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Neptune's Fortune: The Billion-Dollar Shipwreck and the Ghosts of the Spanish Empire

One of my favourite subjects to read about is adventure at sea, from shipwrecks, treasure hunts to voyages of discovery.  I am from the prairies of Canada, so the ocean is always fascinating.  And so Neptune's Fortune: The Billion-Dollar Shipwreck and the Ghosts of the Spanish Empire by Julian Sancton was exactly the kind of book I like to pick up.  Neptune’s Fortune is a non-fiction page turner that tells the story of Roger Dooley’s a 30-year obsession to find the San José.

neptune's fortune, julian sancton,

Buy it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4vHbxGQ

The San Jose was a Spanish galleon that sunk in 1708 off the coast of Colombia near its destination port of Cartagena. And it was loaded with a massive treasure of silver and gold extracted from the mines and people of south America by force. The San Jose was that Spanish treasure ship that every explorer wanted to find.

Basically, this ship was the holy grail of treasure ships.  Rumored to be full of gold and silver at the time it sailed, the ship sank too far from shore for it to have been salvaged in earlier times, and so it was basically untouched. Most ships that were sank near shore were often salvaged multiple times over the centuries, treasure removed, and the sites spoiled for archeology.

Ultimately, Dooley discovered the ship in 2015, sparking legal battles and political fighting that has prevented the ship from being touched. It remains at the bottom of the sea waiting for what comes next.

But this book is about more than the hunt for a Spanish treasure galleon. Neptune's Fortune is also the story of the exploitation of the peoples of the Americas and the removal of gold, silver and other valuables for European consumption. It is the story of the history of undersea exploration, undersea archeology, and the tension between preservation and the search for vast amounts of wealth.

Neptune's Fortune is also the story about Roger Dooley. Born in the United States, he grew up in Cuba under the Castro regime and was required to compromise his values in order to pursue his dreams of underwater archeology. The compromises that he made in Cuba had the effect of tainting his career as an explorer and ‘treasure hunter’ and this book is Julian Sancton’s attempt to reassess the career of Dooley and rehabilitate his reputation.

All and all, this was a fantastic read. It was interesting, fast paced, and intelligent. I really think that if you are going to read one book about the exploration and hunt for treasure ships in the Americas, then this is the book that you should read.     


Publication date: Jan 2026  | Publisher: Crown    | Page Count:  384


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