American Hunting: Starting with Solitary Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 370 Turtle Treasure
On a relatively flat section of the wreckage, a piece of abandoned fishing net covered with brown algae and tiny shells lies.

In one corner of the fishing net, a poor little hawksbill turtle was unfortunately entangled in the tough nylon netting, its right hind leg and left forefin tightly bound.

Each struggle it makes only causes the network cable to tighten further. It can neither move forward nor backward, and can only spin around in vain and despair in the same spot.

Lin Yu'an immediately recognized this marine killer known as the "ghost net".

These fishing nets, lost or abandoned by fishermen, do not decompose like organic matter; they drift in the sea for decades or even centuries, like real ghosts.

They indiscriminately entangle, imprison, and kill all creatures trapped within them.

He had seen countless tragedies like this in documentaries, where seabirds starved to death because their beaks got tangled in fishing nets and they couldn't eat.

Dolphins that drowned because they were dragged and unable to surface to breathe, and sea turtles like the one in front of us that died from exhaustion after a long struggle.

For this little sea turtle, this net was like a slow-acting death sentence.

Lin Yu'an immediately pointed in that direction and quickly made a "trouble" and "need help" gesture.

Upon seeing this, Raven did not hesitate at all and immediately gave him a "yes" gesture.

The two swam slowly together to avoid startling the turtle, which was already on the verge of collapse.

Then, they tacitly and silently divided the work.

Lin Yu'an gently stabilized its shell, restraining its flippers that were struggling wildly in panic, so that it would not cause secondary damage to itself during the cutting process.

Then, I gently covered the turtle's eyes with my palm. For most wild animals, visual darkness can greatly alleviate their stress response.

Sure enough, when the world was plunged into darkness and then brought under control by a steady force, the little turtle's struggles noticeably diminished.

Raven swam to the front and pulled an extremely sharp, serrated professional diving knife from her leg pocket.

Instead of rashly cutting the netting wrapped around her leg, she acted like a surgeon, carefully observing the direction of each strand and the depth to which it was embedded.

The tough nylon threads had become deeply embedded in the turtle's flesh due to its prolonged struggle, and the surrounding skin was red, swollen, and even broken.

With the hook-like part of the knife tip, she very carefully hooked up a piece of netting furthest from her skin, and then with the serrated part, she cleanly cut it off with a "whoosh".

One, two... Every movement she made was full of focus and precision, as if afraid that if the tip of the knife deviated even slightly, it would hurt the sea turtle.

The live stream camera faithfully captured this tense, silent, yet heartwarming moment.

The entire process was conducted without a single conversation, yet it was filled with a team tacit understanding that transcended language and a profound respect for life.

A few minutes later, when the last main rope wrapped around the flippers was cut, the evil fishing net finally loosened its "claws".

The little sea turtle, now free, seemed a little incredulous. It paused for two seconds, and Lin Yu'an slowly released its grip.

Instead of fleeing in panic as expected, it circled the two of them slowly.

With its wise black eyes, it looked deeply at the two "strange creatures" that had just saved its life.

Then, it gracefully moved its flippers, like a gliding eagle, and disappeared into the deep blue.

May good people live long and prosper! Rescuing the sea turtle is fantastic!

This is the true meaning of exploration! Protect the ocean!

[I'm so touched! I was a little scared when I saw the moray eels, but now I feel so warm inside.]

This is exactly what I wanted to see! Not some abstract giant pendulum ride!

Raven swam over to Lin Yu-an and, through the mask, gave him a "well done" gesture, her eyes full of approval.

“Alright, now let’s continue our ‘main quest’.” Raven made a pre-arranged gesture.

They picked up the metal detectors hanging on their bodies and resumed their interrupted treasure hunt, starting from the spot where the turtle had been trapped.

Like two meticulous archaeologists, they walked side by side, slowly and methodically zigzagging through the sand around the shipwreck, conducting a thorough search.

Most of the time, there was complete silence in the headphones.

Suddenly, Lin Yu'an's detector swept directly below the spot where the sea turtle had been trapped.

A crisp, sharp "beep beep beep beep" sound, completely different from all the previous noise, came through the headphones!

The signal is extremely pure and stable, without any impurities. This is a unique signal of high-density precious metals such as gold!
He stopped immediately and waved to Raven, who was searching nearby.

Raven swam over curiously. Lin Yu'an pointed to the location of the signal source, then pointed to his ear, making a "discovery" gesture.

Raven's eyes lit up instantly. She also activated her own detector and conducted cross-verification in that area, receiving a strong signal feedback as well!

The two looked at each other and saw the uncontrollable excitement and disbelief in each other's eyes.

Like two archaeologists about to uncover a mystery, they began to peel away the layers of silt that had covered countless years with their hands, and the seawater began to turn murky.

As the sand was parted, a round object with irregularly gear-shaped edges, which reflected a pure and heavy light in the dark seawater, appeared before their eyes!
Unlike modern coins, it is not flat and has a rustic, handcrafted feel.

Raven's eyes widened suddenly behind the mirror!

Lin Yu'an gestured to Ruiwen to pick up the coin, intending to give her the right to discover the treasure.

Raven carefully picked up the coin. In the beam of the flashlight, its details were clearly visible, and the casting process was extremely exquisite.

At the very center is the cross shield of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, surrounded by clear Latin inscriptions and the year "1714"!
Most importantly, its shape is a near-perfect circle!

The moment Raven saw the gold coin, she was so excited she almost spat out her level 2 helmet!
She frantically waved her arms in the water, grabbed Lin Yu'an's arm, pointed at the gold coins, and then pointed in the direction the sea turtle had just left.

"Gift! Gift!" She probably meant that this was a gift left by the turtle to repay them!

After the two completed their safe stop and returned to the ship, they hadn't even taken off their heavy gear yet.

Raven, like a child showing off a treasure, couldn't wait to display the gold coin to the equally stunned Mike.

"Dad! Look! Look at this!" Her voice trembled with excitement. "It's a Royal Gold Coin! It's definitely the 'Royal Gold Coin' of Fleet 1715!"

Mike took the heavy gold coin, weighed it in his hand, and then took out a high-powered magnifying glass from the cabin.

After carefully examining the badges, year, and Lima Mint markings, I finally gasped in shock.

“My God…it really is an 8 Escudo Royal Gold Coin in such excellent condition.”

He looked up at Lin Yu'an with the eyes of someone looking at an alien, "Lin... your luck is like being kissed on the forehead by Poseidon, the god of the sea."

“No, Dad!” Raven shook her head, wiping the gold coin with a soft cloth, her face bearing an almost sacred expression. “This is not luck.”

She looked up at Lin Yu'an and Mike, and said earnestly, "This is the sea turtle's way of repaying us."

"The turtle's repayment?" Mike was taken aback.

“Yes!” Raven’s eyes gleamed. “We found the coin right below where it was trapped after we rescued it!”

"It must know where the treasure is and is using this method to guide us to find it! That must be it!"

Although it was just a beautiful, fairytale-like fantasy, Mike couldn't help but smile as he looked at the pure joy on his daughter's face.

"Alright, alright, consider it the turtle's way of repaying us. It seems we should do more good deeds when we go out to sea in the future."

"A gold coin like this, at a proper shipwreck treasure auction, would fetch... at least five zeros, in US dollars."

[Six figures in US dollars?! A single coin?! Did I hear that right?!] [The 1715 Fleet! I know that! The Spanish treasure fleet! The anchor has struck gold!]

See, good deeds are rewarded! This story teaches us to do more good deeds!

"My God...we really found the treasure!" Raven was still excited. "But...Dad, can we take it? Won't that break Bahamian law?"

“Good question, sweetheart.” Old Wolf Mike, who had the best advice, explained to the two and the viewers in the live stream, “This is the difference between the ‘Marine Lost and Found Law’ and the ‘Maritime Rescue Law’.”

He explained, "For a well-documented modern shipwreck like the 'Mahoney,' if we salvage items from the ship, then it falls under the category of 'maritime salvage.'"

"The profits need to be reported and shared with potential owners (such as insurance companies), but..."

He held up the gold coin: "What we found was a single item that we stumbled upon in the sand near the shipwreck."

"This item belongs to another shipwreck that occurred more than 300 years ago, the 1715 Fleet. Legally, it is considered abandoned and unclaimed property."

"So, according to Bahamian law, all we need to do is declare to customs that we accidentally discovered this ancient coin before leaving the country."

“They may collect a certain percentage of tax, but the rest is entirely legally yours. If we don’t report it and take it away without permission, that’s smuggling, a serious crime.”

This hardcore science popularization once again broadened the horizons of the viewers in the live broadcast room.

Mike looked at the gold coin and said excitedly, "Alright, you don't need to go to Cuba anymore. You can just sail to Miami and buy a beachfront apartment!"

Although he said it as a joke, it reminded Raven of the astonishing value of that gold coin.

She ran to the cabin, grabbed the softest chamois cloth, and wiped the last grain of sand and water stains off the gold coins.

Then, holding this "fragment of history" that shimmered with a warm glow in the setting sun, she walked up to Lin Yu'an.

“Lin,” her voice was no longer as excited as before, but full of seriousness, “according to the discoverer’s principle, it is now your spoils!”

Lin Yu'an smiled. He didn't take the gold coin, but looked into her eyes and said calmly, "Raven, have you forgotten? This isn't what I found."

“What?” Raven was stunned.

“Didn’t we all agree?” Lin Yu’an’s lips curled into a gentle smile. “This is a gift from the sea turtle to you. To repay your kindness, I just happened to point it in the right direction.”

This reason, both romantic and irrefutable, instantly struck the softest spot in Raven's heart.

“But…” Raven wanted to argue, “This is too expensive…”

“Sometimes, friends need gifts too, don’t they?” Lin Yu’an interrupted her, his gaze becoming deep and sincere.

"Captain Mike is right. There are countless legends about Spanish treasures in this area."

"I bet that you grew up listening to these stories, so you must have your own treasure hunt dream, right?"

Raven's breath hitched; she hadn't expected Lin Yu'an to see through her childlike fantasies deep inside.

“So,” Lin Yu’an continued, “consider it… a belated birthday present to help you fulfill this dream. Accept it, Captain Raven.”

"It's just a string of numbers in a bank account to me, but it will make you happier, won't it?"

Raven looked at him, her blue eyes, which always shone with confidence, were now veiled with tears.

She held the gold coin, still warm from Lin Yu'an's body, tightly, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

The value of this gold coin far exceeds those hundreds of thousands of dollars. It embodies her childhood dream and the sea turtle's "repayment."

It also embodies the man before her... that quiet yet considerate tenderness.

“…Thank you, Lin.” She could only manage to squeeze out these words, her voice choked with emotion.

She didn't say anything foolish like "split" or "buy" anymore, because she knew that doing so would be an insult to her feelings.

She secretly resolved in her heart that she must repay this heavy "favor" in her own way.

Lin Yu'an looked at the gold coin shimmering with a captivating light in the sunset, then glanced at Raven beside him, who was overjoyed by this "fairytale," and smiled.

For him, the origin of the gold coin was indeed unimportant; its greatest value was perhaps not the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It was the unique adventure it brought to this voyage, and... the unprecedented, pure, childlike smiles on the faces of my companions.

Raven clutched the gold coin tightly in her hand, as if she were holding the treasure of her entire childhood.

She calmed herself down, and a bright smile returned to her face, like a child eager to share a secret.

“But… I still can’t believe it…” she murmured to herself, and then began to tell Lin Yu’an the legendary story about the gold coin.

"Moreover, the place we explored has been explored countless times by others, yet we still managed to make such a significant discovery!"

"Lin, do you know? This is not just a gold coin, it's a legend! A golden dream buried three hundred years beneath the seabed of Florida and the Bahamas!"

Her voice was filled with vibrant passion: "In 1715, Spain had just ended a war of succession that had drained the national treasury."

"The new King Philip V desperately needed gold to host his second wedding and rebuild the country."

"So he ordered all the gold and silver treasures he had accumulated in the New World colonies (now Colombia, Peru, and Mexico) over the years to be loaded onto ships and transported back to Spain!"

"That was one of the most luxurious and jewel-laden fleets in history, consisting of twelve ships!"

She held up her finger and gestured in the air, “They were laden with crates of gold coins, silver ingots, and precious jewels! The total value… by today’s standards, it could be over several billion dollars!”

[Billions of dollars?! My God! A mobile gold mine!]

[No wonder it's called the Treasure Fleet, this is such an exaggeration!]

[They've all come to plunder! Emphasis on plunder! Plunder!]

"The fleet departed from Havana, Cuba, and sailed north along the Florida coastline, hoping to use the power of the Gulf Stream to return to Europe."

Raven's tone shifted, taking on a dramatic and mysterious quality, "But they encountered the last thing they should have encountered."

"A monster storm that historians have called the 'hurricane of the century'!"

"On the night of July 30, 1715, a hurricane with tremendous force hurled the entire fleet toward the Florida coastline."

"Of the twelve ships, eleven sank! Countless treasures and lives were swallowed up by the raging sea overnight."

"While most of the debris landed on the Florida coastline, some ships were completely torn apart by the hurricane."

"Countless gold coins may have drifted in this area for three hundred years with the Gulf Stream, until today..."

She held the gold coin in her hand up to the sunlight, and the golden light shimmered on it.

"And this royal gold coin in our hands is very likely one of the countless lost treasures from that disaster!"

"It was originally intended to be presented to King Philip V, but it slept on the seabed for over three hundred years until today... when we, guided by a sea turtle, saw it again!"

This was the first time she had ever truly touched those legendary treasures that she had only seen in books and museums.

Having grown up listening to her father and grandfather tell treasure hunting stories, at this moment, it felt as if she had realized her most distant childhood dream of treasure hunting.

The immense joy of her dream coming true made her glow.

This perfect dive concluded with a discovery full of wonder and heartwarming fairytale elements.

(End of this chapter)