Caribbean Priate Treasure in a Cave??

KANACKI

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Here is part of a 1775 British admiralty map of Sand Key.

sand key 1775 british admiralty chart.JPG

Kanacki
 

xaos

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Cmon, everyone knows they sailed 1000's of miles north, and buried them in shafts, not caves.

Some of these shafts were 100's of feet deep.
 

ARC

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Cmon, everyone knows they sailed 1000's of miles north, and buried them in shafts, not caves.

Some of these shafts were 100's of feet deep.

?

Since this is the first I have personally ever heard of such an "out there" theory ... Please elaborate with factual data.
 

Salvor6

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?

Since this is the first I have personally ever heard of such an "out there" theory ... Please elaborate with factual data.

Ever heard of Oak Island?
 

RTR

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IF I were a pirate I'd find a small cave,stash the goods,and seal the entrance w/ rocks.A lot easier/faster than digging :skullflag:
 

releventchair

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Ability to recover a cache should factor unless made out of desperation.

A low ranking party member getting a casual ship ride back to a port or any locale is a low odds proposition compared to squirreling a stash in a home-port or place planned for retirement.

Not sure how often some one jumped ship when a purse was full.
My guess , were I a pirating , my cut would get consolidated in to smaller but more valuable items or specie. Least wise , the cut not spent on a lark in port.

Some interesting info. for novices like myself not burned with a heavy sack of old coins... Explaining coin shapes causation at weighing time is one tidbit worth note.
Money, Pirates of the Caribbean, in fact and fiction Pirate Money
 

releventchair

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Hello BVI Hunter

If I was you I would try to establish the the existence of this alleged discoverer. No point chasing ghosts.

As for the island agreed most of it is flat but there is higher ground and little bit of cliff where the old disused lighthouse was as you can see below.

View attachment 1750943

View attachment 1750944

View attachment 1750946

Cave might be a lose term in description of where the discovery was made? Perhaps the discovery was made in small cleft in the cliff? If of course the story was true to begin with?

Kanacki

I'm a day late and a dollar short here looking for cliff details......:laughing7:
wyattsailing: Big Sand Cay, Turks and Caicos
 

Hillbilly Prince

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IF I were a pirate I'd find a small cave,stash the goods,and seal the entrance w/ rocks.A lot easier/faster than digging :skullflag:

Well, that made me think. I'm guessing the cannon fodder wanted paid in coins, gems, maybe jewelry.
What sort of loot would be taken from a captured ship?
Can't take everything. Then there were the matter of prisoners. Well, no problem unless you scuttled the ship, I suppose.
Being a pirate is starting to sound like an actual job ;)
 

RustyGold

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The chances of getting back to your buried treasure would be slim to none. Besides, what would you pay with for the wine, women or song?
Uh, ello fair maiden! Could I ave a dance and a flagon of wine with my song? I’ll be sure to pay you when oive got back to me buried treasure!
 

RTR

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Find small hole ...place goods inside...cover opening...spend rest of day drinking Grog, :occasion14:
 

xaos

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Huh ? wha ?

What the heck does that have to do with pirates overall / in general ?

hahahaha, that was the jist of my original post on digging shafts! Sorry, couldnt resist :occasion14:
 

Jolly Mon

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The genesis of the story seems to be this article published in 1899. There would seem to be leads that could be followed -up to determine the veracity of the article...https://johnwood1946.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/the-cruise-of-the-rechab/

In any event, there was definitely a pilot schooner named the Rechab active in St. John during the time in question:https://books.google.com/books?id=h2ZMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA750&lpg=PA750&dq="rechab"+"pilot+schooner&source=bl&ots=Jzf1a2ih2M&sig=ACfU3U3GK9XHUobllH2e-j0QAZIUhse6kw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwjOCf9cnkAhWjSt8KHcpHD6gQ6AEwDHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q="rechab"%20"pilot%20schooner&f=false
 

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Blak bart

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Awsome story !!
 

KANACKI

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Maybe the treasure is still there? :dontknow:

Maybe but perhaps the story is splinter story of another story floating around St Johns? A lot of St John mariners was active in 1812 war between American and Britain. After the end of Napoleonic war many sailors became unemployed and many drifted into working for privateers in war of South American independence from Spain. During the course of time many of those privateers eventually after 1821 drifted into out right piracy till about 1830. But then Britain United States and France had joined forces to all but drive out piracy out of the Atlantic and Caribbean. Pickings was no way as rich as the golden era of piracy 1650 and 1720 although piracy between 1815 -1830 had a modest revival.

A dying seaman telling of buried treasure proliferated bars and brothels of many a sailors flop house. It does not take much imagination to see stories being whispered between swigs of rum. St johns at the time was hot bed of fishing industry by the 1840s and no doubt some of the old hands that served in those wars was still active as mariners as they died out. Such stories proliferated?

Kanacki
 

KANACKI

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Another factor to consider.

In that time frame a sailors lot was pretty crap in those days. No welfare you worked till you drop for poor subsistence wages. if your too old or too sick to work and have no relatives to sponge off its the poor house or the gutter. So it does not so inconceivable that some destitute old salts would contrive a story of buried to treasure to get a soft bed to die and get a little sympathy? It would be easy to see why some yarns evolve?

That is one possibility of But that not say that some cache was hidden from piracy or even privateer from that era.

Kanacki
 

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A2coins

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I'm up for searching for it
 

OP
OP
BVI Hunter

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OK, so I am arranging a trip to Sand Cay, probably in January!!
Wish me luck! :)
 

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