DATE: Sunday, September 21, 1997            TAG: 9709210058

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A17  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ASSATEAGUE ISLAND                 LENGTH:   48 lines

LA GALGA'S CLUES DRIFT ASHORE

Mystery clings to the Atlantic's wild seashore, but every so often, as storms rake its beautiful beaches, the veil is lifted and secrets are revealed.

About once a week, especially after offshore winds have pushed debris onto the long stretch of barrier beach, Ben Benson takes a walk on the sand. As he's doing right now.

He's just parked his van after driving almost to Ocean City then motoring to just below the Maryland border.

Out in the surf, a family of dolphins is cruising and waves are breaking at a bar where the wreckage of a ship lies scattered on the bottom.

La Galga, a fast, 56-gun ship, was escorting six treasure ships from Havana, Cuba, to Cadiz, Spain, in 1750. A hurricane scattered and sank most of them, from North Carolina to Hog Island on the Eastern Shore. Two straggled into Norfolk too wrecked to repair. La Galga ran aground on a sandbar 1,200 feet off Assateague Island and all aboard leaped into the surf and swam for their lives.

The king's frigate has been parting with its secrets for generations. Beachcombers have found iron spikes, lead scuppers, bottles, ship's timbers and Spanish coins, almost all of them dated prior to the ship's demise.

Today, a clear day just after a storm, Benson carefully checks the beach and then searches behind the dunes where there have been several wash-throughs.

And there, lying intimately side by side, are two large ship's timbers. They have leopard-like orange and black splotches, but one seems discolored by silver. There are several odd-shaped pegs, an indication the timbers are from a pre-1820 ship. It was at that point, Benson says, that shipbuilders began turning rounded pegs on a lathe.

He whacks one of the timbers with his palm; the wood is at least 177 years old - probably closer to 250 - and still hard and sound.

``To me, one of the most amazing things is, talking to these local people, these timbers have been washing up on the beach for as long as anyone can remember.

``I look at these as messages, a few at a time, and they're saying, `Don't forget we're here.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Drawing

La Galga KEYWORDS: SUNKEN TREASURE SHIPWRECKS RECOVERY

SALVAGERS

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