Cocos Island: A Real Life ‘Treasure Island’
this video is brought to you by surfshark safety and security online are critically important and you can protect yourself online with surfshark get 83 off in three months for free through the link in the description below and now today's video it is a trite cliche of most pirate stories a chest bursting with gold and jewels buried deep in a cave on a remote oceanic island x marks the spot when looking at the lives of the most famous buccaneers and corsairs of the caribbean they very rarely if at all hid their stashes of doubloons they would rather squander them on new ships and weapons or reinvest them wisely on run tobacco and women the idea of a buried pirate treasure may have been originated by a work of fiction treasure island by robert louis stevenson and yet stevenson may have gotten some inspiration from a real-life place somewhere in the pacific a tiny tropical island may conceal practical riches to the tune of more than a billion dollars this is the story of cocos island and the cursed lives of its treasure hunters cocos island should not be confused with the cocos islands also known as the keeling islands the killing archipelago is an australian territory in the indian ocean whereas today's destination is in the pacific ocean and it belongs to costa rica it's located some 297 nautical miles southwest of its administrative mainland that's 342 miles or 550 kilometers the service of the island is only 9 square miles or 24 square kilometers despite its tiny size cocos boasts an astounding variety of animal and plant species it contains 235 plant species 400 different insects and 100 species of birds its crystalline waters are home to sea turtles corals and 360 varieties of fish mollusks and crustaceans its bays are understandably very popular with scuba divers who come to admire hammerhead sharks whale sharks and giant manta rays the island is also graced by the presence of fresh water streaming in waterfalls and creeks as clear as diamonds there are also plentiful coconut trees surrounded by a thick and lush jungle it's no wonder then the costa rican government declared kokos a national park in 1978 and unesco designated it a world heritage site in 1997. what helped to preserve the natural environment of the island was the absence of permanent settlers for such a long period of its history the island had been uninhabited for centuries until it was discovered by the spanish explorer juan de cabezas in 1526 since then sailors traders and whalers have used co-cursus a rest stop for their travels but the island was especially popular among a certain professional category pirates they headed to cocos surely because of its natural beauty natural springs and endless supply of coconut water which once fermented makes for an intoxicating drink more than anything else kokos lacked a little something and that something was spanish soldiers hence the popularity of co-cast with oceanic criminals it was a perfect place to rest refit and also hide ill-gotten gains let's now get into the meat of our story the pirate treasures hidden and allegedly found on cocos island first a word of warning the accounts about these booties are often convoluted contradictory confusing and plain infuriating from a research standpoint we've done our best here to seek out the most reliable sources and come up with a narrative that makes sense if experts on cocos island or piracy out there don't agree with our findings please feel free to correct us in the comments and state your source if possible the first alleged treasure made its way to kokos in 1685 aboard a pirate ship wonderfully named bachelor's delight the vessel was commanded by captain edward davis his second in command was william dampier and was also the surgeon lionel wafer the crew of the delight had successfully blockaded and ransacked the city of lyon nicaragua heading off into the pacific with a sizable loot we don't know much more about the treasure of bachelor's delights i'm going to skip to the next trove the ill-gotten gains of captain bennett graham in the early 1800s captain graham was a distinguished british naval officer in charge of surveying the coasts of the south pacific aboard the hms devonshire apparently being a coastal surveyor was not exciting enough for bennett and he'd drastically change career paths turning to piracy of course in 1818 captain graham was caught and executed with most of his sailors being sent to a penal colony in tasmania one of his crew a woman called mary welch spent 20 years in prison but on her release she had some promising retirement plans in mind she claimed to have a chart showing where graham had buried his treasure the stash amounted to 350 tons of gold bullion buried of course in cocos british colonial authorities in tasmania believed her story and mounted an expedition to find the devonshire gold but in the previous 20 years the layout of the island had changed so much that mary could barely recognize it where was the huge cedar tree she had marked with an x on a map with that and other landmarks gone it was impossible to retrieve the treasure and the expedition left kokos empty-handed now in some accounts of caucus's pirates benigram is said to have changed his name into the spanish-sounding benito bonito but in other stories this rascal is a completely separate character sometimes called benita benito benita benitez bonita benito or some other variation of that same theme we'll go with the version that the story narrated by a colorado newspaper moflat county courier in december of 1911 went with benito an assumed name was a spanish privateer of aristocratic origins who had fought in the peninsula war after napoleon's defeat he murdered a portuguese captain and stole his vessel he then seized an english ship in the west indies the lightning which he renamed the relampargo which is spanish for lightning well two sailors of the lightning asked to join benito's crew their names were bugs thompson and chappelle sometime between 1818 and 1820 el capitan bonito staged his criminal masterpiece he learned a consignment of spanish gold was to be transported by a company of soldiers to acapulco he and his men then ambushed the guards wore their uniforms and showed up to collect the gold the perfect heist worth 300 million dollars in today's money and can you guess where the crew buried it caucus island but benito's men were not happy they wanted their part of the loot there and then the luscious greenery of coach became the theater of a bloody battle between benito's loyal pirates and the mutineers armed with pistol and cutlass the spanish captain personally enriched the green backdrop with vivid splashes of red after pretending to forgive the remaining 17 rebels the crafty bonito abandoned them in valparaiso chile they were all captured and hanged except for bugs thompson and chappelle who offered to guide a british expedition against benito in the caribbean the raid was successful and with capture looming benito bonito shot himself on the quarter deck of the real empargo the thought of benito's gold may be mouth-watering but it pales in comparison to the largest treasure known to be hidden in cocos in 1820 the spanish viceroy in lima peru was preparing defenses against the revolutionary forces of jose de san marta fighting for independence against spain the viceroy collected the vast treasure of lima which included the gold and silver reserves as well as the jewels statues and other artifacts from the city's 50 churches he then entrusted the valuables to a well-known and respected british merchant captain named william thompson no relation to the previous bugs thompson we've encountered even though one source claims that they were actually the same person anyway this captain thompson loaded the treasure of lima into his ship the mary dear and set sail into the pacific his instructions were to keep traveling until the situation had normalized in peru but thompson and his men must have felt the unease of sitting on such a horde they did the only reasonable thing they slipped the throats of the six viceroy guards on board and sailed towards koko to bury the treasure the merry deer dropped anchor in wafer bay named after the surgeon of the bachelor's delight here thompson distributed some of the spoils to the crew then with the help of two sailors he carried the bulk of the treasure on shore he found the perfect hiding spot a cave halfway between wafer bay and chatham bay which according to the moffat county courier was also the home to the treasure of benito benito thompson then fittingly rewarded the two sailors with their severance pay each received a ball of lead straight into their skulls lest they reveal the location of the cave the nefarious captain then set sail with the mary deer planning to return when the heat had died down shortly after leaving kokas behind a spanish gunboat gave chase and thompson quickly surrendered the entire crew was put on trial for piracy found guilty and sentenced to hang all sailors were swung from the news except for two thompson and his first mate who agreed to reveal the location of the treasure thompson and the mate returned to cocos escorted by spanish soldiers but as soon as the party started the search the two pirates gave them the slip and disappeared into the jungle the soldiers looked for them for days before giving up and leaving in frustration the escapees were presumed dead but they survived for weeks eating berries and eggs the two scoundrels were eventually picked up by a whaler that had stopped at kokos to stock up on water they pretended to be shipwrecked sailors and were welcomed on board the first mate was taken to puntarenas costa rica where he later died of yellow fever but how about our main man captain thompson now just before we continue with today's video let me tell you about today's fantastic sponsor surf shark do you use the internet of course you do it's 2022. 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good loads of options on there try helping on a server from europe or asia or anywhere else and you'll probably find that you get a whole lot of stuff that isn't available to you right now also surf shark is totally unlimited so you can watch and download as much as you like of course there are no logs there's great support and there's a 30-day money-back guarantee if you don't like it go to surfshark.deals forward slash geographics for 83 off and three extra months for free it's now the year 1844 we're in an unconfirmed port city in cuba a canadian sailor named john keating has just arrived in town thirsty for adventure money and booze he soon meets a new friend who may quench all three desires batman is no other than william thompson thompson took a liking to keating and the two sea dogs bonded until the former captain made a shocking revelation to the canadian he would point him to the fabled treasure of lima by 1846 keating had recruited a crew and launched an expedition co-led by one captain bogue the two landed in cocos and apparently found the treasure near wafer bay or at least a treasure part of a treasure in fact bogue and keating retrieved only a small quantity of gold coins and jewels bogue stuffed his share in his boots and pockets which sealed his doom while boarding a rowboat the added weight caused him to drown in the surf well that's what keating said it's plausible that the canadian sailor just straight up murdered his partner over what happened next we only know that keating arranged a second expedition this time he returned with the equivalent of four million dollars in today's money not bad at all but that would be just a fraction of the treasure of lima why didn't he recover more keating revealed that a mutinous crew prevented him from collecting the remaining horde which he described in great detail on his deathbed bunches for example contained four thousand spanish doubloons and five thousand gold mexican crowns another contained 1244 altar ornaments including chowsers coated with gemstones and then there were more containers teaming with thousands of diamonds rubies topazes solid gold candelabra and relic containers to stop it all off a seven foot tall statue of the virgin mary with the baby jesus in solid gold the virgin was adorned with 1 684 jewels and 7 crosses made of diamonds it's no wonder then that hundreds of expeditions were mounted after keating's death to recover this mouth-watering trove the next note were the treasure hunt was led by captain william tucker in september 1869. this explorer did not find anything but he is remembered for tagging along to the official expedition ordered by dr jesus yemena zamora president of costa rica it was with that mission that dr zamora took possession of curcus ireland in the name of the costa rican government people tucker's footsteps were followed by a german sailor captain august gisla but now we must take a step back for a second remember the first mate of captain thompson the one who died of yellow fever well according to some sources he survived the disease and moved to kona hawaii assuming the name of makoma also known as old mac to his drinking buddies in 1888 gisler landed in kona and met old mack surely over endless shots of whiskey the ancient mariner told a wondrous tale about a buried spanish treasure in wafer bay gisla was so convinced by his tale that he first moved to costa rica in 1889 and then decamped to kokos for the following 20 years the obsessed gistler gave all he had to finding the treasure combing every square meter of the territory the costa rica government was so impressed by his tenacity they gave him a commission as governor of the island with permission to establish and manage a colony yet by 1908 gisler had to admit defeat he had poured all his energy time and money into an unattainable dream he left kokos for good and died completely broke in new york in 1935. three years after gisler's departure kokos was visited by one captain frederick hackett he sailed off eagle harbor washington at the helm of the bark hesperus his story was told by our friends at the moffatt county courier in december of 1911 who described hackett as a bluff ruddy bearded old sea dog hail and vigorous despite his three score years that's the most radical description i've ever read by the way it smells like rum and probably scurvy according to moffat hackett and his older brother thomas had been friends with john keating the old treasure hunter shortly before his death in 1883 keating had drawn up a map of the island leading to the jewels and gold of lima two years later thomas hackett had sailed to coccos for a first attempt but he had died in havana cuba of yellow fever it was now time for that ruddy frederick to break the curse of kokos and find the treasure hackett raised a hundred thousand dollars from investors equivalent to 2.8 million dollars in today's money with these funds he fitted and staffed the hesperus and purchased some state-of-the-art hydraulic mining equipment the only thing we know about his attempt is that it was fruitless the american press reported about kokos treasure hunting once again on the 13th of april 1932 the new york times announced the composition of the next search party so malcolm campbell automobile speed king campbell in fact was a racer who held both the land and water speed records during the 20s and 30s next up colonel j e leckie cmg dso cbe without forgetting frgs we did not check his whole resume but we found that he had a degree in mining engineering and was a veteran of both the anglo-bar war and world war one the last mission lead was s clayton inventor of the clayton metallophone in our dictionary metalophone is an alternative spelling for metallophone which is a type of large xylophone but according to the new york times clayton's invention was some contraption which could locate the lima riches so there you have them a cast of characters worthy of the best 1930s cliffhanger film serials the adventurer the stern military man and the oddball inventor did they succeed well i'm sure they found some friends along the way let's put it that way campbell certainly found a publishing contract along the way he narrated the unsuccessful expedition in his memoir searching for pirate treasure in cocos island maybe it was about time that some professionals got involved the members of the california society for archaeological investigations who may have found the treasure at least according to a short article published by the examiner of lawnston tasmania australia on the 8th of january 1940.
as we know around that time nothing of note was happening around the world sarcasm by the way so the examiner filled in a slow news day by reporting on a message by mr sydney field the costa rican consul on november of 1939 the california archaeologists had sailed to cocos according to mr field they had found the treasure valued at a whopping 60 million dollars which is about 1.153 billion dollars in today's money the expedition however reported that the treasure was buried so deeply that they had to return to california to secure digging equipment we couldn't find any further mention of that voyage the next documented stab finding that solid gold madonna happened in 1949 the costa rican government received a letter from san diego resident paul stashwick who claimed to have been shipwrecked near cocos in 1931 having found safety on shore stashwick had located the treasure he offered to lead a government-funded search party and claimed he didn't want to make one cent out of the venture his only wish was for the pieces stolen from peruvian churches to be returned to their rightful place was he onto something well we'll never know as the government archived the letter and never replied in the 1980s cocos island was visited several times by jacques cousteau the legendary french explorer diver oceanographer and filmmaker he fell in love with it describing it as the most beautiful island in the world cousteau dedicated his efforts to filming the local schools of sharks which appeared in his 1988 documentary sharks of treasure island during filming members of his crew had to go finding the lima trove with an underwater pulse-induction metal detector again no success but their intuition was right modern technology was the key to finding the buried gold in 1996 costa rican historian rale aries proposed the ministry of energy and the environment to use air images system technology in other words he wanted to enlist help from nasa and their satellite imagery the government did not sanction the plan which ended up being put in place by a private citizen in 1998 an optical technology firm called alcor international received a commission from one alan david shepard they were to acquire satellite images of cocos islands using a technology called geovision which allowed them to identify particles of specific metals gold for example mr shepard was almost a namesake for alan bartlett shepard the first american in space that might explain why alcor obliged the request the company's technicians found evidence of three gold deposits one under the waters of wafer bay and two on land when mr shepard received an invoice for ten thousand dollars he promised to involve the costa rican government in san jose and they would foot the bill as far as we know our corps is still 10 grand short and no other action was taken as we know san jose had declared cocos to be a national park in 1978 to protect its natural habitat and fornet worried about the habit caused by gold diggers in the 2010s the government forbade further expeditions yet in 2012 british and canadian media reported that engineer sean whitehead was preparing a major archaeological survey using ground penetrating radar and snake cameras whitehead had obtained a special six-month permission to conduct the inspection but while he waited for a tv production company to sort out things on their end the permit lapsed and was not renewed another promising attempt just dead in the water since then there have been more stories of how the treasure of lima has been recovered but according to jenna marie davis from adventure diving company undersea hunter group this may be misinformation purposefully spread by treasure hunters trying to throw other treasure hunters off the track it's also possible that the costa rican government created some fake news to divert attention away from kokos and preserve its natural riches in recent times in fact the presence of overnight visitors is forbidden on the island only scuba divers are allowed for short trips in its pristine bays and only park rangers can live on cocos while protecting the natural reserve if the one brilliant stash from lima and other treasures are indeed still present on cocos island we hope that hunters and explorers will leave this unesco heritage site alone ill-conceived expeditions have not only endangered species and their habitats but have also exacted a significant toll in terms of human life we've only explored the major events surrounding the island and even so the cocos curse has racked up a significant body count four captains lost to execution suicide drowning and disease six slain spanish soldiers two pirates shot two entire crews executed by hanging and a german governor left broke and broken instead of considering digging up those 1 684 jewels how about just playing the lottery so i really hope you found this video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe and thank you for watching
2022-01-19 18:32
