How a Sunken Galleon Became a Manual for Relentless Pursuit

Julian Sancton’s new book, Neptune’s Fortune, chronicles the discovery of the long-lost Spanish galleon San José and the legal and personal fallout that followed — a tale the author says offers clear lessons for people who keep chasing big, uncertain goals. The wreck, located in 2015 about 2,000 feet beneath the Caribbean off Colombia’s coast, is said to contain immense treasure, yet attempts to recover it have been mired in courtroom battles and political controversy, and the diver who found it has been largely excluded from national honors.

The San José sank in 1708 after an engagement with a British fleet. For centuries the ship’s exact resting place was unknown, until Roger Dooley — a self-educated underwater archaeologist raised in Cuba after being born in New Jersey — started parsing old Spanish documents, tracked down rarely consulted maps and convinced backers to fund deep-sea searches. Dooley’s work led to the 2015 identification of the wreck, but his triumph quickly became entangled in competing claims over ownership and heritage that have frozen salvage plans.

Sancton, who wrote the best-selling account of Antarctic exploration, said he resisted turning back to maritime stories until the San José narrative wouldn’t let go. He first tackled the subject as a magazine piece and, while reporting, realized the conventional portrayal of Dooley as a provocateur didn’t match the evidence. That shift in perspective propelled the longer book project, which won recognition this year from major booksellers and expands beyond the drama of discovery to examine archives, personalities and the paperwork that brings a find into the realm of modern law.

Legal specialists note that underwater recoveries often trigger a tangle of claims — national patrimony, private investment, and international law all intersect — and those disputes can take years, if not decades, to resolve. One maritime lawyer observed that when large sums and cultural symbolism collide, courts and governments move cautiously, and the original discoverers can find themselves sidelined while judges untangle competing interests. In the San José’s case, that caution manifested as lawsuits that halted plans to raise artifacts and left Dooley out of official celebrations.

Beyond the drama, Sancton frames the episode as a study in persistence and the trade-offs that come with long-term projects: huge upfront costs, frequent skepticism, and the emotional price of public scrutiny. He contrasts the exhilaration of narrow hits in archives or on the ocean floor with the slow, bureaucratic hurdles that followed, suggesting entrepreneurs and creative seekers can prepare better by anticipating institutional resistance and by documenting their work meticulously.

Neptune’s Fortune reads, according to the author, as both history and a primer for anyone who has invested time and money into an idea that others dismissed. Sancton spent years on research and reporting, and his narrative aims to show how patient, meticulous work — whether in dusty archives or the deep sea — can surface truths that reshape who gets credit and who gets the headlines.