5 facts about the lost ship of the desert: What we actually know

It sounds implausible, right? There's no way a historic ship is buried beneath the California desert. 

And yet the legend about a long-lost vessel has persisted for centuries. Theories range from a Spanish galleon to a Viking knarr — and everything in between.

Look back at historical accounts, and you'll find little proof. 

But those who believe in its existence point to the way water once covered this arid landscape. Mother Nature leaves open the possibility of a nautical mystery, they argue.

Here's what we actually know:

Magazines, newspapers and books across the world have long perpetuated the idea that a ship is buried beneath the desert floor. In 1870, Philadelphia’s Evening Telegraph called it “a marvellous story” about “a ship high and dry on a Colorado Desert – billows of sand beating about her.” In 1875, British publishing house Chapman and Hall released poet Joaquin Miller’s book of verse The Ship in the Desert.

There are reports of sightings around the Salton Sea and Imperial Valley, extending as far south as Mexico’s Baja peninsula, though firsthand accounts are rare. In 1870, for example, explorer Albert S. Evans was traveling to San Bernardino, Calif., when he claimed to have stumbled on its remains. “The moon threw a track of shimmering light” upon “the wreck of a gallant ship,” Evans wrote in The Galaxy magazine in 1870, “which might have gone down there centuries ago when the bold Spanish adventurers … were pushing their way to the northwest.”

Pearce Paul Creasman, an associate professor in the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, says wood can survive for an "amazingly" long time in certain parts of the desert, depending on environmental conditions.

While the type of wood can be a determining factor, ships are expected to be "critter-resistant" to marine worms or termites, Creasman says. It's "not uncommon" for entire vessels to last 500 years – in Egypt, buried ships dating back to around 2700 B.C. still exist in good condition, he adds. 

But if an area is prone to wet and dry cycles, such as rain, floods or a river that rises and falls, Creasman cautions, the opportunity for preservation is "considerably reduced." 

In the early 1970s, Lawrence Justus sought permission to enter Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in Borrego Springs, Calif., for “the purpose of locating certain artifacts,” according to documents obtained by The Desert Sun. 

His attorney first contacted the California Department of Parks and Recreation in 1974 and then two years later with a proposal to enter an agreement with Justus and the Imperial Valley College Museum in El Centro, Calif., to secure an antiquities permit, after which he'd be able to keep "all gold, silver and rare stones."

The state answered back with a resounding no.

But included in California State Parks' files is an old, black-and-white photo of Justus, wearing dark sunglasses, from an unidentified publication.

It reads, "One of the last photos of Larry Justus, who reportedly found the Lost Ship of the Desert." 

It's still a mystery if he actually did.

To naysayers, it’s simply a myth passed down through oral and literary tradition.

The furthest documented voyage by a Spanish ship throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries happened in 1540, says Don Laylander, a senior archaeologist with the cultural resources firm ASM Affiliates, who has published numerous studies on the region. That's when Hernando de Alarcón sailed up the western coast of Mexico, traversed the head of the Gulf and then navigated the lower Colorado River, making it at least to modern-day Yuma, Ariz. – abut 100 miles southeast of the Salton Sea. 

However, Roberto Junco, director of underwater archaeology for Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, says it's possible there may have been a shipwreck that "we know nothing about." 

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Kristin Scharkey is features editor at The Desert Sun and editor of DESERT magazine. Reach her at kristin.scharkey@desertsun.com or on Twitter @kscharkey.