Probably, everyone who read "Treasure Island" in childhood dreamed of going on a schooner to unknown lands and finding a chest of gold. Pirate treasures, buried somewhere deep in the ground, excite the imaginations of many children and adolescents. Some of them continue to search even as adults. The problem is that pirate treasures are literary fiction, not historical fact.
For starters, the most important thing: the pirates did not buried treasures! Mainly because they had nothing to bury. Another reason, undoubtedly, is that the meaning of such actions is not clear. Why bury your own money in an area where you are unlikely to return? This requires some special reason. Such reasons are rare. It is much wiser to spend the loot than to hide it somewhere.
Here you need to understand the features of such a phenomenon as piracy. It's about piracy at the end of the 16th and middle of the 18th centuries. The fact is that at first sea robbery was a completely legal activity. And people who have achieved special success on the basis of robberies and seizures later made good careers. One of the most successful English privateers of the 17th, Christopher Mings, at the end of his short life, became vice admiral. His "pupil" Henry Morgan, famous for the plundering of Panama, ended his century as Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. Dutch filibuster Pete Hein, the only man in history who managed to capture the Spanish Silver Fleet, also received the rank of admiral, and the famous Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Ducasse was appointed governor of Tortuga as a reward for his successes in sea robbery.
Christopher Mings.
These people have had very good careers. The booty that settled in their pockets was converted into all sorts of luxury goods and real estate. The situation changed at the beginning of the 18th century, when France, Holland and especially England no longer needed the services of sea robbers. In 1718, piracy was completely banned. A little earlier it ceased to be a profitable and profitable business.
The famous pirates Jack Reckham, Blackbeard, Edward England and Bart Roberts were not exactly beggars, but they were not rich people. These captains went on sloops - small ships with 10-12 guns and a small crew. They could not even dream of capturing any large prey. The famous Spanish galleons, which, moreover, went out of fashion in the 18th century, could sink such a sloop with one or two volleys. The pirates' "clients" were small merchant ships. You can't really profit from these. A couple of boxes of tobacco, a barrel or two of rum, five or ten pounds from the pockets of prisoners. And this is even greater luck. But this is not so bad.
One of the many pirate treasure maps.
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The main problem was that pirates had little ability to convert tobacco, sugar, or coffee into money. With tough customs and regulations, constant checks and trade licenses, finding a buyer was almost impossible. Some merchant might be ready to buy tobacco, but at a price significantly lower than the cost price. There was simply nowhere to take the chest with gold doubloons. And if such wealth fell into the hands of pirates, then it did not linger for a long time. However, there were almost no such cases. Perhaps the only known incident occurred with the famous Bart Roberts, who managed to capture the 40-gun Portuguese ship "Sagrada Familia". It was a fantastic action in terms of insolence and preparedness. The ship was hijacked in the middle of the night in Bayi harbor when two ships of the line were nearby. In the holds, Roberts discovered a veritable mountain of gold. Somewhere 60 thousand Spanish doubloons (about 23 thousand dollars in our time).
Bart Roberts and his team.
Another treasure was a gold cross with precious stones, which the Governor of Brazil sent as a gift to King João V. This loot could well have become a treasure if Roberts had not literally taken this loot away. One of his officers, William Kennedy, took advantage of the absence of the captain, revolted and hijacked the Sagrada Familia. The further fate of Roberts' doubloons remains unknown.
Bart Roberts once captured a giant prey, but immediately missed it.
Some famous treasures
Treasures of William Kidd
The legendary treasure of the no less legendary Captain Kidd, which he allegedly buried somewhere shortly before his execution. Kidd's story is widely known. He had to rob the merchant ships of the powers hostile to England in the Indian Ocean. As a result, Kidd attacked a merchant ship of a friendly power, was outlawed, and then was sentenced to death and executed. According to legend, before returning to England, Kidd went to the Caribbean, where he buried a treasure. Probable location - one of the small islands near New York.
William Kidd.
The sad truth is that Kidd had nothing to hide except, perhaps, the ship's ropes. The captured loot was divided between him and the team. Plus, if Kidd had gold, he probably wouldn't have ended his days on the gallows. In 1701, English laws were still very democratic in relation to pirates. Money could significantly soften the sentence.
They have been looking for the treasures of Captain Kidd and Blackbeard for 300 years, but they cannot find it.
Henry Morgan's Treasure
The legendary Henry Morgan in 1672 undertook a daring raid on Panama by land and captured in this city really phenomenal size prey. In the modern equivalent, somewhere around 700 million dollars. Morgan had to "donate" the lion's share of this amount to the English crown. During his campaign across the isthmus, the situation in the world changed, and Spain and England turned from enemies into allies. Morgan managed not only to ransom his life and earn royal pardon, but also to get the position of Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. Arriving in Port Royal, Morgan settled in the largest house in the city, led a very dissolute lifestyle and literally littered with money.
Henry Morgan and the Spanish prisoners.
He died in 1688 of cirrhosis of the liver and was buried with honors in the Church of St. Catherine in Port Royal. According to legend, in the crypt under the church, according to Morgan's will, a huge chest was hidden. The problem is that in 1692 the city was literally razed to the ground by an earthquake and storm. The church, along with Morgan's grave, collapsed. Now on the site of the city there is a deserted beach. Somewhere under it, hypothetically, you can find Morgan's treasures.
Blackbeard's Treasure
A completely mythical treasure that Edward Teach, nicknamed Blackbeard, buried on one of the tiny islands in the Caribbean. That's all there is to know about these treasures. I must say that there are about a million tiny islands in the Caribbean, so the descriptions cannot boast of accuracy. Besides, Teach could hardly hide anything of value. Shortly before his death, he bought a pardon, giving the governor of North Carolina, Charles Eden, six boxes of sugar.
Map of Ocracok Island where Blackbeard died. Here many times they searched for his mythical treasure.
On his ship, Queen Anne's Revenge, after the capture, about 40 pounds were found. For a pirate, it's a fortune.
Treasures that make sense to look for
The Caribbean Sea, however, holds many treasures. That's just not pirate. The bottom of the sea is full of ships with both gold and silver in their holds. But the whereabouts of most of them remain unknown. With some accuracy, you can specify only one place: the Florida Strait, between the peninsula of the same name and the island of New Providence. In 1715, the Spanish Silver Fleet sank here entirely. This incident had a significant impact on the history of the region. New Providence became a haven for pirates, who from here attacked Spanish divers who were trying to lift the sunken gold from the seabed. Spain scrapped the operation because of these attacks. According to recent estimates, the waters of the Florida Strait still hold several billion dollars in silver and gold bars.