Pirate Treasure! The story of Galleon's Gold

| | | | | | |

ACTION FIGURES AT WAR

An ATEF Adventure, The Story of Galleon's Gold

All pictures below are thumbnails, click on them for larger images.

Oro de Leon

Victoria had been searching thru the Archives in England when she stumbled across an old hand drawn map. She spent another four months researching the landmarks and history of the map and became convinced it was authentic.

This is the story of the Galleon's Gold, plundered by Captain Bart French. A bloodthirsty cutthroat who left his mark under the Jolly Roger back in the early 1700's. His crew lured the Spanish Galleon, Oro de Leon on the rock covered shore in the Florida Keys during a dark, stormy night with a lighted lantern in 1720. After killing the survivors they buried what gold and jewels they could recover in various spots up and down the shoreline. Most of the treasure was recovered shortly after when Captain French and his crew met their fate at the end of a rope. Some however has been lost to this day. And then Lady Sterling found a dusty old map among the personal effects of a man named Billingham.

As Joe Masterson guides the team to the location on the map, Captain Hillstone asked Victoria about the story behind this particular treasure.

Victoria replied, "After Captain French and his crew were captured, they confessed to wrecking the Galleon Oro de Leon and most of the treasure was recovered." "However, because they buried the treasure in different spots not all was found." "It seems there was one person on the Captain's crew who escaped the rope, it was his First Mate Billingham." "He couldn't face what the captain had done so he never recovered the treasure and before he died he wrote out this map that had been buried in the archives since his death."

Captain Bart French was an imposing figure. He was usually always with his parrot, 'Matilda'. Some say French never killed anyone without asking Matilda first.

First Mate Billingham kept a sharp eye out for trouble. You never knew when another pirate crew would try to grab anothers gold or if the long arm of the King would reach out to make them answer for their crimes.

Behind the First Mate the scene played itself out as it had many times before. The Captain had been careful and had always picked the same crew members to help him hide the gold. He had broken up the treasure into several small lots and this was the last of the booty to be buried, all in different locations.

The plan was to keep the knowledge of treasure to as few as possible. French was not going to lose his treasure to a mutineer among his crew. The Captain made sure his pistol was ready.

The crewman was glad the job was finished. He put the last shovel full of dirt on the treasure and was thinking of a nice tall mug of rum back at the ship.

Behind him he heard the Captain say, "Well Matilda." "What do ye say?"

"SQUAW!... KILL 'EM"

Before he could turn around the pistol rang out and the shot hit true.

First Mate Billingham pointed an accusing finger at Capt. French. "Why?" he cried.

French shot a cold stare back at him, "if ye know what be good for yer, do not be askin' questions." "The fewer who knows 'bout the gold, the better".

Joe Masterson brought his horse to a halt. "Victoria, this is the spot." "We are at the top of the cliffs above the beach, you and Hillstone will have to continue from here while I watch the horses."

As Victoria came out from the cave, Captain Hillstone asked, "So what exactly are we looking for again?".

Victoria grinned, "This isn't it, Randy." (the captain absolutely hated it when she used that nickname and Victoria knew it) "The map referred to a cave and a rock that Billingham called, 'Table Rock'." "I'm not entirely sure what that means but it also referred to the cave as being guarded by an innocent soul."

As Hillstone checked the next cave, he shouted back, "What do you suppose this 'innocent soul' is?"

"There were some instructions for that and I've brought the tools to deal with it should the need arise." "I can't imagine that there could be anything like an 'innocent soul' associated with a pirate crew but there is a logical reason for it." "Still it was said the First Mate Billingham was a tortured man up to his final days."

Hillstone sat on a nearby rock wiping the sweat from his brow. The shadows were starting to grow long as the day rolled by. "I don't think we are ever going to find this place Victoria." "We have been up and down the site all day and we haven't seen anything like you described." "And I imagine that after 200 years this place could look completely different by now!" " I'm beginning to think it never existed outside of this self-proclaimed pirate's imagination."

"Uh, Randy... would you like to bet on that?" "I think we just found our spot."

The cave, the rock and the treasure where right where the old map said it would be. It didn't take long for Captain Hillstone to dig up the treasure. "Well that's it." concluded the Captain.

"Wait!" Victoria cautioned, "We still have one thing left to to."

And so they buried the remains of the old pirate. He had been guarding this treasure for two centuries and Victoria didn't want to leave anything to chance. While Captain Hillstone buried the remains of the old pirate, Victoria took out a hammer and chisel and tapped out this inscription on Table Rock.

"HERE LIES BILLINGHAM JR. DIED 1720 AT THE HAND OF CAPTAIN BART FRENCH"

Hillstone stood by Victoria and both of them were silent for a moment then Victoria packed up her tools and they prepared to leave.

"Leave no ghosts behind." she said as they headed back to the horses.

About the Authors

Andrea (Andy) my daughter. Without her inspiration, energy and imagination I could have done this story without her, but I was glad I didn't have to. She amazes me in so many ways.

Tim Kano. Here I am in my Hollywood producers cart.

Ok... actually I stole it from a maintenance worker at a trailer park. And I'm to cheap to use real actors so I resort to using Action Figures. I stomp on small flowers to as long as they don't intimidate me. But besides that I had fun doing this story. I'm not giving up my day job though.