| After a long day of delayed travel from Philadelphia via Miami, the wheels finally touched down on the runway as the stewardess announced, “Welcome to Haiti.” I immediately looked to my right and commented to my traveling companion Burt Webber, “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard those words.” He laughed aloud—either at my comment or in anticipation of the adventure that lie ahead on this exotic caribbean island. The purpose of our trip was a scheduled meeting
with Haitian Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis.
Our intent was to pitch our proposal to partner
with the Haitian government and obtain an exclusive
contract to survey, identify, and recover the
famous remains of Captain Henry Morgan’s
flagship, the 34-gun Oxford. It would be a monumental
discovery.
I have been pursuing this piratical mission with
Burt Webber—a successful historic-shipwreck
explorer—since January 2004. But because
of Haiti’s civil war, rampant kidnappings,
government instability, and government-imposed
moratorium on sub-aquatic exploration, our hopes
and goals were continually exhausted—but
never extinguished!
We had engaged the prestigious Haitian law firm Cabinet Lissade from the onset to help us maneuver through the political and legal landmines. Even though the firm is led by former Minister of Justice Louis Gary Lissade and his nephew, Salim Succar—a maritime-law specialist—every avenue to Haiti’s decision-makers was met with resistance and roadblocks. I appreciated that literally life-and-death issues took precedence at times; but all we needed was a signature.
Well, our day in the hot sun was finally here.
And since kidnappings had been a thriving business
for militant gangs in the major island cities
like Port-au-Prince, I hired a driver and an armed
personal bodyguard—who had previously protected
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie on their visit a
year earlier—to meet us at the airport. Manu
drove through the narrow, crowded, pothole-strewn
streets as if our SUV was a getaway car. Meanwhile,
Big Mike acted as our watchful tour guide as we
passed through “hot zones” to the
safer regions up in the Haitian hills.
On Monday, June 18, 2007 at 2:00pm—almost
four years since we launched Operation Morgan,
LLC—Webber, Lissade, Succar, and I were seated
in the Prime Minister’s conference room
passionately pitching our vision of discovering
Captain Morgan’s ship under the auspices
of the Haitian government. I could see the scroll
on CNN. We supplied the Prime Minister and his
administrative team with biographical material
and our colorfully bound operations research plan
that featured tri-fold maps displaying the specific
coordinates of our intended search. In addition,
we outlined an educational plan for selective
Haitian students to intern and learn archeology
and the methodology involved in excavating, cataloguing,
and preserving rare cultural artifacts.
Salim Succar expertly translated the entire exchange
between the Prime Minister and Webber and me,
since neither of us understand French Creole.
But we do fully comprehend body language, facial
expressions, and the actions of the Prime Minister
when he pressed a button and summoned an aid to
distribute coffee to the collected group. Initially
I confessed that I don’t drink coffee. But
on second thought, I whispered to Salim the age-old
adage: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
He smiled. I then said to Salim, “Please
tell Mr. Prime Minister that this is the very
first cup of coffee in my entire life. And it’s
Haitian coffee!” The Prime Minister laughed,
pounded his palm on the table, and bellowed in
accented English: “Good! Haitian coffee
is the best!”
Our meeting ended with the Prime Minister expressing
his support for our project, but he also communicated
that we had to resell our proposal to his Minister
of Culture, Daniel Elie, as archeology was under
his jurisdiction. Uh-oh! We all knew, due to unscrupulous
conduct by treasure hunters in the past, that
Minister Elie had issued a moratorium preventing
all sub-aquatic exploration in Haiti’s territorial
waters. He had been reticent to even respond to
our past correspondence requesting a meeting,
let alone make an exception to his own rule.
The Prime Minister asked when we were leaving
Haiti, and I replied, “Tomorrow morning.”
He got up and exited the room into his adjoining
office. After several minutes, he returned to
inform us that we had a 4:00pm meeting with the
Minister of Culture that very afternoon. I wanted
to get up and hug him, but I was afraid someone
might shoot me! |
