Missing 17th-century ship that inspired ‘Goonies’ found in Oregon

nypost.com:

According to National Geographic, state officials confirmed that timbers from the shipwreck of the 17th-century Spanish galleon were found in sea caves earlier this week.The legend of the Santo Cristo de Burgos reportedly inspired filmmaker Steve Spielberg to dream up the idea for the 1985 movie — about a group of kids out to seek a sunken ship’s pirate booty and save their family homes from foreclosure.For 300 years, tales of the shipwreck spread, with the area’s indigenous tribes passing down the legend of a ship that had vanished off the Oregon coast around 1693, carrying porcelain, beeswax and pricey Chinese silk.The new discovery “confirms that our ancestral people knew what they were talking about,” Robert Kentta, cultural resources director for the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz and a member of the Siletz Tribal Council, told National Geographic.The recovery required a team of archeologists, law enforcers and search-and-rescue specialists, who have been searching for the past 15 years.

According to National Geographic, powerful tides made for a tricky and dangerous operation that had to be perfectly timed. Scott Williams, an archeologist who had been searching for the ship, told National Geographic, “I’m impressed and relieved.”Steven Spielberg had reportedly seen a newspaper story about the legendary ships and its precious booty, which inspired him to co-write and executive produce the cult-favorite film, starring Sean Astin, Corey Feldman and Josh Brolin.It, in turn, inspired Craig Andes, a local commercial fisherman who, according to Nat Geo, “belonged to a ‘Goonies gang’ of kids” growing up in the area.