San Pedro, California, USA
January 17, 1947 - July 25, 2023 St. Louis, MO - Long Beach, CA
“Captain” Steve Morgan is admired by all for his Adventures.
Over 30 Years of Achievements in Exploration and Salvage.
Over 30 Years of Achievements in Exploration and Salvage
Achievements
1967 - 1970:
Morgan explored the desert areas of the Western United States for lost historical sites. Although he recorded many historic sites during this time period, his proudest moment came in 1969, with his discovery and positive identification of the last remaining Butterfield SCoach Station, which was officially designated as a protected historical site within Riverside County, California.
1970 - 1971:
Morgan joined Maine Divers in search of the Spanish galleon, Nuestra Señora de la Concepción in cooperation with the Government of the Dominican Republic. During the project, several other shipwrecks were located but before the Concepción could be located, the salvage vessel Paul Langvin became a victim of a hidden reef and was itself shipwrecked, which terminated the operation.
1972 - 1973:
Morgan became part of the crew completing a six-month film expedition to Mexico. This operation documented many little-known Mayan ruins and located numerous unexplored shipwrecks along Mexico’s Caribbean coast. This expedition generated a series of films that are still being broadcast.
1974 - 1979:
Exploration of the Western United States, both on land and at sea, continued. Many short-term projects were organized with the objective of generating television documentary material, while conducting discovery expeditions.
1980 - 1982:
Founded Galleon Hunters, a salvage company. Its first successful project discovered more than 100 shipwrecks off Jamaica’s north coast. During these explorations the wreck site of the pirate ship Parrot was located and documented. With the cooperation of the Jamaican Government, the recoveries from that site were put on display in Port Antonio and Ocho Rios, Jamaica. The Parrot was the first of only two ever identified pirate ships ever located. The other was the Wyddah of Cape Cod.
1984 - 1985:
Discovery of the remains of the first USS Kearsarge, American warship from the Civil War which defeated the Confederate commerce raider CSS Alabama in a spectacular battle off Cherbourg, France on June 19th, 1864. Today, the fourth generation Kearsarge proudly serves the United States Navy in the Mid-East. In 1994, Morgan presented a bronze spike from the original Kearsarge to be placed aboard this new US fighting vessel that bears her name.
1986 - 1992:
Morgan organized the Save the Alabama Committee of Mobile, Alabama with several prominent citizens. This group became instrumental in securing U.S. sovereign rights over the CSS Alabama shipwreck, even though the shipwreck is located in the territorial waters of France. A bill was brought to the floor of Congress of the United States, which officially declared the Alabama a vessel of the United States. This act in turn protected the ship from being looted by French and English salvors.
1985 - 1987:
Several film-exploration expeditions were launched into the jungles and outlying islands of the Honduran north coast, in search of pre- Columbian historic sites. During these adventures, Morgan found ancient Payan Indian burial grounds, temple sites and villages. He unearthed many beautiful artifacts ranging from stone statues to implements, ornate pottery and jadeite ceremonial body ornaments, but his most unusual find was a 15-pound round sphere made of stone, such as had previously been discovered only in Costa Rica. The sphere is currently on display at the Natural History Museum of Tegucigalpa and it is the only such stone sphere ever found in Honduras.
1988 - 1990:
Three years of seasonal salvage projects to recover artifacts from the flagship of the 1715 galleon plate fleet, the Nuestra Señora de la Regla off Sebastian, Florida. The fleet was carrying millions of dollars in Spanish silver and many artifacts when it was sent to the bottom of the sea on July 31, 1715. In 1988, Morgan’s crew located the largest cache of silver discovered during that year. The treasure consisted of pieces of eight, gold rings and chains, religious medallions, a silver chalice and several silver statues. The value of the silver
coins alone was estimated over $300,000. The discovery was widely reported around the world.
1993 - 1994:
Morgan led a series of expeditions into the jungles and islands of La Mosquitia, in Eastern Honduras. An international television documentary team involving US and German personnel from Spiegel Television produced a 2-hour film documentary special, which aired in Europe under the title Tales of Exploration. During filming of several major pre-Columbian ruins, a discovery was made that has now changed the thinking of the archeological community. In the place that Morgan aptly christened The Cave of the Glowing Skulls, the skeletal remains of more than 300 people were found in a bundle-burial site, deep in a jungle cave near Catacamas by the River Talgua in Honduras. The skulls were unusually large and the people lived approximately 3,000 years ago.
In February 1995, a grand exhibit at the Honduran Embassy in Washington, DC displayed the finds, which was the culmination of the expedition. The civilization that was discovered did not consume maize as a primary staple in their diet. The discovery has astounded the scholars and prompted the rewriting of the history of Meso-America. Besides generating the funding and leading the original expedition, Morgan was instrumental in raising the additional money to protect the site and produce a documentary. All artifacts discovered remain at the National Museum in Honduras.
1995 - 1996:
Morgan conducted an intense six-week exploration of the Central American jungle in search of the lost city. Ciudad Blanca, or the Lost City of the Monkey God. His determination and endurance, with the help of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, lead to the positive sighting of the remnant of the unknown pre-conquest civilization. Ciudad Blanca had been visited by the Spanish explorers in the 16th century. In a report to Emperor Charles V, they described it as long-deserted and in ruins. An international project was being coordinated to reveal this historic discovery and secure its archeological integrity, while documenting every step on film.
1994-1998:
Since 1994, Steve Morgan has worked various underwater salvage projects and is a consultant with numerous officials at both the local and national levels in the Philippines. Morgan continued work on the project to salvage and document the wreck site and the USS Charleston in Philippine waters. The USS Charleston was carrying a large amount of captured Spanish coins and 19th century American Navy artifacts when she was lost on a remote reef in the morning of November 2, 1899. Morgan wrote a book about the USS Charleston and her place in history.
1990 - 2000:
Morgan formed Mar-Dive, a maritime salvage corporation, responsible for the discovery of the steamship SS Atlantic in Lake Erie, Canada, and claimed the wreck site. The Atlantic was lost on August 20th, 1852, after colliding with another vessel in the early morning hours. This wreck promises to be to most important historic American shipwreck ever located. Submerged in almost 200 feet of fresh lake water, the ship has remained amazingly intact after settling upright on the bottom with all of her original cargo still salvageable. The Atlantic Project is scheduled to last well into the next century with plans to refloat the ship and permanently moor her in a maritime Museum Complex, built especially for this world-class project, in Buffalo, NY. When the salvage of the vessel is completed and the artifacts preserved, the Steamer Atlantic will likely be the world’s finest example of mid 19th century life, with countless unique artifacts on board.
1999 - 2002:
Morgan consulted on a salvage effort in the Philippines off the island of Busuanga, in cooperation with the Philippine National Museum. The shipwreck named MISSION BELL dates from 1780 and contains cultural elements from various continents, such as a metate from the Americas, Chinese porcelain, and European stemware. The salvage efforts were limited to lifting everything that was lying on top of the sandy bottom, so as to hide the location of the wreck to looters. Due to the Abu Sayaff rebels kidnapping and beheading western tourists in the area, the project had to be put on hold because it was unsafe to work in that area.
2003
Steve suffered a devastating stroke in a remote part of the Philippines, 4 days away from civilization. He passed away twenty years later on July 25, 2023. Lucid and brave till the end. Due to the 2003 stroke and the resulting expressive aphasia, he never regained his ability to speak, write or read. But many of his adventures are recorded and they live on in his own writings, in books and on film. Most recently: in a documentary produced by Bill Benenson and Steve Elkins: The Lost City of The Monkey God. Streaming on Discovery+
Sights & Scenes of Cpt. Steven Edward Morgan: A Photo Gallery
Captain Morgan's crew of the Voyager in Sebastian, FL, working to locate the wreck of the Nuestra Señora de la Regla, capitano of the 1715 treasure fleet. 1987
January 1987
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