English painter Samuel Scott’s 18th century work depicts San José’s demise at the hand off the English ship Expedition at Wager’s Action of the Colombian coast in June 1708. (Wikimedia)

Colombia to recover $23-billion cargo from “holy grail of shipwrecks”

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

It was either May 28 or June 8, 1708. Sources can’t seem to agree. But one thing is certain in a sea of legend and lost treasure: the Spanish galleon San José was the real deal—the “holy grail of shipwrecks.”

The flagship in a fleet of 17 cargo vessels and naval escorts, the Spaniard was laden with an unimaginable fortune in gold, silver and jewels. The fleet was sailing from Portobelo in modern-day Panama, to Cartagena, Colombia, and on to Spain when San José was sunk during a pitched battle with an English warship.

The ship and its treasure were lost for more than three centuries, and now they’ve been found.

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Lieutenant Mike Levy in 1952. (THE MILITARY MUSEUMS)

A Canadian gamble at Kapyong

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

“Kill the American pigs,” the Chinese officer yelled to his troops during the night of April 24-25, 1951. For most Canadian defenders holding a desolate Korean hill at Kapyong, the communist soldier’s words, spoken in an unfamiliar language, would have meant little—even beyond the intense heat of battle.

Everyone, that is, except Lieutenant Mike Levy, a platoon commander who, within earshot of the enemy battle cry, decided to respond.

“We are Canadian soldiers,” retorted the young subaltern in the appropriate Chinese dialect, “we have lots of Canadian soldiers here.”

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