By Bill Springer
Texas-native Carl Allen has spent a lifetime hunting everything from big game in Africa to hogs and deer on his 1,000 acre ranch in Tennessee and giant blue marlin off his island in the Bahamas. But none of that really compares to what he’s hunting for now.
It’s no secret that Carl Allen and his wife Gigi own a fleet of yachts: the Gigi, a comfortable Westport 164, the AXIS, a commercial-grade, 182-foot-long Yacht Support Vessel, the Frigate, a brand-new Viking 80 sportfish, and a host of other water and aircraft. And the word has been out for a while that he and his family bought and have been rebuilding the neglected but legendary fishing destination, Walker’s Cay, in the northern Bahamas.
Meanwhile, any of the 50-or-so teams lucky enough to compete in the third annual Walker’s Cay Blue Marlin Invitational earlier this year know how passionate he is about fishing. Now that the rebuilt marina can accommodate superyachts up to 200-feet-long, it’s common knowledge that Allen keeps his fleet of yachts there too.
But not many people know what an experienced African hunter he is. “I was 16 years old when I first went to Africa,” Allen said over dinner on board the Gigi, docked in the new marina on Walker’s Cay. “And I’ve been back to hunt many times since then. I’ve killed 55 buffalo in my life and a couple almost killed me. But, the truth is nothing is more exciting to me now than…treasure hunting.”
Yep, you read that right: treasure hunting.
He’ll be the first to admit that all of the investment and philanthropy he’s dedicated to rebuilding Walker’s Cay and helping surrounding islands in the Abacos has been fueled by his love of fishing and the people of the Bahamas. But having Walker’s as a home base has also been instrumental in aiding in his search for priceless treasure from the Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas, a legendary Spanish treasure ship that sank in a storm in the area in 1656.
Actually, he’s done more than just “search” for treasure. He and his Allen Exploration team, aka AllenX, have found countless priceless artifacts from the Maravillas including gold and silver coins, jewelry, loose gemstones, weapons, pottery and more, that are currently being displayed in a museum he’s built in Freeport on neighboring Grand Bahama Island.
“I’ve been in love with diving and looking for stuff underwater my whole life,” he says on the deck of the AXIS after returning from a dive on a Maravillas debris field he and his team discovered on the Bahama Bank. The dive site is described as a debris field simply because they aren’t diving on the “wreck” of the Maravillas” per se. Since the ship sank in only 30 feet of water in the open ocean and the ship has literally been smashed to pieces after over 350 years, any remaining pieces of the ship or its cargo have settled beneath up to 20 feet of sand.
They started finding coins and other relics almost immediately the first year. “The weather was good and we had lots of time on the site,” he says. “But it really wasn’t until the second year, when the weather was horrible, that I realized we were getting better. We found twice as many artifacts in half the time. That’s exciting.”
Many of the coins, jewelry, and especially the 1,000’s of silver bars (weighing roughly 70 pounds each) documented to have been on the ship when it sank have yet to be recovered, so it’s theoretically just a matter of time (and considerable investment) before Allen and his team uncover what’s commonly referred to as “the main pile” of treasure, estimated to be worth billions.
“Lots of ships sank in the area back then because the water gets shallow quickly, navigation was not very precise, and there was no such thing as weather forecasts, so powerful storms could drive ships on to the shoals,” Allen says. “And some, like the Maravillas, went down with their holds filled with gold, silver, and jewels that were being brought back to the King of Spain.”
As you might guess of a passionate underwater explorer, Allen is a wonderful combination of realist, romantic, and history buff. He’s a realist when he talks about how hard, frustrating, and expensive it can be to locate and recover items that have been strewn across countless miles of open ocean. “It’s like searching for a needle…in a desert…underwater,” he says.
But he’s a romantic when he discusses the myth of the Maravillas that’s occupied his imagination since he was young. And he’s a total history buff when he starts talking about what life on board the ship must have been like in 1656. In fact, he can talk for hours—from memory—about all the historical documents that the archeologists he works with have found and translated from 17th century Spanish, painting a detailed picture of how the ship was built and who the crew and passengers were as well as an itemized list of priceless cargo on board when it sank.
It’s clear that Allen’s fascination goes far deeper than just “looking for stuff underwater.” His recovery work is helping a team of archeologists find and preserve countless items of historical significance that would otherwise likely disappear forever. Just acquiring the permit AllenX needed to work in Bahamian waters shows how committed he is. It was granted only after years of communication with the Bahamian government and other agencies and calls for a large percentage of whatever he finds to go back to the people of the Bahamas and be displayed in the museum he’s just opened in Freeport.
And since myth of the Maravillas also refers to a life-sized, solid gold statue of the Madonna—complete with a crown made of jewels that legend says was on the ship when it sank—Allen and his team might be recovering and preserving the cache of one of the most historically significant shipwrecks in the world.
“It’s definitely been a childhood dream to be doing what I’m doing now,” he adds. “But Gigi and I started with our love of the Bahamas. We’ve helped out after the hurricanes hit and during the pandemic, too. Finding and preserving these artifacts is way bigger than just Gigi and me,” he says. “We’ve been building our operation for years. We’ve got the right people that are doing it the right way. And we’re doing some of the best archeological data recording that’s ever been done.”
And Allen’s team is finding truly priceless items that will be displayed in the museum. “Last year we found some amazing stuff including a broach that features a flawless 20-carat emerald embedded in gold and surrounded by 12, two-carat emeralds around a Knights of Santiago cross,” he says.
“So, what’s it feel like to be the diver who actually finds an artifact like that broach on the wreck site?” I ask.
“You know, Bill,” he says. “I’ve been a diver my whole life. And I’ve found a half a dozen coins, a couple emeralds, pottery, and things like that. But, I never find the big stuff. Or at least I haven’t yet. Gigi loves to dive and has found some things, too. The beauty is AllenX is always a team effort. But, I can tell you what it was like when two members of the team found that emerald brooch and a massive, solid gold chain on the same day,” he says.
“We only had two guys in the water that day. Andy, who works on AXIS as one of the mates, had just dropped down into the water when he saw something shimmer out of the corner of his eye. It was a little piece of gold sticking out of the sand that ended up being that amazing emerald broach when he pulled it out. He told me both he and his dive buddy Kenton were in a state of shock when he found it.
“Shortly after they brought the brooch up to the surface, they went back down on the same spot. That’s when they saw a 2.2-pound solid-gold chain that was just sparkling in the sun on the bottom. Can you imagine these two guys out there in the middle of the ocean finding those amazing artifacts so close together?” he says with a smile. “It really pumped everybody up in the whole organization.”
Bahamas Maritime Museum
All of the most stunning finds by Allen and his team will be on display in the museum including a gold pendant with the Cross of Santiago, a second gold pendant that features a Cross of St. James, and the massive gold chain.
“I literally couldn’t breathe for 30 seconds when we brought up the oval emerald and gold chain,” says Allen. “I feel a greater connection with the everyday finds than coins and jewels, but these finds bridge both worlds. The pendant mesmerizes me when I hold it and think about its history.”
Allen’s team includes experienced marine archaeologists like James Sinclair, who provides historical insight in real-time. And since his team has also plotted over 8,800 magnetometer targets across three search areas measuring around 55 square miles each, they’ve only scratched the surface of what remains to be found. The position of every artifact is tagged and mapped as it’s brought up, so they’re documenting and preserving priceless history as well.
Unlike former recovery projects that were purely commercial, Allen Exploration has a strict permit from the government of the Bahamas and is committed to keeping its entire collection together for public display. Nothing is being sold. Allen has also purchased a collection owned by a former investor and a rare bronze Spanish navigational astrolabe found off Lucaya Beach that will be exhibited as well.
“For a nation built from the ocean, it’s astonishing how little is understood about The Bahamas’ maritime links” says Dr. Michael Pateman, Director of The Bahamas Maritime Museum. “Few know that the Indigenous Lucayan peoples, for instance, settled in The Bahamas 1,300 years ago. Or that the whole population, up to 60,000 people, was forced out by Spanish guns, made to dive for pearls off Venezuela, and killed off in less than three decades. There was a dazzling Old World in The Bahamas long before European ships thought they found a New World. The Lucayans, slave trade, pirates and the Maravillas are core stories we’re sharing in the museum.”
