If there is one thing pirates are known for it is treasure. Plundering the high seas and ports alike resulted in vast riches for some of these ruthless criminals. Always being on the run from mercenaries, armies, navies, and any and all other law enforcement agencies of the day, often resulted in the necessity to hide their riches. For whatever reason, burial of chests laden with gold and jewels seems to be the norm, but is there any pirate treasure left?
We have compiled a list of 11 potential pirate treasure troves left unfound. As with any tale of vast hidden riches, these stories can not be 100 percent verified to even exist. However, if they do, they are still up for grabs. Maybe you can find one and claim the fame and wealth that will ultimilty accompany your successful efforts.
Captain Kidd
In the late 1600’s a Scottish sailor named William Kidd came to America. He met and married his wife in New York and had 2 daughters. In the 1690’s a war broke out between England and France. Kidd set sail for England and was commissioned as a privateer by the English government.
He successfully captured a few ships during his years long voyage. Upon returning he discovered that he had been labeled a pirate by the British government. Upon hearing this news, he unloaded his spoils and set sail for America (where he was later arrested and sent back to England).
There have been many stories told of treasure Captain Kidd buried back in America. There are at least 3 different locations said to hold his riches in Connecticut.
Tyron’s Landing located between the towns of Wethersfield and Naubuc. It is said that Captain Kidd came ashore here. He found a hillside where he buried 2 pirate chests filled with valuable metals and jewels. 2 chests are also rumored to be buried on Clarke’s Island on the Connecticut River. Finally Pirate’s Cove, which is on the southern tip of Connecticut may house these valuable chests.
There is another treasure said to be buried on Kelly Island in Delaware by James Gillian, a member of Kidd’s crew. He wished to return to America to retrieve this treasure after Kidd’s execution but he never made it back. He stated that it was buried beside 2 wind damaged trees and a large rock (one would think that with treasure this valuable one would choose landmarks a little more cautiously, but I guess trees and a rock is all we have to go on here).
Other possible locations of Kidd’s treasure include Maryland in Druid Park, and Money Island off the coast of Connecticut is also claimed to be used by Kidd. The treasure on Money Island is said to hidden in the crevice of a large rock that is only visible during low tide.
Deleware holds one more possibility around Woodland Beach. However, this treasure is also attributed to the infamous pirate Blackbeard.
BlackBeard
Pirate Blackbeard entered the history books in the early 1700’s. Not much is known of his early life before his pirating career. In fact, we don’t even know for certain his real name. Many believe it is Edward Teach, but some claim it is Edward Thatch.
He was most likely a sailor for the English Navy who became unemployed and turned to a life of piracy. In his early pirate career, he teamed up with a few other pirates and eventually took over a ship named “The Revenge”.
Later that fall, he captured a large French slave ship bound for some sugar plantations. He renamed this ship “Queen Ann’s Revenger” which gave him one of the largest fleets on the East coast of America and Caribbean.
Blackbeard captured an estimated 40 different ships and vessels in a little less than 2 years off the east coast of America and across the Caribbean. He even set up a blockade of the port of Charleston in South Carolina for 6 days.
His flagship was eventually ran aground and he was ultimately killed by English warships off the East Coast of America. One of his ships has been discovered in the waters off of North Carolina and definitely proven to belong to Blackbeard. So where did Blackbeard hide his treasures?
As mentioned above one of the rumored locations for his treasure is on Woodland Beach in Delaware. This state also holds another possible location on the banks of Blackbird Creek.
Another logical location said to hide this cache of valuables is in South Carolina. Having spent some time here, Blackbeard built a fort near a swamp west of Charleston. Many say he buried treasure here during this time.
Blackbeard also spend some time in North Carolina, in fact he secured a Royal Pardon in the town of Bath. It is said that he buried a multitude of treasure along the Pamlico Sound and on Bluff Point.
Billy Bowlegs Rogers
Hitting the scene in the early 1800’s Billy Bowlegs Rogers was a pirate to be reckoned with. He spent nearly 30 years plundering ships in and around the gulf coast. Toward the end of his pirate career, Bowlegs was being pursued by an English warship. Seeing the writing on the wall, he decided to scuttle his own ship and hide with his crew in the forrest.
Billy left the vast majority of his crew behind and sailed north to gather supplies to salvage his ship. He finally returned with his wife to find all but a handful of his crew had died. He continued the diving operation, but while they were working, his wife came down with a fever and died. Rogers lost interest in the hunt after this and it is said he lived near his treasure to guard it for the remainder of his life.
Rogers is said to have hidden huge amounts of gold and silver bars worth a fortune today. Most of the suspected locations are in and around the state of Florida.
The Choctawatchee Bay is an area of a lot of speculation of the location of some of Bowlegs’ hidden treasure. He supposedly buried large amounts of treasures on the islands around the bay. Another report states that he hid several chests in a small river somewhere in the vicinity of the Bay.
Santa Rosa Island has been sort of a local hotspot for finding bags of gold and silver coins. Some speculate that this is remnants of Rogers’ great treasure.
Bald Point is another hotspot but for rumors of pirate treasure. There are a few pirates who may have hidden treasure at this spot, including Billy. He supposedly buried 3 chests under a palm tree somewhere in the vicinity. again not sure of the thought process of choosing a tree as a landmark for millions of dollars in treasure, but that is how the story goes.
The final and perhaps most intriguing possibility is around the Spanish Fort San Carlos in Pensacola. Supposedly this fort had hidden tunnels leading under the fort. These tunnels converged into a large chamber underground. The story states that Rogers discovered these lost tunnels and used them to store his treasure. Hiding treasure under a well constructed fort is a much more logical thought than those previously mentioned. This treasure as well as the tunnels remain lost.
Jose Gaspar
The legend of pirate Jose Gaspar, or Gasparilla as he is sometimes known, is shrouded in mystery. There are multiple stories about his life that vary greatly depending upon the source of the information, leading some to conclude that he was not a real person. Here is what we have been able to piece together about this controversial pirate.
According to the sources we studied, Gaspar was probably born in Spain in 1756. He quickly worked his way up the ranks of the Spanish Navy and became an officer. During this time a woman of the royal family, rumored to be the kings daughter-in-law sought the attention of this young naval officer. Gaspar apparently did not share this attraction and instead gave his “attention” to other women of the court.
This allegedly infuriated the young lady who devised a plan to essentially frame Gaspar for stealing some jewels. With the help of the Prime Minster she was able to convincingly spread this rumor leading to Gaspar’s impending arrest by the king.
Gaspar caught wind of his coming doom, and escaped via ship to America. He vowed revenge on those who had framed him and was forced to turn to a life of piracy. If the legend is true, Gasparilla was extremely successful and plundered more than 400 ships.
His death seems to come straight from Hollywood. Legend has it that Gasparilla spotted a huge ship sailing in the distance. Not being able to pass up this giant score, he pursed the ship that was flying a British flag. Once he was a few hundred meters away, the British flag came down and the American flag rose up the mast.
Gasparilla had fallen into a trap! What he thought was a British cargo ship turned out to be the USS Enterprise, on a mission to end piracy. The battle raged and the story goes that as Jose Gaspar realized the inevitable, he stood on the bow of the ship and stated something like “Gaspar dies by his own hands”. He then tied himself to an anchor and jumped in the ocean disappearing for all time.
His treasure might have been on the ship with him during this battle. His ship was scuttled in the battle sending the valuables to the bottom of the ocean. However, there is another story, that has some validity, of what happened to his treasure.
Some say that as this disguised ship was sailing by, the aging pirate and his crew were in the process of dividing up the spoils as an act of retirement. This story states that the vast treasure was actually siting on the beach in numerous chests waiting to be divided. Before deciding to pursue this ship, Gaspar left some of his men behind with the treasure.
These men witnessed the battle and when the pirate ship began to sink, they loaded this vast treasure onto small boats and escaped unnoticed to a place called “Spanish Homestead” around the Peace River. They bribed the owner with some of the treasure to not divulge their location. They then buried the chests in numerous places along the river and its tributaries and swamps.
Sometime later a large sum of gold coins was found near the Spanish Homestead. This is believed to be part of the bribe money given to the owner. The rest of the treasure remains hidden, waiting to be found.
Jean Lafitte
Just like most pirates, there is little known about his early life. What we do know is that he is considered a hero to some and a villain to others. Our knowledge of Jean and his brother Pierre begins in the early 1800’s.
In or around 1806 the brothers arrived in New Orleans Louisiana and were licensed privateers operating in the Gulf of Mexico. They used Barataria Bay in Louisiana as a hub for their enterprise.
Lafitte was wanted by the US government for they deemed his acts as piracy, not privateering. He was wanted until 1815 when opinion of him changed. He apparently helped repeal a British Invasion on New Orleans. This action helped turn opinion of Lafitte from villain to hero.
A few years later, he fell out of favor with the government and turned to a life of piracy. He relocated to Galveston Island around 1817 where he set up a pirate empire. Many ship captains and pirates alike came to Lafitte and could sign articles to become a part of his pirate fleet.
His fleet would capture vessels at sea, and take all the goods back to Galveston. Here Lafitte had a very fair treasure distribution policy that everyone seemed to like. He would even compensate for injuries if they were sustained while obtaining cargo from another ship. He would then sell these items to local customers in east Texas.
This endeavor lasted only about 5 years when the us army came to visit Lafitte, asking him to leave. He ignored this order and stayed in Galveston for about another year before the Army returned forcing him to leave. He subsequently set fire to all his buildings before sailing out to sea, never to be heard from again.
There are a few theories as to the location of a hidden treasure by Lafitte in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. The latter two locations being the most logical. There is not much known about his adventures in Florida but there is rumors of him hiding a large treasure around Choctawatchee Bay. This is extremely suspect as this is the same location rumored to hide the treasure of Billy Bowlegs Rogers. Perhaps this suggested location is merely a case in mistaken identity.
Louisiana makes sense because during most of his time here, he was considered a fugitive by the US. Therefore hiding treasure might have seemed like a logical choice. The story goes that Lafitte and his men used an old barn on LeBleau Plantation as a gathering location and perhaps buried treasure here. This Plantation is said to be roughly 5 miles West of the town of Iowa.
Texas is also a logical location for this pirate to bury treasure. Spending most of his time here and running a larger business would provide ample opportunity and necessity to hide valuables. Once again our legend states that he hid 3 large chests among a group of trees on San Jose Island. This location is said to be on the southern end at False Live Oak Point.
Pirates in General
There are numerous tales and stories of pirate treasures hidden thought the world, some of which are not attributed to any particular pirate. We will discuss a few of them here.
- On the Hawaiian island of Oahu there is said to be six chests buried along a stone wall somewhere around Kaena Point. This hoard was allegedly buried by a group of pirates in the early 1800’s.
- A fisherman at Stafford Point in Connecticut is rumored to have spotted some pirates burying a heavy looking chest at Stratford Point in Connecticut during the late 1600’s.
- New Castle Island in Delaware is said to house treasure hidden by pirates from Madagascar in 1699.
- St. Vincent Island off the coast of Florida is said to have been an island frequented by early pirates. There are numerous legends and tales of buried treasure on this island.
- A unique legend of pirate treasure in Indiana is intriguing. Supposedly a group of pirates traveled from the gulf inland via river to a spot in Indiana where they hid a bunch of gold coins east of the town of Freedom. Legend states they marked a tree by driving a sword into it.
- A band of pirates in Wisconsin operated out of a cave on Hermit island. In 1705 the group was killed by French traders who were tired of being robbed by these men. Rumor has it, that the stolen goods are still hidden somewhere on the island.
Final Considerations
Tales of pirate treasures are very difficult to substantiate due to many factors. These stories and locations presented are based on our research but should be taken with some skepticism.
As with any treasure hunting adventure, be sure and obtain permission from any applicable parties before your hunt begins. Also check state and local regulations before you begin any activities such as digging or metal detecting. There are also inherent dangers involved with any of these types of adventures. If you choose to embark on a hunt for any treasure do so at your own risk.
Have fun and stay safe!
Pirate Photo by Scott Umstattd on Unsplash
ship Photo by Alonso Reyes on Unsplash
Lafitte Photo By Anonymous – Rosenberg Library, Galveston, Texas, Public Domain
Skully Photo by Luke Southern on Unsplash