The Tobermory Treasure Galleon

	Is there a sunken treasure ship just off-shore from Tobermory?

Beneath the calm waters of Tobermory Bay lies a Spanish galleon, stuffed with treasure - or so the legend goes. In fact, the ship was from Dubrovnik and was conscripted into the Spanish Armada. Far from being a treasure ship, at most it carried supplies to be used by the Spanish army when it landed in England (which, of course, it never did).

Damaged by fierce storms, the ship limped into Tobermory Bay and offered to exchange the services of its soldiers for food and water. The Spanish soldiers duly landed and helped the MacLeans in a couple of battles, but then things went sour and the MacLeans demanded payment in good Spanish silver.

When that wasn't forthcoming, the clansmen mounted a midnight raid and while rampaging through the ship looking for anything of value, one man bearing a lighted torch threw open the door to the ship's powder store - with predictable results.

There are no accurate casualty figures, but few of either raiders or raided can have survived. Neither, unfortunately, has the ship. The remains have been dispersed and buried by the strong tides that flow around the island of Mull and repeated searches have failed to uncover anything more than a few bits of wood and two pieces of eight - enough to confirm the story of the galleon, but that is all.