Passion of Pirates > Operation Morgan Log

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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 dangerous Third World 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!

We expressed our goodbyes to the Prime Minister after several staged photographs and reconvened at the law offices of Cabinet Lissade. Following a brief tour, we conducted an autopsy of the Prime Minister meeting, reviewed our intended strategy with the Minister of Culture, and then convoyed to the Ministry building under armed guard.

Gary invited another member of his firm, Alain Lemithe, to attend the sit down with Minister Elie. Alain just happened to be a very close friend of the Minister’s daughter. And as we all know relationships determine results. Unfortunately, we didn’t discover that Alain was in the Minister’s doghouse for drinking his 25-year-old rum while visiting his beach house. Uh oh!

I have no idea what Salim said during his introductory remarks. But by the passion displayed in his delivery and the length of his comments, I can only assume that he recited our entire pitch. So, in turn, Burt and I followed up by saying less. However, we did make our case for a developing a rewarding partnership, engaging in an educational experience, and pursuing this historic discovery. And to demonstrate that we were not of the kind for which the moratorium was issued, we offered to donate all of our findings from the exploratory survey to the Ministry of Culture, and any historic find other than Morgan’s Oxford would be the sole possession of the state.

The meeting concluded with the Minister requesting a proposal. Yes! The request was music to our ears. After almost four years, I believed we had finally made some progress.

After Minister Elie shook our hands, he walked over to his office closet and retrieved two large rusty artifacts encased in plastic bags. He revealed via Salim that they were recovered in shallow water close to the leeward beach of Isle le Vache – our exact search area. Burt identified one piece as the barrel of a musket and the second larger artifact as the musket’s stock. Obviously, dating at a glance was unidentifiable, but they both could be remnants of Morgan’s Oxford.

Burt looked up from the musket’s anatomy and said to the Minister, “Sir, you must get these artifacts immersed into water immediately to preserve them.” It was the perfect ending to a very productive day.

We celebrated later that evening in a reserved room of a French restaurant up in the hills of Haiti with Salim and Gary’s family. We toasted Sir Henry Morgan - only 100 miles from where 338 years earlier he was toasting with his council of captains aboard the 34-gun Oxford their impending raid of Cartagena.




PC locked and loaded with his bodyguard Big Mike		PC meeting with Haitian Prime Minister Alexis


PC and Burt Webber with their legal counsel Alain Lemithe, Gary Lissade, and Salim Succar outside the Ministry of Culture.