Ghost Wave - Chris Dixon [164]
10. Early twentieth century encounters included Maude Pilkington Lukens, “Road Mapping Our Sea Coast,” Los Angeles Times, February 22, 1925; George Wycherly Kirkman, “The Lost Islands,” Los Angeles Times, October 24, 1926.
11. The El Capitan collision: “12 Fishermen Saved as Two Boats Collide,” Long Beach Press-Telegram, November 18, 1952.
12. I interviewed Mel Fisher in around 1989 as an eager young writer for a Myrtle Beach weekly called Hot Times, at small museum where you could see booty from the Atocha. Other Fisher stories included: Lee Bastajian, “Divers Will Hunt Undersea Fortune,” Los Angeles Times, July 29, 1956; George Beronius, “Sunken Treasure! Shout Lures 23 on Sea Search,” Los Angeles Times, January 14, 1957; and Eugene Lyon, “Atocha Tragic Treasure Galleon of the Florida Keys,” National Geographic, June 1976.
13. Concerning the many “explorer-divers” of the Bank: I interviewed Ilima Kalama by phone in August 2009; Harrison Ealey at his home in Oceanside, California, in October 2009; and Rex Bank in his Long Beach home in October 2010. Ilima Kalama wrote the liner notes to The Ventures’ album Surfing in 1963 at the age of twenty.
14. Concerning the USS Enterprise: Some years ago, Bill Sharp located a U.S. Navy study titled “Bishop Rock Dead Ahead: The Grounding of the USS Enterprise,” by Karlene H. Roberts. My descriptions were based on Roberts’s study and a telephone conversation and email correspondences with Rear Admiral Robert Leuschner. I’m hugely grateful for the admiral’s detailed and honest attention to my queries.
CHAPTER 4
1. When I dove into the tales of plans to colonize the Cortes Bank, dates, locations, and facts varied wildly and details of the people who planned to erect this nation on the half shell were maddeningly scant. The true nature of this epic was first revealed through articles stored on genuine microfilm, far from the all-seeing eyes of Google. The first mention appeared on page 11 of the Pasadena Independent on Halloween of 1966 (Hal D. Stewart, “Pair Planning Island Nation off San Diego,”). I then located a number of other stories in the Web archives of the San Diego Union Tribune and the Los Angeles Times that gave names. Yet, for some time, I was unable to locate anyone.
I learned per the Los Angeles Times that Abalonia partner Robert Lynch had died in 1997. Then one day I received an anonymously sent package. The folder bore a sixty-page manuscript with Joe Kirkwood’s incredible account. It seems he penned the story around 1967 and then sent it to Sports Illustrated. But S.I. rejected the famed golfer’s story and perhaps Kirkwood never farmed it to anyone else. I also received photos, a short film clip of Jalisco being towed under the Golden Gate Bridge, legal opinions, correspondence between several “Abalonians,” and a study titled “A Plan for an Island State,” for Bellevue, Washington–based Cortez Development Corporation. The study stated that an American engineer named Edward M. deSarra had spent more than $250,000 to plan four islands atop Cortes Bank: Taluga (2.3 acres), Aurora (26 acres), Triana (102 acres), and Bonaventura (48 acres). There would be an airport, parks, pools, putting greens, a primary school, a high school, a yacht club, and government buildings. I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude to whomever sent these documents.
Then came another break. One day in mid-October 2009, a voicemail: “Umm Mr. Dixon, this is Jim Houtz. I’m one of the guys who was aboard the Jalisco. Give me a call.”
I managed to verify portions of both Kirkwood and Houtz’s accounts through news stories. Then in March 2010, I reached Whitney Olsen crewman Louis Ribeiro, who said that Houtz’s version of events seemed to follow his recollections. There was also record of the Coast Guard’s rescue of Kirkwood and his friend Dick Hall aboard Sallytender