Is this £17,000 silver ingot part of Capt Kidd’s lost treasure?
FOR more than 300 years, the whereabouts of Captain William Kidd’s fabled treasure have been a mystery. From the Spanish Main to the Far East, hunters have sought in vain to find the loot of the pirate whose legend inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.
But now the discovery of a silver bar in the Indian Ocean could finally point the way to the resting place of the 17thcentury buccaneer’s plunder.
The 110lb bar – worth more than £17,000 at today’s prices – was found off Sainte Marie Island, Madagascar.
Local journalist Martin Vogl said: ‘The team believe silver bar came from wreckage of pirate Captain Kidd’s ship – one the most famous pirates who operated out of Madagascar.’
Captain Kidd was said to have amassed treasure worth £100,000 – roughly £12million today – before he was arrested.
The Scotsman operated across the world, from the Atlantic to the Far East, as well as in the Indian Ocean. He had been appointed by the crown to tackle piracy and capture enemy French ships.
But his own pirating exploits came to light in 1698, when he looted an Armenian ship, the Quedagh Merchant, which was sailing under a French pass but captained by an Englishman. His bounty is believed in the main to have come from that raid. After his arrest, he was tried not only for piracy but also on the accusation he murdered one of his crewmen in 1697.
A small cache of his treasure – including gold dust, silver, rubies and diamonds – which he had buried on Gardiners Island, New York, was recovered and used as evidence.
At his trial in London, on this day in 1701, he promised to reveal where the rest was hid- den in exchange for his life. His ploy failed and 15 days later he was hanged at the age of 56.
After being cut down, his body was dipped in tar then strung up in chains beside the Thames to deter other would-be pirates.
His treasure has never been found, but experts now believe the bar of silver could lead them to it. And the mysterious markings on the silver ingots are ‘little fingerprints’ that could reveal the treasure’s origins, according to Angus Konstam, an expert on piracy.
He said: ‘These ingots have Roman numerals that indicate the fineness of the silver but also act as a serial number.
‘Other markings are quartermaster’s markings with the ship’s manifest.’ On the reverse their is an ‘S’ and upsidedown ‘T’ that are likely to refer to the shipment the silver was part of, he added.
US diver Barry Clifford, who found the bar, presented it to Madagascar’s president, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, and UK and US diplomats at a ceremony on the island. It is now under armed guard.
‘His body was dipped in tar’