TALES OF TREASURE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1028, 19 July 1930, Page 26

TALES OF TREASURE

REVEALED AS MYTHICAL BY RESEARCH PIRATES WERE POOR

The world is in danger of losing one of its most picturesque tales —the fable of pirates' treasure. Recent researches are claimed by a number of historians to show that most of the notorious pirates of history were penniless men Recently discovered records ac cepted by historians as authentic 'e veal that the buccaneers roaming along lanes of traffic on the Atlantic coast between the years 1690 and 1720 were frequently hard put finan daily in settling taproom accounts ai a tavern rendezvous ashore and hard pressed at sea in silencing mutinous mutterings of their crews when rum casks were emptied and the horizon showed no merchantman prey for months at a time. True, these same ancient parchments record the fact that many a sea rogue had concealed plunder to escape sharing it in accordance with grim articles signed by those who went to sea under the black flag en> blazoned with skull and crossbones But it is also added that the same buccaneers were ever willing lo divulge the hiding-place of doubloons or pieces of eight in exchange for enough rum to make them drunk ai the gallows when their bloody .trail? ended on Execution Dock. These records, which recently came into possession of the former Senator Lewis Stevens, president of the Cap< May County Historical Society of New Jersey, are now being incorporated It a survey designed to show that there was no more profit from piracy in its heyday than there is for gunmen ban dits who steal the billions that swell today’s crime losses only to give up their loot in the dives of the under world. Found In London Many of these age-yellowed docu ments, with writings so faded as to require microscopic examination, were unearthed by Mr Stevens iD London and are believed to have formed the memorandum from which Captain Charles Johnson compiled a famous “lost" book, entitled “A General His tory of the Robberies and Most Notori ous Pirates.” which was published In England in 1724. Others were found by the historian in sea chests and deßks which for a century or more had gathered dust in attics of anciem farmhouses edging Delaware Bay where pirates came often, not to bury chests of plunder, but to steal a fat pig or two from the pens, or to pur loin a heifer from placid dairy herds “Tales of piracy,” said former Sena tor Stevens, “have been handed down from generation to generation, and kept evergreen in the minds of Nor dies who live close to the sea. Few youths have failed to find thrills in the stories of swift, rakish pirate craft, •and the crew of swarthy buccaneers swarming over the bulwarks of a gal leon prey. "Always the pirate legend is asso elated with chests spilling over with gold and jewels, but such rich plun der has been shown to be just as mythical as any air of romance ever surrounding the sea rogues in soiled silks and gaudy sashes, bristling with knives and pistols There was noth ing more heroic about these pirates than there is today about the dope crazed youth who leaps' to the running board of a pay-roil truck with his twitching finger on the trigger of a revolver “As for treasure, there were few in a pirate crew ever lucky enough to have two gold pieces to jingle in their ragged canvas breeches According to our records concerning those cap tured, there were, indeed, quite a few not fortunate enough to possess even the breeches. “Contrary to general opinion, the captain of a pirate ship was not an autocrat, but was elected and held bis post at the pleasure of his crew Nevertheless, it was the captain who made the division of the spoils, ant!

the generosity he would be likely to 1 display would be in dealing out grog | until his men were too stupified to 1 realise how they were being cheated ' 1 of the ill-gotten gains. “Thus it was that many a pirate 1 captain might have possessed plunder i which he would seek to conceal from those entitled to share in it. But \ records of the executions reveal that 1 these buccaneers were ever ready to turn over this loot or provide a map j to show Where it had been hidden in ! exchange for enough rum to serve as an anaesthetic on the day of their hanging The majority of captured pirates went to the gallows jesting horribly, playing the clown and pranc ing to the solemn tap of tho drums, timing a grotesque death march to tho waterfront gibbet, and this was convincing proof that they had each parted with even the gold rings in ; their ears to obtain from Jack Ketch, ! the public executioner, enough potent rum to send them swaggering and staggering to the waiting noose. “Blackbeard” Was Poor “Records gathered by Johnson for his volume written in 1724 show that even the notorious ‘Blackbeard’ was once compelled to take flight from a tavern edging a cove on the Carolina coast, closely pursued by a brawny scullery maid, who belaboured this dread scourage of the seas with a skillet when he was unable to settle his reckoning for a vast number of leather jacks, similar to immense dice cups, in which rum was served. “In ‘Blackboard's’ own journal, taken from his own ship after the pirate had come to grief in hand-to-hand fighting with the crew of a British sloop, there were numerous entries revealing his difficulty in keep j ing his crew supplied with liquor. : much less having treasure to bury. “ ‘Such a day, rum all out and our j company sober,’ wrote 'Blackbeard. j A d d confusion among us, with rogues a-plotting and a great talk of j all separating. 1 now look sharp for I a prize.’ “An excellent Illustration of the j manner in which pirate crews were cheated of their shares ot plunder and j the difficulty during that colourful cen tury of determining who were honest folk ashore or afloat is provided in annals dealing with Henry Morgan, a Welshman, who in 1670 pillaged Puerto Bello and Maracaibo, and then equipped a fleet of 37 ships and en listed 2,000 buccaneers from rendezvous tn the West Indies. With this forcei in February 1671. Morgan took the City of Panama, burning and sack ing until nothing was left standing The pirate departed with 70 horses at Chagres celebrated this wholesale plundering by broaching cask after sion of the spoils. Morgan Flees “When the 2,000 buccaneers had ; reached the proper state of drunken | ness. Morgan divided the loot, or made | a pretence of doing so. In the cold ; grey dawn of the following morning j the pirate crew realised that they had I received only a little more than 100 j dollars a man. They also made the ; discovery that Morgan bad put to sea, : accompanied by a few trusted cap- • tains, after scuttling the rest of the vessels of bis fleet. "Morgan had set sail for England, j and for reasons best known to King j Charles 11.. or easily guessed at, the 1 buccaneer was knighted and made ] Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica where he is said to have continued hi? career of piracy while flying a flag bearing the double cross of St George as impudently as he had shown the black one with its bones and death’s head “The vast majority of tales concern tng buried treasure deal with the plunder Captain Kidd is believed to have biddeD away If there were a grain of foundation for even one out of every hundred of these stories Kidd’s wealth would be beyond com nutation. “As a matter of fact, very serious i doubts have been created 1 y our new j data as to whether William Kidd ever actually engaged in piracy and it ap : pears an absolute certainly that he j never buried gold, and .aat he was j without funds with which to provide a i defence ‘when condemned to the gal > lows.’ ”