Atlantis Beneath the Ice Read Online Free PDF Page A

Franco
    Dear General,
    I have the honor to request your kind cooperation in securing an item of information of equal importance to the peoples and historians of Spain and the United States, relating to the discovery of America.
    It is a question of a map, said to be the map of Columbus, which was seen by an American geographer on board the flagship of the Spanish fleet that visited the Columbian Exposition in the year 1893.
    The Spanish fleet consisted of three ships, which were exact replicas of Columbus’ ships. The flagship was, therefore, named The Santa Maria. I enclose a copy of a memorandum from one of our historians explaining in detail why we think it important to find the “Columbus map” that was on board the replica of the Santa Maria that summer (in 1893). I also enclose a statement by the gentleman (now 89 years old) who saw the map on the Santa Maria and some related documents.
    If it would not be a matter of inconvenience, we would greatly appreciate a facsimile copy of the map, which, we presume, must now be found in your archives.
    Professor Hapgood’s memorandum and the supporting statement from our Col. Ohlmeyer will make clear, I am sure, the very remarkable importance that may be attached to this map.
    With all personal good wishes,
    (signed)
    DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
    Enclosures:
    1. Mr. Hapgood’s Memorandum
    2. Mr. Campbell’s Statement
    3. Col. Ohlmeyer’s Statement
    4. Photograph of the Piri Reis Map
    Included with the letter was James Hunter Campbell’s (1873–1962) account of his sighting of the elusive map. Campbell was only nineteen years old in the summer of 1893 when he accompanied his father to see the replica of the Santa Maria while it was docked in Toronto on its way to the World’s Columbian Exposition (the Chicago World’s Fair), held to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in America.
    STATEMENT OF JAMES H. CAMPBELL OF OCEAN BLUFF, MASSACHUSETTS, REGARDING THE COLUMBUS MAP HE SAW ON THE REPLICA OF THE SANTA MARIA, IN 1893:
    The Spanish Government built and sent over to this country for exhibition at the Columbian Exhibition at Chicago, three replicas of Columbus’ vessels. There was the Santa Maria, which was the largest of the three; then there was the Pinta, and I think the third one was the Nina. They came to Chicago by way of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, and as they were passing through Lake Ontario they stopped at Toronto. My brother, who was on the reception committee of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, met the officers and they made him promise that when he went to Chicago to see the Fair that he would call on them. The Fair was open for six months, and as near as I can remember my brother came to Chicago about the end of July or the first of August. My father was living in Chicago at the time, and was employed by one of the publishing houses.
    When my brother came to Chicago to visit the Exhibition my father and I went along with him, as he was going to pay a visit to the officers of the caravels.
    The caravels were tied up alongside of the Agricultural Building and right next to the boathouse of the Electrical Launch and Navigation Co. Since I was in charge of the electrical launches I was able to guide them directly to the caravels.
    We went aboard the Santa Maria, and my brother introduced my father and me to the officers. When the officers learned that my father was a geographer and the author and publisher of geographies and other school books in Canada, they became much interested, and asked my dad if he would like to see Columbus’s map. Up to this time my dadhad left the conversation to my brother and me, but after that the conversation was carried on between the officers and my dad, and what made it worse when the Spaniards were at a loss to find words in English to express their thoughts, my dad invited them to speak in French, and to their surprise they found out a little later that my dad could also speak