BURIED PIRATE TREASURE

[Silveraith]

The truth be known, pirates rarely buried their plunder. William Kidd did indeed bury treasure on Gardeners Island back in the day. I am involved in chasing another old privateer & his treasure. A loot of raw gold was shipped via wagon during the California gold rush. I won't say where but this shipment bound for processing was hijacked on a lonely mountain road & taken to a port on the west coast. The haul was purported to be around &50,000 at the time which converts to a fortune in today's values. A ship sat waiting to be loaded & a man by the name of William Shears was her captain. They sailed north along the California coast all the way to Washington state where they unloaded the booty & buried a portion of it. I am sure that treasure is still there, hidden in a chest & waiting for someone to dig it up. I also believe I am close to finding the exact location. I can't tell you how I know about this treasure but it is indeed real. Remember, dead men tell no tales.

 

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[freeman]

I would like to know how you know about it.

But without detracting anything, the story doesn't seem very logical. I mean why would you bother taking the unprocessed ore to a port, loading it on a ship, sailing it somewhere else then just bury it again?

 

[Silveraith]

The ore was hijacked from the proper owners who where taking it to be processed. It was not going to a port but it was going to a small smelting operation not too far from the mining operation. Someone must have known about the wagon load of ore & hijacked it. I believe they had planned this out in advance & knew the schedule of transport from the mine. I was told there were five armed men on horseback who strong armed the gold & took the two freight men hostage. They wanted to take it by water to a secure location far from the robbery. By the time the mine owners were notified his shipment was missing it was too late to find it.
As to how I know all this, my great great grandfather was one of the mine owners. I was told this story by my grandfather as well as my father who are all diseased now. My grandfather called the thieves privateers which is about the same as a pirate as far as i'm concerned. We have good reason to believe the thieves ran into problems moving the raw ore once back on land in Washington state & were forced to bury a good part of it. I was also told that there was information given to my family way back in the early 1900's that the gold was never reclaimed as it's hiding place had become lost due to storms & changes in the terrain because of them. However, my grandfather told me he thought he had a good idea of where the gold was buried but was too old to look for it & my father had no time for a treasure hunt. I am now retired from a business I ran for 35 yrs & am thinking about beginning a search for the lost gold shipment.

 

[Silveraith]

My grandfather believed a man named William Shears was responsible for the planning of the heist and was a sea captain with a bad reputation. As he told the story, Captain Shears took the ore into the harbor at Bellingham, Washington where it was off loaded into a freight wagon to be transported into Canada which is only 30 miles or so the the north of that town. Bellingham is the northernmost city in the U.S so it makes sense if Canada was their destination. Supposedly something happened on the way to Canada with the gold. He wouldn't tell me what happened for some reason but said they buried most of it. It was supposed to have been in some type of freight containers disguised as some other item, not sure what. There are several old roads up there heading north & they wouldn't have been able to move the ore very far off the road so now I think it's a matter of how much time it would take to search possibly using metal detectors. Not sure how deep a good detector could reach though. If that isn't practical I will try to come up with other ideas. Does anyone have a good suggestion. Also, I have never been to that part of the country. Have any of you readers been in that area or know of anyone who has?

 

[Silveraith]

As stated in the previous thread, Captain William Shears had a bad reputation & was hung in England sometime in the late 1800's. Supposedly he was paid to plunder & return the loot to a shipping firm in Blackpool, England. His deal was he kept a % but was caught cheating for which he paid the price with his life. He also was supposed to have been involved with illegal shanghai operations and hauled opium when not busy plundering. I have tried with no result to find the name of his shipping company in England. Are there any good researchers out there with some good suggestions?

 

[Honest Samuel]

Welcome to our great interesting website. Good hunting and good luck.

 

[KANACKI]

As stated in the previous thread, Captain William Shears had a bad reputation & was hung in England sometime in the late 1800's. Supposedly he was paid to plunder & return the loot to a shipping firm in Blackpool, England. His deal was he kept a % but was caught cheating for which he paid the price with his life. He also was supposed to have been involved with illegal shanghai operations and hauled opium when not busy plundering. I have tried with no result to find the name of his shipping company in England. Are there any good researchers out there with some good suggestions?

There is Captain William Shears is recorded in the 1851 census records. His Address: Elliott Court Enumeration District: Malborough King. In the County of Devonshire.

His Birth Place was Malborough, Devonshire, England he was 46 years old in 1851. He is listed being married to his wife Sarah Shears aged 43. He had a Son James Spears aged 7 and a daughter Mary A Shears aged 2.

His Occupation is listed as Master Mariner.

I searched through All UK and Ireland, Masters and Mates Certificates, 1850-1927 results for William Spears. And there was none recorded as being a registered skipper.

However it not to say before 1850 skipper was never tested or registered.

Also there is no record of any William Shears being officially executed.

Kanacki

 

[ARC]

Everyone buried everything... all the time.

No offense,,, but the statement of "The truth be known, pirates rarely buried their plunder"... is moot.

Obviously copied from one of "those sites". heh

 

[ARC]

PS... the act of humans burying things of value is almost "instinctual"... and is and has been practiced for millennia.

 

[Silveraith]

Just stating what I read from researching info as to burying plunder. I'm certainly not an expert.

 

[Silveraith]

Thank you for the help.

 

[ARC]

I am not sure why or where the whole "pirates did not bury" started...

someone somewhere obviously with no real knowledge just assumed pirates were stupid individuals.

Pirates have been pictured throughout time as individuals who pissed the money away as fast as they got it.

This I am sure is true IN SOME cases... but not overall OR every time... nothing in life is "always".

Many pirates were first rate shipmen prior to their life as a criminal... and had a "goal" to reach through this very risky venture / lifestyle.

There were SO MANY... VERY good reasons for burying... and to not do so... was in fact... very stupid.

 

[KANACKI]

Another factor to help with timeline. Vancouver did not exist until 1886. Victoria was established in 1843. So if this alleged pirate was heading Canada during the 1850's California gold rush era we can safely assume he was heading to Victoria. So perhaps a search of early records of Victoria might be of help.

Kanacki.

 

[Silveraith]

Yes, the timeline seems to fit. Another unknown is to the ore. It was said to be raw gold which is vague. That could mean raw placer flakes that had to be smelted or gold trapped in quartz which would have been much heavier. I think it was in quartz & the weight gave them big problems in transporting it.

 

[KANACKI]

Okay we look at Bellingham ?

Bellingham was officially incorporated on December 28, 1903 as a result of the incremental consolidation of four towns initially situated around Bellingham Bay during the final decades of the 19th Century. Whatcom is today's "Old Town" area and was founded in 1852. Sehome was an area of downtown founded in 1854.

So if this event took place Whatcom found in 1854. We can deduce the event did not happen before 1852 at least. So once again we narrow down a date of the chain of events.

Kanacki

 

[Silveraith]

Yes, it all seems to fit as far as the timeline which gives me hope. I am extremely thankful for your help.

 

[Silveraith]

Another consideration - I am putting the cart way before the horse here - if I were fortunate enough to find this lost gold shipment, what should I do? Notify the proper authorities I presume? Then what? Would it be mine or fought over in some old estate settlement from 150 yrs ago?

 

[ARC]

Another consideration - I am putting the cart way before the horse here - if I were fortunate enough to find this lost gold shipment, what should I do? Notify the proper authorities I presume? Then what? Would it be mine or fought over in some old estate settlement from 150 yrs ago?

https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=63.21

 

[KANACKI]

Congress only gave the Secretary authority to let out the refining of the gold to private persons in 1853 Another factor there was I believe only 2 gold refineries in that era of early to middle of decade of 1850's Marysville in 1856 and the San Francisco refinery and Mint in 1855.

So we could assume the theft did not happen before that date before 1855 -1856?

Thus Newspapers had been well established for a good 5 or 6 years. There could be an account of this robbery in the newspapers of the Era. If there is then it might lead to extra information or confirm some of your families story.

Kanacki

 

[KANACKI]

Hello Silveraith

If I was you I would research every part of your families story which I have no doubt over time has some errors in the retelling of world of mouth. While its not intentional some times when family story gets retold the detail over time fades and each person who retells the story inadvertently adds speculation or omits factual information.

By picking apart the family story to get at the facts might save a lot of heart ache down the track. Family treasure or not I would not use it as an excuse not to swing a detector regardless.

As for legal problems better at this stage is research until you know enough to move onto a proper search. Your retired you have the time to give it your best shot other than the half ass way.

Cheers Kanacki