There could be real-life buried treasure right here in the bay area, and a San Jose researcher said he knows exactly where it is.
Environmental engineer Brian Kelleher said he has painstakingly translated the "San Agustin's" ship logs and believes he knows where it ran aground along the bay in 1595.
The Marin Independent Journal reports Kelleher thinks the ship is in one piece, buried under layers of sand along the shore of Drakes Bay. And it could be filled with silver, gold and other treasures.
"The crew was able to salvage some of the lighter items, but the heavier chests and barrels were too heavy to get off," Kelleher said.
Previous attempts to find the "San Agustin" were unsuccessful. Kelleher said they were based on a translation of the ship's log done in the 1920s that had enough minor mistakes to throw the location off.
Kelleher was able to find it and re-transcribe the log word by word at a library at UC Berkeley. The result is what he thinks is a new and accurate location of where the galleon ran aground.
Park service leaders said they are open to looking at his research.
