Missing 17th-century ship that inspired ‘Goonies’ found in Oregon

The world is one step closer to finally finding One-Eyed Willy’s treasure.

Explorers in Oregon have discovered part of the real “pirate” ship that inspired the movie “Goonies.”

According to National Geographic, state officials confirmed that timbers from the shipwreck of the 17th-century Spanish galleon were found in sea caves earlier this week.

The legend of the Santo Cristo de Burgos reportedly inspired filmmaker Steve Spielberg to dream up the idea for the 1985 movie — about a group of kids out to seek a sunken ship’s pirate booty and save their family homes from foreclosure.

For 300 years, tales of the shipwreck spread, with the area’s indigenous tribes passing down the legend of a ship that had vanished off the Oregon coast around 1693, carrying porcelain, beeswax and pricey Chinese silk.

The Santo Cristo de Burgos disappeared around the Manzanita, Oregon, coast some 300 years ago.Shutterstock

The new discovery “confirms that our ancestral people knew what they were talking about,” Robert Kentta, cultural resources director for the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz and a member of the Siletz Tribal Council, told National Geographic.

The recovery required a team of archeologists, law enforcers and search-and-rescue specialists, who have been searching for the past 15 years. According to National Geographic, powerful tides made for a tricky and dangerous operation that had to be perfectly timed. Scott Williams, an archeologist who had been searching for the ship, told National Geographic, “I’m impressed and relieved.”

A timber believed to be from the galleon was recovered this week from a sea cave.NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Steven Spielberg had reportedly seen a newspaper story about the legendary ships and its precious booty, which inspired him to co-write and executive produce the cult-favorite film, starring Sean Astin, Corey Feldman and Josh Brolin.

It, in turn, inspired Craig Andes, a local commercial fisherman who, according to Nat Geo, “belonged to a ‘Goonies gang’ of kids” growing up in the area. As an adult, in 2013, he came across timber remnants that he thought might have once been part of the Santo Cristo de Burgos.

The legend of the ship reportedly inspired Steven Spielberg’s 1985 classic “The Goonies.”Warner Bros.

Andes contacted the all-volunteer Maritime Archaeology Society (MAS) and urged them to test a sample of the wood.

“I was convinced it was driftwood,” MAS president Scott Williams told National Geographic. “To think that 300-year-old ship timbers could survive the Oregon coast was just crazy.”

Archaeologists, law officers and search-and-rescue personnel execute the risky emergency recovery of 17th-century shipwreck timbers from the Oregon coast.Balazs Gardi/National Geographic

But a lab analysis confirmed the tropical Anacardiaceae hardwood was of the variety and age that would have been used for the Santo Cristo, prompting the recovery efforts.

The ship’s timbers are currently stashed at Columbia River Maritime Museum, in Astoria, Ore., where they are being scrutinized by historians and experts.

As archeological investigator Jim Delgado, the senior vice president of cultural resource management firm SEARCH, Inc., told National Geographic: “These timbers are physical evidence for the stories that have been known and passed down through generations.”

The “Goonies” ship will never be found, though: The 105-foot-long Inferno, built for the movie, was destroyed after production.