Treasure Island, Cocos
On the Pacific Island of Cocos, there might be hidden treasure worth millions of dollars. This tiny, uninhabited tropical island is located about 400 miles from Costa Rica, off the west coast of South America. a straightforward rock cone that is surrounded by a thick rainforest that is home to dangerous snakes and bugs. Because Cocos is so far away and inaccessible, pirates utilised it as a base to restock and store their looted goods. Treasure hunters had long been drawn to this nine-mile-long island.
Many people searched, just to pass away empty-handed. Some of the loot came from the early 19th-century Portuguese pirate Benito Bonita, often known as "The Bloody Sword."At current values, his collection is worth $300 million. 350 tonnes of gold that another pirate, Captain Bennett Graham, had stolen from Spanish ships was hidden there.
Captain Edward Davis, a Briton regarded as a "gentleman" pirate, was the first pirate to use Cocos as a sanctuary. Between 1683 and 1702, he pursued a lucrative career harassing Spanish merchantmen in the South Seas, as the Pacific Ocean was then known. We have a comprehensive account of this thanks to a book that one of the passengers on the ship Revenge, William Dampier, wrote.
Captain Bartholomew Sharp, who captured the Spanish ship La Santissima Trinidad (The Most Blessed Trinity) and her massive quantity of chests of gold and pieces of eight, was another pirate who used the island to bury treasure. Once more, one of the pirates, Basil Ringrose, wrote the entire account. Despite disliking the captain's deadly demeanour, Dampier still sailed with Sharp. It is reported that the pirates had never been able to find this wealth.
However, the enormous riches that was evacuated from Lima, Peru in 1821 is the greatest treasure to have been buried on Cocos. A sizable collection of gold, silver, gems, and church relics, including gold life-size statues of the Virgin Mary, one of which is seven feet tall and 780 pounds in weight and covered in gems. Hundreds of The Lima Treasure was given to William Thompson, Captain of the British merchant ship Mary Dear, while she was in the Port of Callao, close to Lima, in August 1821, by Viceroy of Lima Jose de la Serna. According to reports, the Mary Dear's cargo hold contained treasure that may have never before been transported on a single ship, amounting to between twenty and thirty million pounds sterling.
jewel-studded gold platters, gem-filled chests, and coins were also present. The early 19th century revolution made it too risky for the Lima Treasure to stay in Lima as Jose de San Martin's rebel army drew near. By paying off the captains of ships waiting in port to take them away, the wealthy locals and priests started to flee with their valuables.
Thompson was instructed to stay at sea until he could travel back to Lima securely. He and his English crew killed the Spanish residents and priests and dumped their remains overboard as soon as the ship was out of sight of shore. Thompson's cunning crew then went to Cocos and buried the loot with the intention of returning later when things calmed down. Then Bonito of the "Bloody Sword" joined forces with Thompson. But no one ever lived to take use of their gains. They were struck by a British frigate. When Bonito realised everything was lost, he killed himself. All of the other pirates, with the exception of Thompson and his first mate, were hanged for piracy from the yardarms of the navy frigate after being apprehended while searching for supplies.
The mate and Thompson made a commitment to find the treasure. They were able to get away into the jungle when they got back to the island. The frigate's crew searched for them for three days but was forced to abandon their search and set sail. The fugitives were apprehended by a passing whaler many months later. At the end of the voyage, Thompson was brought ashore in America without the whaler crew knowing about the wealth because the first mate had passed away on board.
Before sharing his knowledge with John Keating, a Newfoundland shipowner, Thompson had become old. Thompson drew a map that gave Keating specific directions on where to look for the wealth, and Keating agreed to take him to Cocos. However, before they were scheduled to set off, Thompson passed away.
Keating and William Bogue travelled to Cocos in 1841 and discovered the treasure's hiding place, a cave. They made the decision to keep quiet to their crew, but the crew grew wary due to their excitement. While they went looking for the prize themselves, they kept Keating and Bogue on board. Keating and Bogue managed to escape throughout the night, sneaked onto the shore in a boat, and then went back to the cave and filled their pockets with jewellery. Their boat then capsized in the surf as they were leaving the island. The weight of Bogue's overstuffed pockets forced him to the ground. Keating was finally saved by a Spanish schooner a few days after he was able to hold onto the capsized boat. Another tale claims that after a heated argument, Keating locked his companion in the treasure cave in a fit of wrath and left him to perish there while they were marooned by their mutinous crew.
Keating left the evil island and went back to Newfoundland, where he lived off the money from the gems he had brought. Before he passed away, he did confide in another captain called Fitzgerald. Sir Malcolm Campbell, who unsuccessfully searched for the wealth in 1926, received his treasure map after passing it around through a chain of men. A German who acquired the chart and resided on Cocos for 18 years came up empty-handed.
One man was the only one who actually received any "treasure" from Cocos. He was a novelist who learned about the island while drinking at a bar in San Francisco. Robert Louis Stevenson was his name. He based his well-known tale "Treasure Island" on what he overheard. Thousands of pounds were made by the book.
Due to the special exotic marine and terrestrial habitat, treasure seeking has been rigorously prohibited on Cocos Island since the 1970s. However, some explorers have attempted to get entry under the cover of scientific research. Cocos Island is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
This tale is taken from Paul M. Maher's booklet "Seas of Fate," which is available on Amazon.
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