Worlds greatest treasure found, expedition claims

[Badger Bart]

World's greatest treasure found, expedition claims

World's greatest treasure found, expedition claims
Treasure hunters believe they have found a legendary trove of 18th century jewels and gold coins worth $13 billion on Chile's Robinson Crusoe Island.

The island lies 700 kilometres west of Chile's central coast in the Pacific and was a refuge for pirates crossing the vast ocean.

Legend has it that Spanish navigator Juan Esteban Ubillay Echeverria stashed a fortune on the island in 1715.

British sailor Cornelius Webb is said to have found the treasure and taken it to another area of the island to be reburied.

Members of an expedition organised by Wagner salvage believe they have pinpointed the site, according to lawyer Fernando Uribe Echeverria, who is advising the team.

The expedition is using a metal-detecting robot that also can identify chemical compositions.

Mr Echeverria says the searchers believe they have found the burial site and they will start digging in a matter of days once permits have been granted.

"It is the greatest treasure in history," Mr Echeverria said.

The island of 600 people is part of the Juan Fernandez archipelago administered by the Chilean state through the National Forestry Corporation.

In 1998, an expedition led by Dutchman Bernard Kaiser with US and Chilean colleagues failed in a bid to track down the same treasure.

British author Daniel Defoe wrote his novel Robinson Crusoe in 1729, based on the story of the Scottish seaman Alexander Selkirk, who was abandoned on an island in 1704 and rescued five years later.

 

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[Badger Bart]

"The biggest treasure in history has been located,"

Jonathan Franklin in Santiago
Monday September 26, 2005
The Guardian


The archipelago is named after Robinson Crusoe, but perhaps it should have been called Treasure Island.
A long quest for booty from the Spanish colonial era appears to be culminating in Chile with the announcement by a group of adventurers that they have found an estimated 600 barrels of gold coins and Incan jewels on the remote Pacific island.

"The biggest treasure in history has been located," said Fernando Uribe-Etxeverria, a lawyer for Wagner, the Chilean company leading the search. Mr Uribe-Etxeverria estimated the value of the buried treasure at US$10bn (?5.6bn).

 

[Badger Bart]

PROBLEMS ALREADY

The announcement set off ownership claims. The treasure hunters claimed half the loot was theirs and said they would donate it to non-profit-making organisations. The government said that they had no share to donate.
It also prompted speculation about the contents of what is considered to be one of the great lost treasures from the Spanish looting of South America. Chilean newspapers were filled with reports that the stash includes 10 papal rings and original gold statues from the Incan empire.

The hoard is supposedly buried 15 metres (50ft) deep on Robinson Crusoe island, also known as the Juan Fern?ndez island, home to Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, the adventurer immortalised by Daniel Defoe as Robinson Crusoe. Selkirk was dumped on the island and lived alone for four years before being rescued. His exploits brought worldwide attention to the islands.

For centuries treasure hunters have scoured the island in search of booty which was reportedly buried there in 1715 by Spanish sailor Juan Esteban Ubilla y Echeverria. Using everything from old Spanish ship manifests to teams of islanders with shovels and picks, foreigners have made so many claims of discovering the lost treasure that islanders are usually sceptical of the proclamations.

This most recent announcement, however, deserves greater credence because of the equipment used by the treasure hunters: a mini robot that can scan 50 metres deep into the earth. The robot, dubbed "Arturito", was invented by Chileans and over the past year has grabbed headlines by breaking some of the country's biggest criminal mysteries.

First, the robot detected the buried arsenal of a rightwing sect known as Colonia Dignidad. The guns and rocket launchers were buried at some 10 metres and while the authorities had searched for years, the robot found the buried weapons almost instantly. Then, in the case of missing businessman Jose Yuraszeck, Arturito was able to analyse the soil and identify the molecular composition of human bones, allowing investigators to dig straight to the body of the murder victim.

 

[xXx]

Re: World's greatest treasure found, expedition claims

Excellent. Maybe now they'll find Jimmy Hoffa?
I have GOT to get me one of those robots. I wonder if you just follow it around while it does all the work (detecting)? Surely they could build the robot to dig the targets too? That would save a ton on digging pennies, and Leon wouldn't break so many digging knives this winter.
Very cool story. Thanks.
xXx

 

[Floater]

Re: World's greatest treasure found, expedition claims

ROBINSON CRUSOE HOMESITE DISCOVERED
(Sept. 26, 2005) The island home of Alexander Selkirk, the man whose true story inspired the famous novel ?Robinson Crusoe,? has finally been uncovered on Robinson Crusoe Island, 645 kilometers off the coast of Chile in the Juan Fern?ndez Archipelago.

IN BRIEF: PIRATE GOLD, TENNIS VICTORY, CULTURE FUNDED, SNOWBOARD DEATH, RED TIDE
(Sept 26, 2005) Also in the news over the weekend?

These are both storys in the Santiago Times . Unnfortunatley I cant acces them since it subscriber based and I am not subscribing.
Will keep looking for full story.

 

[Floater]

Re: World's greatest treasure found, expedition claims

Here's the Crusoe story .still loooking for the Treasure one.




The Scotsman
Thu 22 Sep 2005
printer friendly printer friendly email this article email article
Island gives up secret of real Robinson Crusoe

STEPHEN MCGINTY

A GLINT of metal in the soil marked the end of a 13-year quest by a Japanese explorer to locate the base camp of Alexander Selkirk, the marooned 18th-century mariner, whose ordeal inspired the book Robinson Crusoe.

As a teenager, Daisuke Takahashi read the classic novel by Daniel Defoe and when he discovered it was based on the life of a Scottish sailor, an obsession was ignited which has carried him across the globe to the island of Mas-a-Tierra, 416 miles off the coast of Chile, where Selkirk was abandoned in 1704.

An expedition led by Mr Takahashi has now uncovered clinching evidence of the location of Selkirk's base camp, where he spent four years and four months scanning the horizon in hope of rescue.

Excavation of a site, high in the hills along an abandoned trail, has led to the discovery of a bronze tip from a pair of navigational dividers, which have since been dated to the early 18th century and are almost certain to have belonged to Selkirk, a ship's master.

"I have finally reached him," said Mr Takahashi, who previously wrote the Japanese best-seller, In Search of Robinson Crusoe.

"It's a peaceful site, with the sound of a nearby river and birds singing. You can see how Selkirk could have conquered his loneliness here."

Dr David Caldwell of the National Museums of Scotland accompanied Mr Takahashi and scientists from Chile on the month-long excavation which took place last January and was sponsored by the magazine National Geographic.

He discovered the 16mm piece of copper while sifting through soil taken from the site. Initially Dr Caldwell was baffled as to what it might be, but the following day on the hike up to the site he suddenly realised that it was the tip of Selkirk's dividers. "Selkirk was known to have been carrying a pair of dividers with him when he was rescued and we can assume that a piece broke off, perhaps while he was using them for some other purpose," said Dr Caldwell.

"In archaeological terms, that is as good evidence as you are going to get."

The site on Mas-a-Tierra, which is also known as Robinson Crusoe Island, yielded traces of a fire, animal bones and holes that appear to have housed poles used for building a shelter. Selkirk built two huts of wood covered with long grass and lined with goatskin. Carbon dating then confirmed the camp as from around the time of Selkirk's long exile.

The story of Selkirk fascinated early 18th century British society and eight years after his return in 1709, the author Daniel Defoe published his novel, The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.

Born in the village of Lower Largo, Fife, Selkirk was the seventh son of a shoemaker, and went to sea against his father's wishes and to avoid a summons to appear before the Kirk session accused of "indecent carriage" in church.

In May 1703 he was appointed master of the privateer ship, Cinque Ports, but quarrelled with its captain, Thomas Stradling. After the ship underwent a hasty refit in South America, Selkirk declared the vessel unseaworthy and demanded to be put ashore on Mas-a-Tierra.

He was landed on the island with suitable supplies, including a musket, powder and a Bible, but changed his mind as the boat prepared to sail. Stradling, however, refused to take him back and so abandoned him. Yet Selkirk was proved correct about the poor repairs. The Cinque Ports sank shortly afterwards, with the loss of most of its crew.

For the first eight months Selkirk was in despair. In an account published in 1712 he "had much ado to bear up against melancholy and the terror of being left alone in such a desolate place".

However, he successfully built a camp of two huts high above Cumberland Bay, hunted goats, whose skin he stitched into clothes, and lived on fresh fruit, fish and goats' meat.

On one occasion the island was visited by the Spanish, from whom Selkirk was forced to hide, as he would have been hanged as a pirate. However, on 1 February 1709, a vessel called the Duke, captained by Woodes Rogers, visited the island and discovered Selkirk clothed in skins and unable to speak English.

In Rogers' later account of Selkirk's adventures he wrote: "A man cloth'd in goat-skins, who look'd wilder than the first owners of them [who] had so much forgot his language for want of use, that we could scarce understand him, for he seem'd to speak his words by halves."

Three years after his rescue Selkirk married a 16-year-old dairymaid, but the draw of the sea remained strong. He eventually died of yellow fever in 1721 and was buried at sea off West Africa.

The endurance of Selkirk inspired Mr Takahashi, who has dedicated more than a decade to following in the Scot's footsteps. He has spent time researching Selkirk's life in Fife and once spent a month alone on Mas-a-Tierra in order to experience a portion of what Selkirk endured.

In his book, Mr Takahashi wrote that on his first evening on the island he was so frightened that he consumed most of the bottle of Scotch he had brought in case of "emergencies".

Today, the island - which has been renamed after Defoe's novel by the Chilean government - is inhabited by about 600 people , descendants of the Spaniards who settled on the island 40 years after Selkirk left.

The discovery of the site of Selkirk's base camp, which is reported on in the October issue of National Geographic, has delighted Mr Takahashi, who said: "In today's times when the word 'adventure' is almost obsolete, I would like to convey to young people how exciting it feels to explore our dreams."

Delivery formats for "Scotland"

 

[Floater]

Re: World's greatest treasure found, expedition claims

Here it is from the UK Guardian. Also a picture is available from the scene and of the robot. heres the link.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1578135,00.html




Treasure Looters or Treasure Finders?
'twas already looted, so I guess they must be finders. Unless you count the government, then it's back to looting.


From the UK guardian:

A long quest for booty from the Spanish colonial era appears to be culminating in Chile with the announcement by a group of adventurers that they have found an estimated 600 barrels of gold coins and Incan jewels on the remote Pacific island.

"The biggest treasure in history has been located," said Fernando Uribe-Etxeverria, a lawyer for Wagner, the Chilean company leading the search. Mr Uribe-Etxeverria estimated the value of the buried treasure at US$10bn (?5.6bn).

The announcement set off ownership claims. The treasure hunters claimed half the loot was theirs and said they would donate it to non-profit-making organisations. The government said that they had no share to donate.



The treasure was discovered on Robinson Crusoe's island where the non-fiction version of Defoes famous character, Alexander Selkirk, made his home for four long years. Treasure hunters have stalked the island for generations without success, and claims of fabulous discoveries are apparently taken with a grain of briny sand. This time, however, treasure hunters employed a mini robot "Arturito", with an established reputation for finding things searchers have previously missed.

 

[AzSports]

Re: World's greatest treasure found, expedition claims

Are these 'navigational dividers' like a geometry compass? The guy must have been nutso to still be carrying them around for four years. Thanks for all the links guys, very interesting.

I can't believe the treasure finders aren't fairly sure of Chilean law before announcing this! To find this huge treasure is one thing, but for an 'amateur' to locate Caruso's camp, jee wiz that's amazing.

 

[MalteseFalcon]

Re: World's greatest treasure found, expedition claims

Here is the BBC story printed on Sept. 28...pretty much the same info:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4291334.stm

 

[Floater]

Re: World's greatest treasure found, expedition claims

Well On NPR today they had a report on this find. They interviewed the representitve of Wagner exploration or Whoever about it and talked about his detector that can see 150 ft into the earth and tell you what is there. They then interviewed another guy who has been looking for the same treasure for ove 20 years who is an american and has been going from cave to cave on the Island in search of the treasure. He disputes the find and calls the machine a bunch of hog wash. I tried to find the story online but havent gotten it yet. I will keep looking.

 

[Badger Bart]

How the law applies here

I Googled Arturito and found oodles of sites talking about this. Below is the link and the pertinent facts. It appears to me that the gov't could well be right, it's all theirs. I suspect Wagner won't pinpoint the spot without getting some sort of finders fee in writing.

http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index.php?nav=story&story_id=10006&topic_id=1

On the site of Arturito?s latest discovery on Robinson Crusoe Island, excavation will not begin until October, but the turf wars have already begun.

Representatives from Wagner Technologies and the government are trying to decide how to divide the loot amongst them. The location of the site is under the jurisdiction of the Council of National Monuments, on government property. As such, there are two laws that apply to the buried treasure.

The first involves the discovery of money, jewels, and other precious articles. The law states that in any discovery where the rightful owners cannot be determined, the finds should be divided equally between the finder and the property owner.

The second law involves discoveries on national monument property, and states that any material of historical value, including ancient treasure, found on government property is archaeological by default and therefore must be returned to the state to allow for historical research on the artifacts found.
Chile?s government says that because the treasure is on national monument property, the second law applies in this case, entitling it to 100 percent of the treasure. Predictably, Wagner Technologies immediately rejected the government?s claim.

Island officials have also weighed in, stating that they are entitled to the government?s share of the find, as it was discovered on their island, effectively making them the interested property owners.

SOURCE: LA NACI?N, LA TERCERA, EL MERCURIO
By Nathan Gill (editor@santiagotimes.cl)

 

[Badger Bart]

Re: World's greatest treasure found, expedition claims

"Wagner's claims of discovering the missing treasure has sparked a battle for rights to the treasure, with participants including the Chilean Government and the 600 residents of Robinson Crusoe Island.

Wagner has refused to divulge any details on the location of the discovery until it is assured of a 50% stake in the treasure. Because Arturito uses sonar techniques, no digging has taken place at this stage.

The island itself is part of a World Biosphere Reserve due to its unique flora and fauna."

From the above, one can expect the UN and/ or the Ecowacko's to embraoil themselves in this one also.

 

[AA23]

Re: World's greatest treasure found, expedition claims

Wish i had been the one find it, i could definitely think of few things do with that kind of coin

 

[Badger Bart]

Re: World's greatest treasure found, expedition claims

As we can see from the choice of the word 'found', it has different nuances of meaning. In this case found means they believe they have pinpointed the location of the treasure. To others, 'found' means literally holding it in your hand. One is a far cry from the other, nearly opposites. As long as this 'find' remains in the ground, it is of no good use to anyone, and in it's current state appears to be causing some contention, that is if it is truly a 'find' to begin with. Until this 'find' actually surfaces, I really don't consider it a find at all, it is merely a claim.

Further, if this 'Arturito' robot is all the inventors claim it is, I see a good possibility of this unit making some big changes in the future of treasure hunting and archeology.