The Secret of Coffin Island

Cryptid1990 · Dec 7, 2025

The story is as follows: a ship captain, Ray Baldwin, in 1897, picked up a sailor floating in the waters somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
The sailor died not longer afterwards (presumably of hypothermia); Baldwin found a mysterious note on the sailor's body with a drawing and initials N.E.S.R.C.I. M.H.C.K -

Baldwin showed the note to his friend, Harvey Wachenhusen, who suggested the 50,000 meant $50,000 in gold coins.

The drawing contained four marked spots (X) and at one of these locations the treasure was supposedly buried:

x-------x
x-------x

As for the initials, Baldwin guessed:

NE: North East
SR: Shark River
CI: Coffin Island
MH: Money Hill
CK: Captain Kidd

[The treasure was therefore believed to be on the north-east corner of Coffin Island at one of four spots.]

A man named Charles Fink (an acquaintance of Baldwin) overheard their conversation and hired a large man, who owned a bear to keep them from searching for the supposed treasure on Coffin Island. Baldwin and Wachenhusen hired a youth named Lochward to help them search for the treasure. Using the drawing (with four X) they dug on the north-east corner of the island and found a chest. However, the large man and his pet bear got into a fight with Wachenhusen who shot the bear and the large man ran away. The chest was later opened but only had lead pipes in it and a message on paper:

"You can make more money by digging cellar than by digging for buried treasure."

Baldwin was told by another man named Jack Leibe that he buried the lead pipes and wrote this humorous message as part of a hoax since he had learnt that Baldwin and Wachenhusen were searching for treasure on Coffin Island by secretly monitoring their activities, although others believe the treasure remains on the island and Leibe was searching for the treasure himself so buried the lead pipes in the chest to mislead or deter Baldwin as a rival treasure hunter. Regardless, Leibe bought the lead pipes from Baldwin and Wachenhusen for fifty cents.

The few sources I could find for this story:

Ellis, Edward S. The Secret of Coffin Island (John C. Winston Co., 1897).
"Legend Places Kidd's Treasure in Shark River", Asbury Park Sunday Press (5 February, 1928), pps. 7, 11 [anonymous].
Westerman, William. "New Jersey Pirate Lore: Captain Kidd", New Jersey Folklore vol. 8 (1983), 2-5.

The book The Secret of Coffin Island is scarce but I managed to find a copy and recently purchased it.

Coffin Island is presumably a real place in/near New Jersey since I found it mentioned in non-fictional literary sources prior to Ellis' book:

- Fly-fishing in Maine Lakes: Or, Camp-life in he Wilderness by Charles W. Stevens (1881)

Cryptid1990 · Dec 17, 2025

My copy (unfortunately without a dust jacket. :sadsanta:

) There are two different publishers of this book with different cover art: John C. Winston (see above, a cowboy on a horse) and Henry T. Coates & Co (see my first post). Both published in 1897. I bought The Secret of Coffin Island for about £40 but I have seen it listed for sale online for £100 or more (with a dust jacket).

The book The Secret of Coffin Island by Edward S. Ellis arrived in my post today. The story reads as fiction but to give it verisimilitude, the author presents it as a true account; in Ellis' own words "the true story of a series of strange incidents" (p. 9). However, some people apparently believe the story is a folktale with a core of truth so was not made up by Ellis. The anonymous author of the article "Legend Places Kidd's Treasure in Shark River", Asbury Park Sunday Press (5 February, 1928) held this view. More sceptical, Westerman (1983) wrote:

This story comes from an old book, The Secret of Coffin Island, via a 1928 newspaper, and may be either a folktale or a novel. No mention of it was made in any source other than the newspaper; according to the unsigned article, only one copy of the original book, by Edward S. Ellis, could be found in the area.

The book itself is usually classified as a novel, more specifically a children's adventure story. That said, Shark River is a real place in New Jersey and I have now learnt that Coffin Island was an actual island in the river; not imaginary. Most likely it was an alternative name for Shark River Island (between Belmar and Avon-by-the-Sea). Ellis (1897) describes this geographical area as follows:

Recent map

Shark River Inlet Study — Save Coastal Wildlife

The Shark River Inlet is the only river inlet exclusively in Monmouth County that drains directly into the Atlantic Ocean and is the northernmost inlet on the New Jersey coast. Discover more about the biodiversity and ecology of this unique inlet in New Jersey.

www.savecoastalwildlife.org

1883 map:

Prior to Ellis' published novel there were local traditions Captain Kidd buried treasure somewhere in/around Shark River and nearby on Bradley Beach. In fact, it is known that a trick was once played on treasure hunters who were digging in Shark River. Someone buried penny coins to dupe treasure hunters, who dug them up. This actually happened in the 19th century and was mentioned by Ellis in his book The People's Standard History of the United States [1896]: