Could San Salvador be Captain Kidd's Treasure Island?

by Larry Smith

My name is Captain Kidd, God's laws I did forbid
And most wickedly I did, as I sailed, as I sailed

I'd ninety bars of gold, as I sailed, as I sailed,
I'd ninety bars of gold, and dollars manifold,
With riches uncontrolled, as I sailed.

If you believe the noise in the market, the good folks of San Salvador have unimaginable wealth in their grasp, and are taking advice from an international media figure named Roberto Savio - an Italian part-time resident since the 1980s - on how to divvy up the spoils.

Lending a stamp of authenticity to the story, Dr Savio recently presented a document appropriately entitled "From Individual Greed to Collective Happiness" to a standing room-only public meeting in Cockburn Town. It offers a blueprint on how to share out billions in gold, silver and gems believed to lie in a collapsed cave at Fortune Hill, on the island's barren east coast.

Local historian Cliff Fernander told Tough Call that back in the 1960s, a friend named James Rolle (now deceased) told him about gold bars he had found in a cave as a child. Although Fernander searched for the treasure energetically with both dynamite and excavators, he eventually had to give up. But the story did not die.

It seems that, apart from Atlantis, no legend is more tantalizing than the lost treasure of Captain William Kidd. a Scot who became a privateer in the late 1600s, captured a rich Armenian merchant ship in the Indian Ocean, sailed it back to the Caribbean, was arrested in Boston in 1700 and hanged in London for piracy the following year.

Kidd arrived in the West Indies in April, 1699 in the Quedah Merchant, his Armenian treasure ship, which he abandoned off the island of Hispaniola before heading for Boston. Just last year a wreck was discovered off the coast of the Dominican Republic that Indiana University archaeologists say is Kidd's abandoned prize vessel.

Whether or not that is true, most historical accounts say Kidd buried his gold, silver and gems on an as yet unidentified island somewhere in the world. This tale appears to have two origins.

First, in a bid to save his life after being sentenced to death, Kidd wrote that "In my late proceedings in the Indies, I have lodged goods and treasure to the value of £100,000." Second, Kidd actually did bury some loot on a cay off Long Island (New York) on his way to Boston where he was subsequently arrested. But this was later recovered by the authorities.

Although he has never been associated historically with San Salvador, Kidd's hypothetical treasure is thought by many to be located about half a mile inland from the coast just north of Pigeon Creek, where small boats can easily land. Ownership of the site is confused by the overlapping claims of no less than 11 families. But even if the title could be rationalised, Bahamian law says that all antiquities found underground belong to the government - including treasure.

Dr Keith Tinker, who runs the Antiquities Corporation, told Tough Call he was not prepared to comment since the matter had lately been referred to the Office of the Prime Minister. And David Davis, permanent secretary at the OPM, did not return calls.

But Tinker had authorised excavations by an earlier treasure hunting group which caused a similar stir in 2006. That initiative was led by an American electrical engineer named Don Patterson, who heads a company called Old Charter Salvage that claims half a century of archaeological and treasure recovery experience using "the world's most advanced geological/geophysical test equipment."

Patterson's permit was revoked when the recovery attempt collapsed due to intense squabbling over conflicting land claims. But it is said that radar penetration and molecular analysis confirmed the existence of non-ferrous metal deposits in Fortune Hill.

On his website (www.oldcharter.com), Patterson says he is waiting on a resolution to the title dispute to relaunch his expedition: "We have collected numerous stories and traditions concerning the presence of treasures on the island through extensive personal interviews with residents who, long ago, have actually seen and touched these treasures in the island's cave system in their youth. All accounts are consistent as to specific location, and we have identified numerous excellent targets."

He describes the treasure as "huge caches of gold, silver, and gems".

But a new group is now seeking authorisation from the prime minister's office to continue the search by cutting everyone a piece of the pie. This group includes Nassau-based restaurateur Enrico Garzarolli; an American entrepreneur named Grant Rose who is a long-time visitor to San Salvador, and a committee of leading citizens that include Kevin Williams, Jim Storr, Bert Deveaux and Charlie Jones.

The group's lawyer, David Johnson of Lennox Paton, recently submitted a petition to the government with 300 signatures from residents supporting efforts to definitively resolve the existence of the treasure. And this is where Dr Savio stepped in to suggest a plan to accommodate all interests - including the United Nations.

"It is time to learn from the mistakes of the past," he said, arguing that his plan "would show that love, friendship and cooperation are the best ways to distribute riches which have come through greed and plunder, and have been sleeping a long time in a small hill on the beautiful island of San Salvador."

According to one Nassau-based landowner who prefers to remain anonymous, "it would be good if enough gold was found to give everyone a break financially. But if it's a lot of money I think it will cause serious social friction. That's why the latest group are trying so hard to come up with an agreement on the share-out that everyone can live with."

Dr Savio founded InterPress Service, a global news agency that focuses on North-South issues, and is connected with a variety of UN-affiliated policy institutes and media initiatives His proposal calls for the government to keep 70 per cent of the treasure, with the rest divided among the prospectors and investors, other interested parties (such as the various land claimants), a trust fund for the people of San Salvador (all 1,000 of them), and the United Nations children's charities.

As Enrico Garzarolli put it: "this would end 50 years of fighting and make everybody happy because everybody will get something."

The fighting goes back at least to the 1950s, say Clifford Fernander and others. According to one islander posting on the Bahamas Issues website, "It is said that Roy Solomon (a former representative for the area) got many gold bars from the caves. Rumour is that he was able to open the Pipe of Peace with some of the gold he got."

And there's even a curse attached to the treasure: "Other locals who got some of that gold either died shortly after or had family members who died. We were told by the older folks that during their childhood they would go in the caves and play marbles with diamonds and rubies not knowing what they were. It is said that these treasures were put there by Captain Kidd."

The belief that Kidd left buried treasure somewhere around the world has inspired several great writers, including Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving and Robert Louis Stevenson - whose most famous work is Treasure Island.

According to a 19th century account: "Captain Kidd is the most ubiquitous gentleman in history....The belief that large deposits of gold were made at Gardiner’s Island, Dunderberg, Cro’ Nest, New York City, Coney Island, Ipswich, the marshes back of Boston, Cape Cod, Nantucket, Isles of Shoals, Money Island, Ocean Beach, the Bahamas, the Florida Keys, and elsewhere has caused reckless expenditure of actual wealth...A hope of getting something for nothing has been the impetus."

Some believe Kidd's treasure island is now a submerged sand bar in the Indian Ocean. And in 1976, a cave on Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos Islands was the object of an unsuccessful excavation. There are even theories that Kidd's island lies off the coast of Vietnam or the Philippines, so it is not that far-fetched to believe he stashed gold in the Bahamas.

All the more so when one considers that the Bahamas was a notorious haven for pirates. And Kidd's name is sometimes linked to his contemporary - the so-called robber king, Henry Avery - in that they are said to have used the same unknown island to bury their treasure. And the value of Avery's plunder may have been much greater than that of Kidd, experts say.

Avery captured an even richer merchant ship in the Indian Ocean with a large quantity of gold and silver. To escape retribution from the vessel's Indian owners he sailed the prize and its contents to the Bahamas, arriving in Nassau in 1696. After bribing the governor, Avery's crew split up - some settled in Nassau, others left for the American colonies or returned to the British Isles.

Some were caught and some managed to enjoy their retirement. But nothing further was heard of Avery himself - or his share of the booty.

And then there is the pirate called George Watling, who gave his name to the island of San Salvador for many years until the government changed it in 1926 for the publicity value of using the name Columbus had given it.

Look at it this way. If the government does authorise a definitive exploration, and we do find billions of dollars worth of pirate gold, we can pay off our national debt and build all the infrastructure we need for the next 25 years. And we won't have to fear a global recession.

Comments

[Don Patterson]

My name is Don Patterson of www.oldcharter.com. I'm pretty sure it's NOT KIDD'S TREASURE!!! I'm pretty certain the treasure was associated with the Pirate John Watling! The name of San Salvador was Watling's Island until the Parliament changed the name in 1926.

http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/art/DUMENE01.ART

http://islands.thebahamian.com/sansalvador.html

Old Charter Salvage sent research archivist Susan Rowe to the National Archives in London in 2005; where she discovered a letter dated Circa 1661 from the Governor General of New Providence (Modern day Nassau Bahamas) to the Crown in England. In this letter, the Governor General describes Watlin's Island (the Old English Spelling for Modern Day San Salvador) as a Pirate Haven and a Pirate Resort! He also indicated that every time his forces attempted to take back control of Watlin's Island from the Pirates, it in ended in heavy losses and defeat. Therefore, in my humble opinion, I think the treasure was put there by Pirates, but not Capt. Kidd!

Also, I might add, that over half of Dr. Savio's new found friends are under strict non-circumvention agreements with Old Charter Salvage, LLC and all of them violated their agreements, not to mention my trust. I have worked with Dr. Savio, Bert Deveaux, Kevin Williams, Carlos Williams, Grant Rose, and associates on the Fortune Hill Site for nearly 6 years! Only to have them purposely betray my trust, as well as the trust of my co-workers and investors, by intentionally circumventing myself, the government, and the families that actually have a legal claim to the land!

Sincerely,

Don Patterson

[Jeffrey P. Blick, Ph.D.]

The "search for pirate gold" on San Salvador is doing, and has the potential to do even more, environmental harm and damage to archaeological sites already discovered on the island. For example, Fortune Hill estate is one of the best preserved Loyalist plantations on San Salvador. The treasure is supposedly in a collapsed cave nearby. How close is this cave to the plantation? Some of the plantation structures were built over limestone sinkholes (e.g., the latrine - which has been excavated already, by the way). Another site endangered by this questionable operation is the Pigeon Creek site. Apparently one of the treasure sites lies "about a half mile inland from the coast just north of Pigeon Creek." I must say that dynamiting and bulldozing are not the ways to go about discovering this so-called "treasure." Let professional archaeologists and technical experts with knowledge of ground penetrating radar examine the area (and why aren't academic archaeologists being invited just to observe anyway?). There are too many sites on San Salvador already threatened by development, erosion, and garbage dumping today. In this time of a rising tide of greed on the island, I think people need to proceed cautiously. If, as the article notes, they "do find billions of dollars worth of pirate gold ... we can ... build all the infrastructure we need for the next 25 years." I truly fear for the unspoiled beauty of San Salvador if such development would occur -- all this despoliation to chase the phantom possibility of a treasure trove of gold. I have seen this sort of thing happen in other Circum-Caribbean countries: lots of energy expended, lots of time wasted, lots of environmental damage, and nothing to show for it.