot

Ben Benson has no doubt the coin discovered at a shipwreck site off

the coast of Assateague Island belongs to the missing Spanish

treasure ship Juno.

Site of debris that could be from the frigate Juno, above, which

disappeared Oct. 28, 1802

Graphic

PREVIOUS FINDS

Nuestra Senora de Atocha, a Spanish galleon, sank off Key West in

1622 and was discovered in 1985. Gold, silver and gems have been

estimated to be worth as much as $400 million.

Japanese submarine I-52 sank 1,200 miles west of Cape Verde

Islands during 1944. The gold discovered on the wreck in 1995 was

estimated at $25 million.

Central America, a paddlewheel steamer, sank off South Carolina

in 1857. After being found and identified in 1988, the cargo of gold

has been valued from $21 million to $1 billion.

The Whydah, a pirate ship, was found off Cape Cod in 1984 with a

cargo value estimated at $400 million.

HMS Edinburgh, a British cruiser sunk while carrying Russian gold

to the U.S. during World War II to purchase ships, was found in the

early 1980s. Cargo value was put at $150 million.

A Chinese Asiatic trading ship was found in Indonesian waters

with an intact cargo of porcelain that later brought $28 million at

a Christie's auction.

Another Spanish galleon, Nuestra Senora de la Maravilla, sank off

Little Bahama Bank in 1656. The treasures brought up in 1972

amounted to $5 million.

In 1595 the San Agustin, a Manila galleon, sank in Drakes Bay

near Point Reyes, Calif. The wreck was reportedly found in 1989, but

salvage rights have not been granted. The valuable cargo was

reported to be 130 tons of Ming Dynasty porcelain and other Chinese

art, and possibly other treasures being smuggled to avoid taxes.

Estimated value was put between $10 million and $500 million.

Research by The Virginian-Pilot library staff. KEYWORDS: SUNKEN TREASURE SHIPWRECKS DISCOVERY

SALVAGERS

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