The Lost Ship of the Desert

In the Coachella Valley, cupped by the San Bernardino Mountains you’ll find The Salton Sea, The Algodones Sand Dunes, the Salton Sink (a sort of desert) and the actual desert remains of the Ancient Lake Cahuilla. Some of the Dunes do “Sing”. There are a wealth of videos all over youtube of both locals and tourists playing with the Dunes. Needless to say, it’s not a spot that screams tales of a ghostly Pirate Ship.

But the ghost of a Tall Ship there is.

The story goes, that in 1610, King Phillip III of Spain ordered Alvarez de Cordone to search the Western coast of Mexico and recover any and all pearls he could find. Cordone hired two other captains, Juan de Iturbe and Pedro de Rosales. He also hired sixty pearl divers and began having three ships build. By July 1612 they set sail to plunder the west coast of its precious oysters.

The story begins to change at this basic point. Some say that two of the Spanish Galleons were destroyed utterly in a storm leaving one desperately searching for safe harbor by following rivers inland.

The major version of the story says that the expedition was wildly successful, so much so that Juan de Iturbe became both enchanted and obsessed with his ship being loaded to the brim with pearls. He quite enjoyed having a fully loaded treasure ship. When the time came to return to Spain he refused, was deemed a Pirate and arrested, his ship and it’s precious pearls to be seized. He fled. Following rivers inland in hopes of finding a mythical connection to the Gulf of Mexico.

Unfortunately, he sailed inland during an unusually rainy year and found a passage from the Colorado River to either the Salton Sea or a briefly resurrected Lake Cahuilla. But the rain had stopped and the connecting water quickly disappeared. The Spanish Galleon was trapped in a Desert. Some of the crew grabbed what supplies they could carry and drudged on, walking the distance to the nearest town took them some 4 months to reach help at the Agua Caliente Springs because this desert is infamous for being particularly deadly to the unprepared. But at least they had a chance. Those who stayed were doomed. The Salton is undrinkable.

The Lost Ship of the Desert

Stories of the actual remains of a Spanish Galleon began – as near as we can tell – in the very early 1800s. At least that’s the beginning of the written reports. The Natives have, supposedly (according to rumor), always known it was out there in the dunes. People began to die in the search for the Pearl Ship in 1870. As I said, this desert is not for the novice.

Story further goes on that in 1910 it was actually found, the man even brought back a sliver of old ships wood as proof, but by the time an expedition could be organized the desert had shifted and it was reclaimed by the sand. Interestingly, the remains of the physical ship are never described the same way by those who say they have seen it. It’s been described as various “makes and models” of a Spanish Galleon, a Viking Ship, a Chinese Junk, and a thousand other descriptions, most telling, depending on what the eyewitness wishes to see.

Even though it’s physical form is almost never the same, the specter is seen, almost regularly, and always described the same way. Those lucky enough to be camping at the right spot on the right nights have seen the ship, a glorious fully masted Spanish Galleon with polished cannons gleaming in the moonlight, rising out the sand – manned by a doomed crew of specters and a Mad Captain – to sail the dunes in search of an escape to water, any water, that it will never find.

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The Lost Ship of the Desert : Salton Sea, CA

The Lost Ship of the Desert : Salton Sea, CA

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