The spirit of adventure is alive and well in South Louisiana.

Three New Iberia men and a Covington woman proved that over the course of two-plus decades. After finding a sunken steamship in 1990, Avery Munson and Gary Hebert stayed with it to eventually recover gold and silver coins valued at more than $1 million.

Move over, Indiana Jones.

Advertisement

Munson, Hebert and Hebert’s wife, Renée, and Craig Derouen, a childhood buddy of Munson’s, formed a limited liability company, Gentlemen of Fortune, two years ago to legally claim the treasure. Between the time of the discovery and the crowning moment in November 2007, when the group made the last dive to the sunken boat off the coast of Cameron Parish, the men went through five boats and numerous partners before realizing a dream.

Their story was chronicled in a feature story Sunday in The Daily Iberian. It’s the stuff movies are made of. This one, however, is non-fiction.

We can be proud of the persevering Gentlemen of Fortune.

Munson and Gary Hebert were aboard the latter’s 41-foot sailboat in July 1990 when Hebert spotted part of the wreckage of the SS New York, which sank in 1846 on a commercial run that took it from Galveston, Texas, to New Orleans. A storm sent the steamship to the bottom on that fateful trip. Thirty-six of 53 people aboard survived.

Munson researched the ship’s history and was aware of the approximate location. Later, the group pinpointed the vessel’s final resting place. Thus began a series of dives to the site. Munson found five coins in 1994 worth $80. No more coins were found until 2006.

Now the group has more than 100 gold coins and 1,000 silver coins. The collection may be worth more than $1 million, according to an expert in Las Vegas.

“I’ve read of others (sunken treasure hunts) and how their projects worked. When you go through the ups and downs, the victories and the defeats and the classic phases of a project, it’s unique and surreal when you do complete it,”Munson said.

DON SHOOPMAN

SENIOR NEWS EDITOR