Victory is Risen

Under swirling clouds, its four-story hull illuminated by lanterns tied to its masts, the massive warship sinks beneath the waves. For more than two centuries, Peter Monamy's dramatic painting was one of the few images available of the tragic end of HMS Victory, which mysteriously disappeared, along with its crew of 1,100 men, one stormy night in 1744. Now, however, shipwreck salvage company Odyssey promises to fill out the picture. On Feb. 2, the Florida-based company announced it had recovered the Victory's remains. --Lisa Abend, Time Magazine

Given the recurring theme of the Goddess Victoria/Nike in the noosphere, I find it particularly interesting that the wreck of the HMS Victory has been discovered by Florida "treasure hunters": Odyssey Marine Exploration. I note the 11, 17, 44 and the 22 (Feb. 2).

Victor/Victoria seems to be hovering around this occulted and recently very busy intersection of Maritime signals: Mary, Shiva, and the Trident. The Trident submarine is the world's deadliest weapon - oddly based in the mouth of Hood Canal, my boyhood playground, also home to the Dungeness crab (symbol of my mother, and perhaps of the Catholic church) - and gateway to the Olympic mountains.

I've seen an Ohio Class submarine (known as Tridents because of the missiles they carry) in the flesh a few times, the most memorable was on a ferry ride to Port Townsend. It was heading south toward its subase - an ominous black torpedo of destruction. I couldn't help but feel a shiver as this dreadnaught of potential global annihilation passed by - leaving its atomic wake astern.

The Victory was sunk while holding a "King's ransom" of gold coins - potentially the richest treasure ship in history. OMS has previously run afoul of the Spanish:

Currently, the company is locked in a court battle with the country of Spain over ownership of the remains of a ship that experts believe to be the 17th-century Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes.

Our Lady of the Tripura? Huh. Curiously, it is attorney James Goold who represents the Spanish government in the case. It is wonderfully piquant for the Spanish to call OMS "piratical" in its approach to seeking ancient artifacts. Spain owes ALL her wealth to stolen gold from the new world - a galleon was a (state sanctioned) pirate ship. Likewise, the Victory was also laden with gold, coerced from the Spanish, who coerced it from the Incas, and God only knows where THEY coerced it from. It's ALL pirate gold.

So we have "Victoria" the treasure ship submarining up from the "deep" (subconscious) in the form of a previous generation's "ultimate weapon". It's interesting to me that my private journal is named "Michael's Odyssey" (begun petulantly on 6/6/06) of which snippets occasionally appear at gosporn.

It makes me wonder... the treasure would never have even been FOUND if not for a certain "treasure seeking" impulse on the part of OMS. No one else was even looking for it, but are quick to stake their claim - based mostly on factors of "noble" inheritance - the sons of pirates.

I think... I am a treasure seeker. I seek a trail long abandoned - the pearl of great price - a track nearly gone cold. I seek for my own reasons... some sublime, and some admittedly piratical in nature. I am Odysseus. I am Ponce de Leon.