London - Tall tales of treasure hidden by pirate Captain William Kidd have led to hunts from Nova Scotia to the South China Sea, yet no adventurers have struck lucky.
That may have changed on Thursday when a silver bar was pulled out of the sea off the coast of Madagascar.
Divers brought the 50kg silver bar ashore to the island of Sainte-Marie, to the east of Madagascar, claiming it was treasure plundered by Kidd, the notorious Scottish buccaneer.
Madagascar's official Twitter feed posted a photograph of the bar engraved with the letters “T” and “S”, saying: “The discovery of a wreck and treasure in the waters.” The bar was presented to Madagascar's President.
undefinedPieter van der Merwe, Greenwich curator of the National Maritime Museum, said the location of the find tallied with where Kidd's ship the Adventure Galley was left to sink after being set ablaze in 1695. The silver bar is thought to have dated from the 17th century, which would fit with the Adventure's sinking.
“If it is the Adventure, anything that was in the ship when it sank would have been there because Captain Kidd put it there,” the curator said. “Whatever is there it should be carefully excavated with full archaeological procedure.”
Barry Clifford, an underwater explorer, led the search team and suggested the evidence pointed to Kidd's treasure. In addition to the dating of the silver, wood retrieved from the ship is thought to have come from England. Eight years ago Mr Clifford headed a team that found a large part of what is thought to have been the Adventure's wreck in nearby waters. That site included Ming porcelain, a metal oarlock and rum bottles dating back three centuries.
Kidd was a privateer - backed by the government to attack ships flying under enemy banners, particularly the French - and between 1696 and 1698 he became the terror of the high seas during the so-called “golden age of piracy”.
He had recruited 90 men in New York and headed for Madagascar with the commission to hunt down pirates and attack French commerce.
After a series of skirmishes in which he captured six ships, only two French, he was eventually forced to abandon the Adventure off the coast of Saint-Marie. Dr Van der Merwe said: “Madagascar was a place the pirates hung out, and it was at this time he really took to piracy completely.”
After capturing the Quedagh Merchant ship, Kidd's allies in England turned against him. He set sail for Boston where he was captured, brought to London and executed in 1701 at the age of 55. His body was put on public display as a warning against piracy.
Kidd and fellow pirates from the golden age have long sparked the imagination of treasure hunters following the legends that he had hidden much of his riches around the world. Kidd's treasure was said to be worth as much as £400 000.
“It's like chasing the Loch Ness monster. Pirate treasure is a thing for romantics, fantasists and crooks,” Dr Van der Merwe said. “Nobody has found a hoard of pirate treasure on a map marked with a black spot for the good reason that most pirate operations were pretty marginal.”
The Independent