Found pirate treasures: someone is looking for a lifetime, someone is just lucky. Where can you find pirate treasures?

According to the US Hydrographic Office over the past hundred years, an average of 2,172 merchant marine ships are lost annually worldwide. And those are just the losses. From 1500, when the Europeans, primarily the Spaniards, initiated the robbery of the New World, and until the middle of our century, that is, in 450 years, the world's civilian fleet lost almost a million ships. Only Portugal, and only in the 16th century, lost sea cargo in the amount of 124 million dollars. If we add to this the cost of the lost ships themselves, the amount of losses will increase to an astronomical figure.

And these are only the ships, the fate of which is known and reflected in the documents. And how many unknown tragedies does the World Ocean store? It is believed that for every known and reported shipwreck, there are hundreds of unknowns. On nautical charts The Admiralty of Great Britain reflected the death of almost 1600 ships that sank in the English Channel, and almost 6.5 thousand that died off the coast british isles. Summing up the data of the Admiralty on the lost merchant ships and their cargo, we can conclude that in maritime disasters lost almost 20 percent of all gold and silver mined on Earth.

And here are the data on the American Great Lakes: from 1679 to 1951, 7167 ships sank here with a cargo of copper, iron, lead, timber, coal, flour, grain, oil and cash.

So, at the bottom of the oceans, seas and lakes lies enormous wealth, and half of them can be raised to the surface with the help of modern underwater technology. This means that the search for sunken treasures should be considered not just a business, but a Business with a capital letter, very attractive for both professionals and amateurs. A legitimate question: why, in this case, the search and extraction of sunken treasures is not put on a broad state basis, with the involvement of experienced professionals?

Actually this is not true. In the UK, France, Italy and the US, various agencies are involved in the salvage of lost cargoes, mostly sunk during the Second World War. In the listed European countries the corresponding programs began to be developed immediately after the end of the war and are still being implemented. As far as the United States is concerned, a special department of the Department of the Interior does not have sufficient personnel and equipment for such work and is forced to limit itself to projects that involve minimal costs with a high value of sunken cargo. At the same time, the government seems to be encouraging the search and extraction of underwater treasures by private entrepreneurs.

In fact, professional treasure hunters rarely take on major projects because of the usual bureaucratic red tape in such cases. It is easier and more profitable for them to engage in small work, in which there is no shortage, and not to bind themselves with official contracts.

The work of an underwater treasure hunter is difficult and dangerous, and a true professional will take up a specific job only with good views for return. Everything is taken into account, up to the state of the weather: after all, the equipment of a submariner is very expensive and the delay due to weather conditions can deprive the entrepreneur of all hopes for profit.

Each case, each project provides the underwater treasure hunter with a new option, replenishes his professional experience. Factors such as geographic and topographic changes in the seafloor, caused, for example, by tectonic causes, in turn change the direction of currents, tides and tides. As a result, the wreck may be completely buried, hidden by bottom materials, or be moved to another location. The movement of the ship at the bottom can create other obstacles: a strong deformation of the hull, which will prevent the explorer from penetrating inside.

South Florida is a popular area for underwater treasure hunters. The search technique is simple: cruise along the coastal shallows and try to look for signs of sunken ships. And the surest sign is the accumulation of large stones, the remains of the ship's ballast. Such stones are clearly visible in the water to a depth of 16 - 18 meters. Most of the sunken ships off the coast of Florida are found at a depth of 12 - 15 meters, usually on reefs or shallows. So, a 44-gun British frigate was recently found, missing in 1744.

One of the local treasure hunters, a certain Art McKee, is famous for finding several bars of pure silver weighing more than 3 kg each. In addition, he is the owner of many other "seafood", exhibited in his own museum. Most of the exhibits are all kinds of items from Spanish galleons that fell victim to hurricanes. The remains of these galleons dot the seabed of the Florida Straits - from the east coast of the peninsula to the Bahamas.

The huge Santa Rosa galleon, sailing to Havana from the port of Veracruz (Mexico), sank near Key West (the western tip of the long, narrow Florida Keys, south of the Florida peninsula) with a cargo of gold and silver bars and other treasures in the amount of 30 million dollars. Today, it has been discovered by US Navy divers south of Key Ozsta, in an area off-limits to the public.

A preliminary inspection of the sunken ship showed that its hull, apparently, was not damaged, despite the fact that the galleon had been resting at the bottom for hundreds of years. Naturally, it is heavily overgrown with corals and molluscs. After this area is opened, divers intend to raise the treasure.

The first to find treasures in Caribbean, was a pirate of the 17th century known for his atrocities, Francois Olone - a thunderstorm of the Spaniards, the leader of the pirates of Tortuga. During his famous raid on Maracaibo (Venezuela), Olone heard about treasures worth 300 thousand dollars hidden on one of neighboring islands. Having finished with Maracaibo, Olone went to this island with his thugs. History testifies that Olone really found treasures there, but is silent about their exact location and the name of the island.

Bartholomew the Portuguese

Another equally famous pirate caribbean, Bartholomew the Portuguese, left at the bottom off the coast of Cuba a Spanish galleon with a cargo of gold and silver worth half a million dollars. This story is like this. One day the Portuguese was walking on a small barge at western coasts Cuba and, bypassing Cape Corrientes, unexpectedly met a large Spanish galleon. Despite the inequality of forces - there were 40 people and 4 guns on the barge, 70 and 20 on the galleon, respectively - the pirates attacked the Spaniards, but their first attack was repulsed. On the second attempt, the galleon was captured and the pirates took it to the west. However, almost immediately they came across three other Spanish ships.

This time the fight was short-lived: the Spaniards captured the pirates, whose leader was among the prisoners. The recent production of pirates - 70 thousand piastres and 120 thousand bags of cocoa - again became the property of the former owners, and the Spaniards in four galleons, with captured pirates on board, headed for Campeche (Mexico, West Coast the Yucatan Peninsula). Local merchants, having learned about the prisoners, wanted to immediately hang the Portuguese, but the execution was postponed until the next morning. While the gallows were being built in the city, the Portuguese managed to escape from the galleon. Under the cover of darkness, he passed the city and disappeared. For two weeks he spent almost no food or drink, until 40 miles from Campeche he came across a gang of familiar pirates who landed on the shore in search of water. The Portuguese told them his story, not forgetting, of course, to mention the attractive goods on board the Spanish galleons. After that, it was not difficult for him to assemble a suitable team: twenty pirates, led by the Portuguese, went to Campeche in small boats.

Having penetrated the bay at night, the pirates seized the largest of the galleons and, without waiting for the morning, left on it for the open sea. The Portuguese returned to Cuba, where he was caught by a storm. The galleon perished on the rocks southern shores islands, the Portuguese himself with several pirates managed to get to the coast. The second time the Portuguese lost a huge prey, which to this day lies near the rocks of Jardin Rocks. No one has ever tried to get the treasures of this galleon - gold and silver bars and coins, the value of which is estimated at 2 million dollars.

Bartholomew the Portuguese appears on the historical stage two years after the events described. He's back in the same area, off the island of Pinos, south of Cuba, aboard another Spanish galleon. This time his production is 12 tons of silver bullion. But again, the storm destroys the ship - on the rocks at the eastern tip of the island of Pinos, where it still lies with an untouched cargo of pure silver.

The story of another Spanish galleon, the Santa Paula, has been captivating the imagination of treasure hunters for many years. The galleon left Havana on the morning of August 12, 1679 and headed for the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands). The passenger list included Spanish grandees, officials and other important people, including the governor's sister canary islands. In the holds of the galleon, in addition to other valuables, there was also a "living commodity" - black slaves. The journey had barely begun - the galleon passed three miles from the southeastern tip of the island of Pinos (modern Punta del Este) - when the captain was informed that some strange sounds were coming from the hold. Captain Fernandez himself went down into the hold and witnessed a terrible picture: in the bottom of the ship there was a hole cut through by one of the slaves, a sort of black Hercules, and the hold was rapidly filling with water. The captain rushed to the deck and changed course, heading for Punta del Este in the hope of making it to shore before the galleon sank.

But "Santa Paula" managed to reach only the reefs at the southeastern tip of the island and began to capsize. The crew and passengers barely managed to leave the dying galleon on the boats, which sank to the bottom just before the reef barrier. Of course, all the cargo remained on board, only the logbook was saved. This magazine was subsequently sent to the archives of the Admiralty, where it was discovered. According to the registry, the Santa Paula was carrying a cargo worth $3.5 million: gold and silver bars, coins, etc., as well as a box of emeralds belonging to the sister of the governor of the Canary Islands.
The only person who has seen the Santa Paulo since then is the famous submarine explorer Lieutenant Harry Reesberg. In the hold of the galleon, he found chests with coins worth 65 thousand dollars. Lieutenant Reesberg discovered the Santa Paulo on a submerged rock outcropping more than 50 meters deep on the south side of a reef extending east of Puntadel Este.

However, it may be that not only Lieutenant Riesberg saw the sunken Santa Paulo. Once, a man who had considerable experience in underwater research in the Caribbean came to the office of the President of the Association of Underwater Treasure Hunters (Florida, USA) F. Coffman. He said that he discovered a sunken ship near the island of Pinos, at a depth of about 50 meters. The ship, apparently, sank a long time ago: there was no bulwark, access to the hold was free. With a visibility of about 30 meters, this researcher was able to see that along the entire hold there were small chests, tightly set to each other. All of them were heavily covered with silt and sand, but the narrator had no doubt that they were chests. Lacking any special means to extract the chests, he left the place of his find, hoping to return here with the appropriate equipment. This territory belongs to Cuba. After repeatedly discussing the project with Cuban officials, this submariner did not dare to continue the business: it was clear that the Cubans were trying to find out from him necessary information to pick up the treasures ourselves.

F. Koffman, a very experienced expert in such cases, does not reject the possibility that the ship found is the Santa Paula.

From the 16th century until the 1940s, the Caribbean Sea was the scene of a stormy and fruitful activity of corsairs and pirates of all stripes, hunting for Spanish ships carrying wealth from Mexico and South America through Havana to Madrid. Such well-known pirates as Olone, Morgan, Montbars, Basiliano, Scott, Davis, Bonet, Rogers, Gasparilla, Teach (Blackbeard), Kidd, Payne, Bonnett and many others of a smaller caliber operated here.

In this area, the remains of many thousands of ships of the "silver fleet" of Spain lie on the seabed, destroyed by severe storms and hurricanes, insidious reefs and villainous pirates. The island of Tortuga off the northwestern coast of Haiti is literally surrounded by a ring of sunken ships: hundreds of galleons, frigates, sloops, barges and others that died on the way to Spain with a cargo of gold and silver from the New World. Two hundred miles northeast of Tortuga is the Silver Bank (Silver), where in the middle of the 17th century the ships of the Spanish "silver fleet" with a cargo worth 21 million dollars were lost.

Off the east coast of Haiti, near Cape Entagno, lie at the bottom of the remains of the Spanish ship "Golden Doe", which was caught in a hurricane on July 4, 1502. The ship was carrying to the King of Spain gold, silver and precious stones worth 5 million dollars, which the governor of Hispaniola (as the island of Haiti was then called) - Bobadilla - "privatized" from the natives. The great depth and strong currents make it very problematic to get these treasures, among which we should especially highlight the table of pure gold - Bobadilla's personal gift to the king of Spain.

Some details about the treasures of the Silver Bank. Every year, the Spanish fleet, before sailing to Spain, gathered in Puerto Plata (the northern coast of Haiti) with a cargo of treasures from the New World. One flotilla (it was called the Galleon) "worked" along the coast of New Castile (Peru, Chile, Colombia, Panama), the second - "Flora" - cruised the Caribbean Sea, collecting tribute in Central America. Loaded with booty, the two flotillas rendezvoused in Havana and then headed for Puerto Plata before making a 4,000-mile rush across the ocean.

On a November morning in 1643, the Spanish fleet left Puerto Plata. The admiral ship "La Santissima Trinidad" headed the fleet. Knowing that large reef shoals are located in a chain along north coast Hispaniola, the sailors headed north, into the strait between the banks of Mushuar and Silver. The wind was favorable, but suddenly it died down, and then blew from the northwest, gradually intensifying. Soon a real hurricane was already raging in the strait, the entire fleet was inevitably carried to the reefs of the bank, now bearing the name Silver. One after another, the ships of the "silver fleet" perished, and only the admiral's ship managed to bypass the deadly obstacles.

A few days later, in a miserable state, he managed to return to Puerto Plato, bringing the sad news of the death of the fleet with a cargo of 21 million dollars. Forty years later, part of the $1.5 million worth of cargo was raised, and in our century, Lieutenant Reesberg mapped the location of the sunken ships. Old documents of the British Admiralty testify: "... the bank consists of two large reefs and many shoals; the distance between the North and South reefs is about 7 leagues. The Spanish fleet lies almost in the middle of the North Reef, which is 7 leagues long and 0.5 leagues wide."

Most of the remains of Spanish ships are found at depths of 15 to 30 meters; one ship lies at a depth of 36 meters, another - 60 meters. The entire fleet consisted of 16 ships, which means fifteen sank. Near Crooked Island, north of the eastern tip of Cuba, lies another large Spanish galleon that sank in 1668.

Story 1. Treasures of Cocos Island.

Story 2. The first legend about the Lima treasure.

Story 3. The second legend about the Lim treasure.

History 4. Treasures of Captain Tich.

Story 5. Treasures of the pirate Bartholomew.

Story 6. The legend of the treasure island.

Story 7. Treasures of a pirate named Morgan.

Story 8. Treasures of the pirate Olivier Levasseur in the Seychelles.

Story 9. Treasure of the pirate William Jennings on the island of Mona.

Story 10. Golden anchor of the pirate Surkuf.

Story 11. Captain Kidd's ship. The latest find of underwater archaeologists.

When writing this part, information from the following sources was used:

1. Arkhengolts F. "History of pirates of the Mediterranean Sea and Ocean". M.: Novella. 1991

2. Heinz Neukirchen "Pirates". M.: Progress. 1980.

3. Georges Blon "The Great Hour of the Oceans". Moscow: Slavyanka. TT.1 and 2. 1993.

4. Makhovsky Y. "History of maritime piracy". M.: 1978.

5. Merien J. "Encyclopedia of piracy". M.: 1999.

6. Rogozhinsky Zh. "Encyclopedia of Pirates". M.: 1999.

7. "Surkuf, a thunderstorm of the seas" // Nedelya, 1968, N 25.

8. "In the footsteps of Stevenson's heroes" // Boats and yachts, 1970, N 2.

9. "Lies and truth about Captain Kidd" // Around the world, 1968, N 7.

10. "Disappeared Treasure Island" // Knowledge-Power, 1970, N 7.

History First

Treasures of Cocos Island

Cocos Island has long been known as "treasure island" and "pirate's safe". For a century and a half, this tiny piece of land covered with impenetrable jungle (6.5 km long, 3.2 km wide) has attracted the attention of numerous treasure hunters. It is estimated that over 500 expeditions have visited it for all the time, the participants of which have invested millions of fortunes in the search for treasures. Hundreds of people died here, but the treasures were never found. And do you think the excitement of treasure hunters has diminished? Not at all!

Relatively recently, in the summer of 1962, a group of French treasure hunters landed on Cocos Island: speleologist Robert Verne, journalist Jean Portell and writer Claude Charlier. They widely advertised their plans to search for pirate gold, hoping that even if there were no treasures, then the fees for a printed book about adventures, television and radio programs would exceed the costs. They wanted to present ordinary citizens with another film about the adventures of brave treasure hunters.

But things didn't work out the way they wanted. At that moment, when they were examining the grotto overlooking the sea in Chatham Bay, the engine suddenly stopped, and the oars lay on the bottom of the boat, crushed by a tent. The sea was turbulent and a wave that came running from the side overturned the boat. Vern was thrown onto the rocks, and no one saw his two friends Bode. The sea took them. And Verne himself was removed from the island for two months by accident only through a passing ship.

“A curse that kills the soul and body is hanging over the treasures. Of course, it has nothing to do with the curses that the pirates allegedly pronounced over their treasures: “Let the one who touches my gold hidden here remember that the way back it is no longer than the blade of a knife. "The curse of greed is what weighs on the treasures. The curse that kills ..."

It is believed that the island keeps in its bowels the wealth of three famous pirates: William Dampier, Alexander Graham and Scott Thompson. And the treasures of the pirates are still there.

Story Two

Pirate Graham, nicknamed the Bloody Sword

The first legend about the Lim treasure

Autumn 1820. The troops of the liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru, General Jose San Martin, attacked the Spanish colonialists from the south. The capital of Peru was cut off from the north from the Spanish possessions by the troops of Simon Bolivar.

The viceroy of Peru, Joaquin Pezuela, decided to transfer state wealth to Panama. Treasures stolen by the Spaniards during the years of dominion were secretly delivered to the port of Callao. The modern estimate of the Peruvian treasury ranges from 10 million pesos according to the Spanish version, 30 million pounds sterling according to the English version, and 30 million dollars according to the American version. There were five ships in Callao. Values ​​were secretly loaded into the hold of one of the galleons - "Relampag".

At the entrance to the Gulf of Panama, the "golden" squadron was met by the brig of the pirate Graham, nicknamed Benito Bonito.

Graham once served in the Royal Navy. As commander of the Devonshire brig, he distinguished himself at the battle of Trafalgar, when Admiral Nelson's squadron defeated the French fleet. With the death of Nelson, the glory of the heroes of Trafalgar began to fade, and Graham left the service. He adopted the new name of Benito Bonito. And after the exploits of pirates, he received the nickname - Bloody Sword.

The corsairs of Benito Bonito in a boarding battle took possession of the Relampaga galleon. And it was in his hold that the Lim treasures were found! The pirates took the ship to Cocos Island. There, on the shore of Wafer Bay, in underground cave, Benito Bonito hid the barrels and the treasure chest, so to speak, until better times.

Soon, two English brigs overtook a pirate ship off the coast of Costa Rica and captured the bloody pirate. Alexander Graham was hung on a yardarm and took the secret of the treasure with him. Go find him now if there's no trace.

History Third

Captain Scott Thompson

The second legend about the Lim treasure

The second legend about the Lima treasure claims that it was sent from Callao not on board the Relampag galleon, but on Scott Thompson's pirate ship Mary Deer. The Spaniards promised the corsair a large reward. Naturally, they did not tell the pirate what he would actually be transporting. "Important government documents" were loaded into the hold of his brig and guards were posted. But it was difficult to trick Thompson. The pirates killed the Spanish guards and looked into the hold. Yes, there was more than you can earn by sea robbery in years! And all this without the slightest risk. The gold was already in their hold! Chopping off the anchor rope, the pirate brig rushed into open ocean. But a Spanish warship rushed after him. He caught up with Thompson's ship, though not immediately, but only in Wafer Bay of Cocos Island.

But there were no more treasures in the hold! The Spaniards hanged everyone except Thompson and his chief navigator. They were brought to a Panamanian prison, hoping to get a confession. But on the way, the navigator died, and the captain kept the secret of the treasure, realizing that this was the only way to save a life.

A wave of liberation struggle reached Panama in 1821. She released the prisoners of Spanish prisons, among whom was Scott Thompson. He moved to Canada, lived for many years in Newfoundland, collecting money for an expedition to Cocos Island. Thompson made an agreement with Captain Kitting, but just before the voyage he fell seriously ill and, dying, gave Kitting a map of the island with a treasure map.

History Fourth

Captain Keating searches for the Lima treasure

Keating's expedition reached the island. The captain and his new companion, Bogue, tried to hide the purpose of visiting Cocos from the crew. Gold was perfectly divided into the maiden parts. Why give too much to the sailors if they have enough and high contract pay?

Under the pretext of hunting, they both went ashore, but this aroused the suspicion of the team. The sailors, in their absence, searched the captain's cabin, found a bag of precious stones. There was an explanation, the team demanded a division. Kitting and Baugh agreed for the sake of appearances, and at night they left the ship and hid in a cave. The sailors failed to find them on the island, and they left without a captain. After some time, a casual whaler picked up an exhausted man on the shore of the island. It was Captain Keating. He said that his team, having raised a rebellion, captured the brig, and landed him on the shore. Ketting didn't mention Bogue.

It is believed that he killed Bogue in the cave while dividing the treasure. With the whalers he returned to Newfoundland. In the remains of his clothes he kept a handful precious stones. Before he died, he gave Thompson's map to some friend, and then it became public property. Now anyone can buy it, and at the same time a few dozen more maps from the Treasure Atlas, published in New York in 1952. And the gold of Panama still lies in a cache and is waiting for the one who finds it ...

History Fifth

Treasures of Captain Tich on Amalia

Edward Teach, one of the most famous pirates, earned the nickname "Blackbeard". According to legend, this famous pirate repaired his ships near the small island of Amalia and buried his treasures there.

As the chronicles say, Tich carried the stolen treasures deep into the island along with one of the sailors. Tich carried two saddlebags with precious stones, and the sailor carried a box of gold and a shovel. The captain chose appropriate place and while the sailor was digging a hole, he sat by and smoked his pipe. After the sailor got out of the pit, he shot him in the back of the head and, lowering the treasure, pushed the sailor's corpse into it. When, after returning, they asked him where the sailor was, Teach usually answered that he "fell off the cliffs into the sea."

Tich died in November 1718, and took the secret of the treasures with him to the grave. After Edward Teach, the island of Amalia became the base of the French pirate brothers Jean and Pierre Lafitte. They were engaged in the fact that they robbed slave traders in the Caribbean. Having sold the captured Negro slaves, they hid the proceeds on the island.

It is officially known that in 1809 the ship of Jean Lafitte was caught by an English frigate at north coast Gulf of Mexico at the moment when the pirates were going to unload the stolen treasures on the shore. Realizing the hopelessness of the situation, the captain sank his ship.

Since the coordinates of the sunken ship were known exactly, in 1949 the American firm "Kirger and Been Exploration Company" began survey work. But, despite the use of the latest technology for those times, the search was unsuccessful, obviously, the ship's hull was deeply sucked into the bottom silt. In addition to Teach and Lafitte, the island served as a haven for many more gangs of pirates, so modern treasure hunters constantly visit the island and, with enviable persistence of the doomed, look for treasures using metal detectors and other devices. But they have not yet found a single pirate treasure.

Story Six

Pirate Bartholomew's Unlucky Star

The famous pirate of the Caribbean, Bartholomew the Portuguese, left a Spanish galleon with a cargo of gold and silver worth half a million dollars at the bottom off the coast of Cuba. And the capricious lady named Fortuna, who turned her back on the "gentleman of fortune", is to blame for this.

This story is like this. One day, the Portuguese was sailing in a small barge off the western coast of Cuba and, bypassing Cape Corrientes, unexpectedly met a large Spanish galleon. Despite the inequality of forces - there were 40 people on the barge and only 4 guns, on the galleon, respectively, there were 70 people and 20 guns - the pirates attacked the Spaniards, but their first attack was repulsed. On the second attempt, the galleon was captured and the pirates took it to the west. However, almost immediately they came across three other Spanish ships. This time the fight did not end so well for the pirate. The Spaniards captured the sea robbers, whose leader was among the prisoners. The recent production of pirates - 70 thousand piastres and 120 thousand bags of cocoa - again became the property of the former owners, and the Spaniards on four galleons, with captured pirates on board, headed for Campeche (Mexico, the western coast of the Yucatan Peninsula).

Local merchants, having learned about the prisoners, wanted to immediately hang the Portuguese, but the execution was postponed until the next morning. While the gallows were being built in the city, the Portuguese managed to escape from the galleon. Under the cover of darkness, he passed the city and disappeared. For two weeks he spent almost no food or drink, until 40 miles from Campeche he came across a gang of familiar pirates who landed on the shore in search of water. The Portuguese told them his story, mentioning the attractive goods aboard the Spanish galleons. After that, it was not difficult for him to assemble a suitable team: twenty pirates, led by the Portuguese, went to Campeche in small boats.

Having penetrated the bay at night, the pirates seized the largest of the galleons and, without waiting for the morning, left on it for the open sea. The Portuguese returned to Cuba, where he was caught by a storm. The galleon died on the rocks off the southern coast of the island, the Portuguese himself with several pirates managed to get to the shore. The second time the Portuguese lost a huge prey, which to this day lies near the rocks of Jardin Rocks. No one has ever tried to get the treasures of this galleon - gold and silver bars and coins, the value of which is estimated at 2 million dollars.

The "treasure maker" Bartholomew the Portuguese appears on the historical stage two years later. He again successfully captured the Spanish galleon. This time, his production amounted to 12 tons of silver bullion! But again, the storm destroys the ship - on the rocks at the eastern tip of the island of Pinos, where it still lies with an untouched cargo of pure silver.

So future treasure hunters, thanks to people like Bartholomew, will not be left without work.

Story Seven

The Legend of Treasure Island

Since childhood, I have known the story of "Treasure Island" told by Robert Louis Stevenson on the pages of his fascinating novel. For a long time it was believed that "Treasure Island" is nothing more than the author's fiction. But it turned out that the fiction in the famous novel is based on real facts gleaned by the writer from the notes of Morgan, Drake and some other manuscripts at his disposal.

All this was remembered in the 40s of the last century, when an amazing similarity was discovered between the legendary treasure island and the island of Pinos (since 1978 - Huventud, the island of Youth), located 70 km south of Cuba. The nature of the Treasure Island, its bays and mountains seem to have been written off from the island of Pinos.

Apparently, it was here, in the bay of Siguanea, that the Espanyola once anchored. There is also a small island that covers the entrance to the bay, Morrillos del Diabolo, in the novel - Skeleton Island. The name of one of the hills of Stevenson's island is Spyglass - there is a hill with the same name on Pinos. And Pinos is the only island in the Caribbean that grows pine forests. Stevenson described them in his novel. It is interesting that when in the 40s an unofficial name was already established for Pinos - Treasure Island and the first treasure hunters began to comb it in search of rich prey, on south coast the remains of a log fort, very similar to the one in which Jim Hawkins and his friends escaped from John Silver's pirates, were found.

Apparently, Stevenson used the pirate legends of Pinos, who has seen many gentlemen of fortune in his history. For 300 years, Pinos has been a haven for pirates. In its convenient bays, the bottoms of ships were cleaned. On the shore it was possible to replenish food supplies and drinking water.

And finally, there were pine forests on the island, so necessary for the repair of ships. The names of its capes and bays testify to the pirate period in the history of the island. Cape Frances owes its name to the French pirate Francois Leclerc, Cape Pepe to the Spaniard Pepe el Mallorkin, and Agustin Hole is named after the Dutch pirate Cornelis Hol. Even the first description of Pinos belongs to the famous pirate and scientist William Dampier. Perhaps all the most famous pirates visited Treasure Island - Henry Morgan, Francois Olone, Francis Drake, Peter Hein, Rock Brazilian, John Hawkins, Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard. The latter became the prototype of Flint.

For many, Pinos is primarily an island of pirate treasures. Over the past 50 years, probably hundreds of treasure hunters have visited here, dug up the island in all possible directions. True, none of them ever got rich.

At the mouth of the Las Casas River, very similar to the place where Jim Hawkins overtook the ship stolen from the pirates, there is now the harbor of the island's capital, Nueva Gerona. This city, founded in 1828, still has architectural style during the Spanish colonial era.

And in the mountains of Las Casas and the Sierra de Caballos, now there are marble quarries. The famous pine forests of the island now remain only in its very center. Pirates began to bring them together, and the modern inhabitants of the island, declared something like a Komsomol-youth construction site, were especially successful in this. As for the cave where Ben Gan lived and kept the treasure he found, it may be located on Punta del Este. In one of these caves, traces of the sites of the Guanahatabey Indians, the ancient inhabitants of the island, were found. Cave drawings, covering the walls and ceiling of the cave, indicate that it was the ritual center of the islanders.

Stevenson wrote about the fantastic treasure of Captain Flint that was taken by the heroes of the novel. But it was also said that they took far from everything, and part of the treasure still lies on the island.

The legend of the treasure from the island is most likely a fiction. Yes, the pirates did stop here, but they did not hide the treasures.

Story Eight

Treasures of a pirate named Morgan

The famous pirate Henry Morgan plundered Panama and thereby violated the treaty between Spain and England, concluded in Madrid a few months before this event. The angry Spanish king demanded the extradition of the presumptuous filibuster, and the king of England, Charles II, had no choice but to order the arrest of the famous pirate in April 1672 and deliver him to his homeland.

But the punishment that awaited Morgan was unique in the history of all punishments. Charles II elevated the pirate to the dignity of knighthood and became the pirate and robber Henry to be called Sir Henry Morgan. Moreover, he received the high post of Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica, and it was he, a pirate, who was entrusted with fighting pirates in the Caribbean.

Thus, Morgan achieved everything he dreamed of - nobility, wealth and power. He faithfully served the king in his new position. Having become the commander-in-chief of the British armed forces in Jamaica, Morgan showed ruthlessness and cruelty in the fight against pirates, his former accomplices. For the last 17 years of his life, during which he made more enemies than friends, Henry Morgan remained Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica.

Henry Morgan died at Port Royal in 1688, aged 53, completely ill. The body of the buccaneer, who continued to be honored in his homeland as a national hero, was supposed to be transported to London, but they did not have time to do this - on June 7, 1692, a strong earthquake occurred in Jamaica. Port Royal, along with the grave of Morgan, disappeared into the abyss.

But the legends about his riches remained! Hundreds of maps showing where the famous pirate Henry Morgan hid his treasures were made. Such fakes have caused many investigators and underwater treasure hunters to waste their money. But the legends about his treasures did not decrease. Until recently, not a single large treasure buried by the famous pirate was discovered, although stories about his hidden riches have been keeping treasure seekers awake for the third century now. However, in last years the situation began to change.

Today wilds and coastal areas Panama is a Mecca for the enterprising treasure hunter. Here, deposits of precious stones are discovered, and gold veins are found in dry riverbeds. Here, during excavations, archaeologists come across ancient pottery and priceless gold jewelry. In ancient times, the Aztecs, Mayans and Toltecs visited Panama more than once, creating magnificent works of art from precious stones, gold and silver. Many of these products are buried in caches almost throughout Panama. There are also many pirate treasures that are still waiting to be discovered.

According to local press reports, two former American soldiers who once served in the zone panama canal managed to secure a comfortable old age. In 1997, they returned to Panama and in a cave near the Chagres River, about 40 kilometers north of Fort Clayton, they discovered a large treasure buried in the 17th century, possibly by Henry Morgan himself. Paradoxically, they were helped to discover the treasure by an old pirate map bought from some market merchant, who himself did not seem to know that it was genuine.

In addition to gold doubloons minted in Lima (Peru), the cache turned out to be full of gold and silver jewelry of various weights and sizes. considerable.

In general, if we talk about the treasures of Henry Morgan, here the legendary Cocos Island, lost in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Costa Rica, and covered with the most mysterious glory, holds the palm.

In addition to him, there is also the Cayman Islands, located northwest of Jamaica, which Morgan repeatedly visited before and after his pirate raids to stock up on food or sit out in some cave. It was there that he could bury some of the stolen jewelry. On one of the islands he had his own house.

Today it is known that Henry Morgan repeatedly found refuge on the island of Pinos (Juventud), located 65 kilometers south of the coast of Cuba and like two drops of water similar to the treasure island from Stevenson's famous novel. It is very possible that the king of the buccaneers could hide part of the loot there too.

Most recently, American treasure hunter Gregory Brooks flew to Haiti to join a 10-man team that rented a former Coast Guard cutter equipped with state-of-the-art diving equipment. What could have attracted the Americans to Haiti? Of course, pirate treasures.

Gregory Brooks, a native of Cherryfield, became a treasure hunter - he prefers to call himself a "commercial archaeologist" - quite by accident. In 1984, he was scuba diving off the coast of Haiti with his wife Katherine and a few friends. On the penultimate day of vacation, to everyone's delight, Brooks lifted three silver bars from the bottom. He considers this day a turning point in his life.

Over the next four years at the Portland Public Library, Brooks rummaged through a mountain of books on the history of Hispaniola (Haiti) and Spanish colonies in America. He learned that at least a thousand ships sank in the 17th century off the coast of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The second time Brooks returned to Haiti was in 1988 with two friends and a metal detector. In the ocean, not far from the coast, they managed to find an area over which the detector was very active. Returning to the United States, they carefully developed a plan of action and, having settled all the formalities with the Haitian and American authorities, returned to Haiti two years later. Brooks and his friends soon managed to pick up a whole collection of antique French porcelain scattered around the area of ​​​​the alleged shipwreck. Then two British guns, cast between about 1650 and 1699, were raised there. historical documents indicate that only two ships could have sunk in the area at that time: the frigate Oxford, owned by the pirate Morgan, and the Jamaica Merchant, the ship on which the same Morgan sailed here to try to find the remains of the Oxford.

It is known that shortly after the sack of Portobelo, Morgan began to prepare for a new action. He issued a call to all who wished to serve under him to assemble at Cow Island, where he himself arrived in January 1669. Here, on the frigate Oxford, he gave a banquet for the officers. When the fun was in full swing, the ship exploded. Presumably from careless handling of fire near the gunpowder warehouse. Only a few - including Morgan - managed to escape. According to Brooks, if there was nothing of value on the ship, the king of pirates would never return to the place of the ship's death. Brooks is certain that the Oxford carried some of the treasure looted by the buccaneers in Portobelo.

Gregory Brooks is going to spend about a year in Haiti, because Oxford can hardly be expected to rise quickly. It is necessary to conduct a thorough video filming, the necessary analyzes and calculations.

Today, Brooks is full of optimism and is going to pay for the project with the help of his sponsors, whose support he has already enlisted. Naturally, he hopes for a profit - raising the "Oxford" promises millions of dollars.

History Ninth

Treasures of the Pirate Olivier Levasseur in the Seychelles

In the XVIII century, Olivier Levasseur was the last of the famous pirates of the Indian Ocean, and he stole a lot of valuables during his life.

At the beginning of 1730, during the next voyage in search of prey near Fort Dauphine in Madagascar, the captain of the French ship "Medusa" Lermit fought with him. After a bloody battle, the pirate ship was captured and Levasseur was taken in shackles to Reunion.

The hearing at the Admiralty Court was nothing more than a formality, and on July 17, 1730, Levasseur was hanged. According to the legend, which is still alive, Levasseur, when a noose was thrown around his neck, pulled out a sheet of paper and said: "Look for my treasures, who can!" threw it into the crowd. This act was quite in the character of a pirate, but it is not known whether it was a joke or whether he asked the treasure hunters a real puzzle.

Some historians even say that Levasseur was hung on a ship's yardarm, which means that there simply could not be a crowd of onlookers around him. But the most ardent supporters of this legend claim that only ordinary members of the team were hanged on the yards, and he himself was executed on the shore. Olivier Levasseur has visited the Seychelles more than once, and it is believed that his innumerable treasures are hidden there.

Many expeditions went to the Seychelles to look for the treasures of Levasseur. Numerous copies were made from the note he threw into the crowd before his execution, which went around the world in many copies. The main landmarks of the map were encrypted, which means that Olivier Levasseur was not just a pirate and a sailor, but also a scholar ancient Greek mythology. But this is unlikely. The pirate encrypted his card too cleverly, who never showed his "unique" knowledge anywhere else. Was he really hiding them?

Until now, the search for treasures in Madagascar, Sainte-Marie, Rodrigues, Reunion has not yielded any results. And this is another confirmation that the legend of the Levasseur treasure is only a legend.

But not everyone thinks so. Australian journalist Atoll Thomas says:

"Olivier Levasseur hid his treasures so cunningly that they cannot be found just by picking the pebbles on the shore."

William Loring Esperance Becherel in 1973, searching for the Levasseur treasure, estimated it at 20 million pounds sterling. Becherel said that the place to search was indicated to him by his late father. In the giant pit he dug, 45 meters wide and 15 meters deep, he found the remains stone structures erected once really by pirates. However, Becherel believed that these were not ruins, but a map made of stones indicating the true place where the treasures were hidden. He also found a skeleton during excavations. According to the treasure hunter, these were the remains of a slave who helped to bury the treasure and then killed because he was an unnecessary witness.

Unlike his father, who worked by hand, William Becherel hired ten people with jackhammers, dynamite, powerful pumps, diesel and electric motors. He spent £450 a month on searches, and, as he confessed to one journalist, the further his business progressed, the more money it required. The work of this treasure hunter was followed by the world media and covered his work. But the treasure hunter never found anything.

In the town of Bel Ombre on the main island of the Seychelles archipelago Mahe, many still believe that it was here that Levasseur buried his innumerable treasures, the cost of which is already estimated at 100 million pounds!

The English treasure hunter Reginald Herbert Cruz-Wilkins believed that most of the treasures from Levasseur's Vierge du Cap were buried in Bel Ombre. And he was so actively looking for a treasure there that he turned into a living attraction of the Seychelles for a long time.

In 1949 Cruz-Wilkins created a syndicate there to search for the treasure of the pirate Levasseur. He dug up stairs roughly carved into the rock, which apparently led from an underground cave to a heap of rocks dominating the approach to sandy shore Bel Ombre. Some images were carved on the walls of the stairs, but the entrance to the cave was blocked. Either the mass of rocks has simply settled over the past centuries, or Levasseur deliberately rigged it to make it difficult to access the treasure.

Over the next twenty years, Cruz-Wilkins invested £10,000 of his own savings and £24,000 collected by members of the syndicate in East Africa in the search. By 1972, the cost of the treasure hunt was 35-40 thousand pounds.

Cruz-Wilkins had to move 700 tons of rock from a granite ledge in order to find carved images on rocks that were important for further searches. The shore at Bel Ombre was pitted with trenches and tunnels below sea level, and concrete walls were erected around them to protect equipment for pumping water from waves.

Cruise-Wilkins firmly believed that he had found the cave in which the treasures were hidden. But to get to it, huge and dangerous engineering work has been done. First of all, a large dam had to be built so that the excavation site would not be flooded by the sea.

As Cruise-Wilkins approached the three stones, which he assumed were the golden apples of the Hesperides, the huge rock began to slide down and almost crushed him.

As a result of enormous expenses, only a flintlock pistol, carved figurines, an eighteenth-century wine jug, a cannon and a few coins were found. Cruz-Wilkins thought he was on the right track and would open soon fairy cave where untold riches lay, but no one else wanted to finance his work. Everyone then already lost faith in the order that the Levasseur treasure really exists.

Charles de Laronsière, in his book "The Mysterious Pirate" dedicated to Levasseur, writes: "The discovery of his treasures will one day serve as an epilogue to this story..."

Maybe so, but so far no treasure of Olivier Levasseur has been found.

History Tenth

Treasure of Pirate William Jennings on the Island of Mona

In 1939, an American expedition found on the island of Mona, located in the Caribbean Sea between Haiti and Puerto Rico, a treasure hidden by the English pirate William Jennings. About a million dollars were raised from the sale of gold coins and jewelry. This is a pretty successful venture for treasure hunters, although such a treasure cannot be called large at all. And it cannot be compared with the discovery of the Odyssey company in 2007.

Story Eleven

Anchor of Captain Surkuf

The French treasure hunter Henri-Roger Laudon began to search for the treasures of the famous 17th-century pirate Surcouf. He found out that the last refuge of the sea robber was the island of Barbados, on which the pirate was captured. After a thorough study of the island of Loudon in the bay on east coast found the remains of several ancient ships. One of them, judging by the descriptions, resembled the ship "Fudr" of the pirate Surkuf. Apart from the anchor, nothing could be found near the remains. However, Loudon took up the anchor and found that it was entirely cast from an alloy of gold and silver! The weight of the Loudon trophy is a little less than 500 kilograms!

History Twelfth

Treasures of Captain Kidd

In late 2007, a group of underwater archaeologists from Indiana University managed to find another famous treasure. Off the coast of the Dominican Republic, they discovered the sunken ship of Captain Kidd himself.

Treasure hunters have been trying to find this ship for 300 years! And the most surprising thing is that the desired ship was under everyone's nose. It lies at a depth of only 3 meters! 20 meters from the coast of Catalina Island!

But archaeologists found, as it turned out, only Kidd's ship, guns and anchors. His treasures were not on board, which indicates that the pirate managed to hide the treasure well. And again the question is where?

Andrienko Vladimir

Pirate treasures - yes, they haunted many, and even now the dream of finding the loot once pirates does not allow you to sleep well at night. You think, when all this was, everything that could have already been found before us, which is especially twitchy, but this is not so, and to this day there are still a lot of unfound treasures at the bottom of the sea or lost islands seas and oceans.

Who knows, maybe you will become one of those who find one of the treasures listed below?!

1. Oak Island in the Bay of Fundy. Treasures are hidden here Ticha And Lafitte.

2. The coast of Cape Cod. Discovery site of the Bellamy Pirate's Wyde.

3. key west. Here the galleons "Nuestra Señora de Atocha" and "Santa Margarita", which had flown onto the reefs in 1622, perished. The load of these treasures is estimated 250 million dollars, although some of the treasures have already been picked up.

4. Bahamas. Found the remains of the Spanish galleon "Concepcion", which sank in 1641. Bert Webber raised only a small part of the treasure - 32 tons of silver.

5. Silver Banks Shoals. Scattered along the shallows are the remains of 16 Spanish galleons that sank in 1643 during a storm. The total value of the cargo is estimated at 65 million dollars.

6. Juventud Island (Pinos). Pirate base in the Caribbean. It is possible that Drake, Van Doorn, Teach and other famous pirates hid their treasures here.

7. Samana Bay. In 1724, the galleons "Conde de Tolosa" and "Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe" sank with a cargo of mercury, which today would be valued at 6 million dollars.

8. Mona Island. It is believed that the treasure of the pirate Jennings is buried here. To the east, his ship, found in 1939, sank.

9. Kumana Bay. As a result of sabotage in 1820, the galleon "San Pedro de Alcantra" exploded. Harry Reisberg lifted some of the load priced 50 million dollars.

10. Island. At the beginning of the 19th century, treasures collected by the Spaniards in Peru were hidden here.

11. Tobermory Bay. The ship of the Great Armada "Florence" was found here, but no treasure was found.

12. Bay of the Wadden Sea. In 1799, the Dutch ship Lutin sank with £1,375,000 on board.

13. Donegal bay. The galleass Chiron was found, on board of which in 1588 was the salary of the Great Armada.

14. Vigo bay. During the battle with the Anglo-Dutch squadron, 17 Spanish galleons were sunk. Their cargo has not yet been found.

15. Azores, Faial Island. In 1594, the British sank the Portuguese ship Chagas, which was carrying about 7 tons of gold.

16. Porto Santo Island. In 1724, the Dutch ship Slot ter Hooge sank with 1,500 silver bars on board. Part of the cargo was lifted by the Belgian Stenuy.

17. Saint Helena. In 1613, the Portuguese sank the Dutch ship "Witte Liuw" with a cargo of gold and 1311 diamonds here.

18. Balaklava Bay . The million pounds sterling that sank along with the Prince has still not been found.

20. Seychelles: Farquhar, Aldabra, Providence, Mahe. Now the treasures of French corsairs are being searched here.

21. Madagascar, Cape Masuala. In the 18th century, the bases of many pirates, including England and Levasseur, were located near this cape.

22. Mauritius island. Surkuf treasures may be found here.

23. Reunion Island. According to the evidence, the pirates England, Taylor and Levasseur hid their treasures here in the 18th century.

24. Strait of Malacca. In 1511, the flagship of the Portuguese fleet, the Fleur de la Mar, crashed on the reefs. Its cargo is valued at $9 billion.

25. Saipan Island. Here in 1638 the galleon "Nuestra señora de la Concepción" was wrecked. Part of the cargo was saved by the team, and in 1987, treasure hunters found another 1,300 gold jewelry at the bottom.

26. manilla bay. Franck Goddio discovered the Spanish galleon San Diego sunk in 1600 here.

27. Greigen Island. The English pirate Robertson buried a treasure that could be worth between 2 and 20 million dollars.

28. Tsushima Strait. The cruiser "Admiral Nakhimov", sunk by the Japanese in 1905, according to some reports, carried the salary of the Russian fleet.

If, on a map of the Western Hemisphere, from the city of Montreal to the southeast, draw a straight line to Cape Frio, located at the eastern tip of South America, and then connect this cape with a line to the Cocos Islands in pacific ocean, near Panama, and draw another line from Cocos to Montreal, then a triangle will appear on the map. All over the world it is called the "Golden Triangle" or "Treasure Triangle". Whose treasures are they looking for here?

1. Oak Island in the Bay of Fundy. Treasures of Tich and Lafitte are hidden here.
2. Coast of the Cape Cod Peninsula. Discovery site of the Bellamy Pirate's Wyde.
3. Key West. Here the galleons "Nuestra Señora de Atocha" and "Santa Margarita", which had flown onto the reefs in 1622, perished. The cargo of these treasures is estimated at 250 million dollars, although some of the treasures have already been raised.
4. Bahamas. Found the remains of the Spanish galleon "Concepcion", which sank in 1641. Bert Webber raised only a small part of the treasure - 32 tons of silver.
5. Silver Banks Shoals. Scattered along the shallows are the remains of 16 Spanish galleons that sank in 1643 during a storm. The total value of the cargo is estimated at 65 million dollars.
6. Island of Juventud (Pinos). Pirate base in the Caribbean. It is possible that Drake, Van Hoorn, Teach and other famous pirates hid their treasures here.
7. Bay of Samana. In 1724, the galleons "Conde de Tolosa" and "Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe" sank with a cargo of mercury, which today would be valued at 6 million dollars.
8. Mona Island. It is believed that the treasure of the pirate Jennings is buried here. To the east, his ship, found in 1939, sank.
9. Cuman bay. As a result of sabotage in 1820, the galleon "San Pedro de Alcantra" exploded. Harry Reesberg lifted some of the $50 million worth of cargo.
10. Coconut Island. At the beginning of the 19th century, treasures collected by the Spaniards in Peru were hidden here.
11. Tobermory Bay. The ship of the Great Armada "Florence" was found here, but no treasure was found.
12. Bay of the Wadden Sea. In 1799, the Dutch ship Lutin sank with £1,375,000 on board.
13. Donegal Bay. The galleass Chiron was found, on board of which in 1588 was the salary of the Great Armada.
14. Bay of Vigo. During the battle with the Anglo-Dutch squadron, 17 Spanish galleons were sunk. Their cargo has not yet been found.
15. Azores, Faial Island. In 1594, the British sank the Portuguese ship Chagas, which was carrying about 7 tons of gold.
16. Island of Porto Santo. In 1724, the Dutch ship Slot ter Hooge sank with 1,500 silver bars on board. Part of the cargo was lifted by the Belgian Stenuy.
17. St. Helena Island. In 1613, the Portuguese sank the Dutch ship "Witte Liuw" with a cargo of gold and 1311 diamonds here.
18. Balaklava bay. The million pounds sterling that sank along with the Prince has still not been found.
19. Zanzibar island. It is believed that the treasures of the English pirates Kidd and Avery are buried here.
20. Seychelles: Farquhar, Aldabra, Providence, Mahe. Now the treasures of French corsairs are being searched here.
21. Madagascar, Cape Masuala. In the 18th century, the bases of many pirates, including England and Levasseur, were located near this cape.
22. Mauritius island. Surkuf treasures may be found here.
23. Reunion Island. According to the evidence, the pirates England, Taylor and Levasseur hid their treasures here in the 18th century.
24. Strait of Malacca. In 1511, the flagship of the Portuguese fleet, the Fleur de la Mar, crashed on the reefs. Its cargo is estimated at 9 billion dollars.
25. Saipan Island. Here in 1638 the galleon "Nuestra señora de la Concepción" was wrecked. Part of the cargo was saved by the team, and in 1987, treasure hunters found another 1,300 gold jewelry at the bottom.
26. Manila Bay. Franck Goddio discovered the Spanish galleon San Diego sunk in 1600 here.
27. Greigen Island. The English pirate Robertson buried a treasure that could be worth between 2 and 20 million dollars.
28. Tsushima Strait. The cruiser "Admiral Nakhimov", sunk by the Japanese in 1905, according to some reports, carried the salary of the Russian fleet.

For more than one hundred years, treasure hunters from all over the world have been hunting for the treasures of the most famous pirates of the Caribbean, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Legends of unthinkable riches roam along with old pirate maps from generation to generation.

Treasures of Blackbeard

Pirates, unsure whether they would live tomorrow or die on the chopping block, easily parted with treasures and cared little about their future. Most filibusters led a wild life, spending time in taverns and brothels. But there were also those who cared about their future. Considering their illegal position, the only way to ensure their old age was to bury treasures in various hidden places.

The piracy business that flourished in the Caribbean during the period of American exploration has always attracted people of different classes. A craving for battles and robberies was seized by many: from simple fishermen, tired of monotonous work, to professional soldiers and sailors who made robbery their craft. There were quite strange personalities among them. Let's say Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard.

This pirate, who became the prototype of Captain Flint from Stevenson's novel, became famous for rampant robberies. According to legend, on the small island of Amalia, the famous corsair repaired ships and hid his treasures. He carried the stolen valuables deep into the island along with an unsympathetic man from the team. Teach chose a suitable place, and while the sailor was digging, he sat nearby, smoking. When everything was ready, and he crawled out of the pit, Blackbeard shot the sailor in the back of the head and, lowering the chest with gold, pushed the corpse into the same place. When asked by the team where his companion had gone, Tich usually answered: “Stuck in a swamp” or “Flipped off a cliff into the sea.” Since a lot of time passed before the next trip into the interior of the island, part of the team did not know about what had happened. And those who guessed preferred to remain silent.

The fate of Tich turned out to be sad, but natural. In November 1718, he was killed in a fight with Lieutenant Maynard, sent to capture him. Blackbeard's head was cut off and hung as a trophy on Maynard's ship. The fate of the pirate's treasure remained unknown.

The Lost Treasures of Levasseur

No less famous Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, where, according to legend, the bases of such pirates as Olivier Levasseur, Edward England and John Taylor were located. This trinity was the thunderstorm of the Indian Ocean. In April 1721, Taylor and Levasseur captured one of the most valuable prizes in the history of piracy, the Portuguese ship Vierge du Cap. The ship was literally bursting with an abundance of gold, silver, pearls and diamonds. The number of treasures that fell into the hands of the pirates is evidenced by the fact that after the division of the fabulous booty, each sailor received 5 thousand gold guineas and 42 diamonds. Huge money in those days. What to say about the share of captains - they received half of all captured treasures.

After that, Levasseur stopped his campaigns for a while and settled down, but then he again took up piracy. In 1730 he was captured and sentenced to death by hanging. His body, dangling from the gallows, was supposed to be an admonition to other gentlemen of fortune. When on July 17 of the same year a rope was thrown around his neck, before dying, the corsair threw a sheet with some hieroglyphs into the crowd, shouting: “My treasures will go to the one who digs up to them!” Quite in the spirit of Levasseur. However, to this day it is not known whether it was really a map indicating the path to the treasure or whether it was his cruel joke.

A lot of people searched for the treasures of Levasseur, but no one managed to get to them. In 1949, retired naval officer Reginald Cruz-Wilkins went on a treasure hunt, believing he had solved the mystery of the pirate's map. Excavations on the island of Mahe, in a place called Bel Ombre, took many years, but the only thing that the treasure hunter found was a lot of household items of pirates of the 17th-18th centuries, several coins and skeletons. The bones probably belonged to unnecessary witnesses to the burial of the treasure. However, the bulk of the treasure still lies somewhere in the Seychelles.

Impregnable treasures of Cocos Island

However, the most attractive treasure for treasure hunters, without a doubt, is the treasure buried by pirates on Cocos Island. This island in the Pacific Ocean is located far from the trade routes and is believed to contain the largest of the undiscovered pirate treasures. The history of these treasures is confusing. In the autumn of 1820, the troops of the liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru, General Jose San Martin, advanced on the Spanish colonizers from the south. The capital of Peru was cut off from the north of the possessions of Spain by the troops of Simon Bolivar. The viceroy of the country, Joaquin Pezuela, decided to ship the wealth of Peru to Panama, in order to transport them to Spain, if possible.

Treasures were secretly delivered to the port of Callao. Their modern assessment is different: 10 million pesos, 30 million pounds sterling and 30 million dollars. There were 5 ships in Callao. Valuables were loaded into the hold of one of them. At the entrance to the Gulf of Panama, the squadron was blocked by the brig of the pirate Graham, nicknamed Benito Bonito ...

According to legend, Graham served in the English Royal Navy and, commanding the brig Devonshire, distinguished himself in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. But after the death of Admiral Nelson, he was forced to leave the service and, calling himself a new name, became the head of the pirates. Popular rumor dubbed him the Bloody Sword. Corsairs led by Graham in a boarding battle took possession of a ship with Peruvian treasures. And, safely hiding from persecution, they took the ship to Cocos Island. There, on the shores of Wafer Bay, the pirates hid barrels and treasure chests in an underground cave. After some time, two English warships forced the filibusters into battle near the coast of Costa Rica. The pirates were defeated. The captured Benito Bonito was hung on a yardarm, but took the secret of the treasure with him.

According to the second version, the treasures of Peru were sent from Callao on Captain Scott Thompson's pirate ship "Mary Dear". The Spaniards promised him a large reward for transporting "important government documents”, which were loaded into the hold, placing their guard. But it was difficult to trick Thompson. Suspecting that the Spaniards were trying to take out the jewels, the pirates killed a few guards and, having chopped off the anchor rope, rushed into the open ocean. A warship followed them. He was able to catch up with Thompson's ship, but too late - the pirates managed to unload the treasures in Wafer Bay and hide them somewhere in the depths of Cocos Island. The Spaniards hanged all the pirates, saving only the captain and the senior navigator. They hoped that in prison they would become more talkative. But the navigator soon died, and Thompson kept the secret of the treasure, realizing that the Spaniards needed it as the only witness, without whom there was no way to the treasure.

In 1821, a wave of liberation struggles reached Panama. Prisoners were released from prisons, among whom was Scott Thompson. He moved to Canada and lived for many years on the island of Newfoundland, collecting money for an expedition to Cocos. The former pirate entered into an agreement with Captain Kitting, but just before the voyage he fell seriously ill and, dying, gave Kitting a map of the island with a diagram of the location of the treasure.

Keating's expedition reached Cocos. The captain and his new companion Bogue tried to hide the purpose of the visit from the crew. Under the pretext of hunting, they both went ashore and found the right cave. The "Hunters" went ashore for several days, which aroused the suspicion of the crew. The sailors, in their absence, searched the captain's cabin and found a bag of precious stones. There was an explanation, the team demanded a division. Kitting and Baugh agreed, but secretly left the ship at night, hiding in a cave. The sailors failed to find them, and as supplies ran out, the ship left.

After some time, a random whaler picked up an exhausted man from Coconut. It was Captain Keating. He said that the team mutinied, captured the brig, and landed him on the shore. He didn't mention Bogue. Apparently, Keating killed a partner while dividing the treasure. In the folds of his clothes, he managed to keep a handful of precious stones. But he could not return to the coveted island again. Before his death, the captain gave the map to a friend. Numerous copies were made from it, which were distributed around the world. It is estimated that more than 500 treasure-hunting expeditions visited Cocos Island, but all ended in failure. At least, there are no official reports about the discovery of the treasure.

Fortune awaits the brave

However, the search for pirate treasures does not always end in failure. There are numerous examples of treasure hunters winning. So, in 1939, on the island of Mona, located in the Caribbean Sea between Haiti and Puerto Rico, an American expedition discovered gold hidden by the English pirate William Jennings. More than a million dollars were raised from the sale of found gold coins and jewelry at an auction in Chicago.

In the Indian Ocean on the island of Astov in 1911, another find was made - 107 silver coins, several forks and spoons, two shoe buckles and a boatswain's whistle. All this probably belonged to one of the members of a pirate ship that once anchored off the island.

That a huge amount treasures not found still remains lying in the ground, forcing more and more generations of treasure hunters to go to distant lands in search of lost treasures.

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Arseniy RAGUNSTEIN

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We must go look for metal!