Weird Island

4. PIRATES: Buried Treasure on Block Island

Episode Summary

In the Golden Age of Piracy, Rhode Island was a haven for some of the most notorious pirates of all time, including Captain Kidd, who was said to have BURIED TREASURE on Block Island.

Episode Notes

To Visit:

Whydah Pirate Museum: 674 MA-28, West Yarmouth, Massachusetts
Palatine Graves: 18 Old Town Road, Block Island, RI

Episode Source Material:

Episode Transcription

Hi, I’m Sara. And you’re listening to Weird Island. Each week, I’ll be sharing with you some of the strangest stories I can dig up from my tiny little state of Rhode Island. This week, I’ll tell you how Rhode Island embodied it’s nickname Rogue’s Island, by being a haven for some of the baddest, most violent and notorious rogues out there--the eye-patch wearing, peg leg walking, rum-drinking variety. Yep, pirates.
A week ago, I had no clue we had pirates in Rhode Island. I was poking around on the Roadside America website, when I saw a post titled: “Block Island: Mass Grave of Pirate Massacre.” and I thought, “Okay, that sounds pretty wild, right?” The page describes how, “Pirate-Minded Block Islanders lured a ship full of German immigrants to their doom in 1738.” Piracy? People lured to their doom? I had to know more. So here’s what I dug up:
In 1738, a ship called the Countess Augusta set out with 340 immigrants from the Palatine region of southwest Germany to Philadelphia, where the passengers hoped they’d find a new life and religious freedom. But the ship had terrible luck. Many died of disease resulting from contaminated water, the captain died, and they were quickly running out of supplies when a storm hit. Just days after Christmas, the ship ran aground on the tip of Block Island.
In depositions taken from the surviving crew that weren’t discovered until 1925, passengers describe Block Island citizens convincing the passengers to come to shore and abandon the ship, which was in pretty bad shape after the storm. Folklorist Michael Bell (my favorite local resource) then notes that from here, two stories developed through oral tradition over the next hundred years. One story says the Block Islanders nursed the passengers back to health in their own homes, after the cruel captain and crew deliberately ran the ship ashore to conceal their errors and mistreatment of passengers.
But another account, immortalized in a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier called “The Wreck of the Palatine”, sounded a little different. This version of the story claimed that the Block Islanders lured the ship to wreck on the shore, after which they killed the passengers and looted the ship, then set it on fire and sent it out to sea to hide what they’d done. For the hundred or so years after the Princess Augusta’s wreck, these legends grew, and locals claimed that you can see the light of the burning ship off the coast of Block Island in the days after Christmas, on the anniversary of the accident.
It’s unclear what actually happened, but it seems like there’s little evidence of Block Islanders acting as pirates. Instead, there were likely dozens of shipwrecks and accidents off Block Island each year simply due to treacherous waters, and author Lisa Farinelli, who wrote a history of the incident believes there might even have been several other shipwrecks while the passengers of the Princess Augusta were recovering on shore. While the residents probably didn’t lure ships to wreck on the shore, they did salvage cargo and equipment from the ships that crashed. This might sound like looting, but it was actually a service to the ship owners and the misunderstanding of this practice likely spawned the myth of Block Islanders’ pirate tendencies.
But the other thing that might have influenced this myth is that Block Island already had some pirate mystique that made the logical leap from salvaging shipwrecks to pirate greed pretty easy, because Block Island was actually infamous for sheltering real-life, notorious pirates. And that’s where this story gets good, because while Roadside America lured me in with dubious claims that Block island locals were pirate minded, I stuck around to learn more about the real pirates that frequented the area. And the term frequented is accurate--in a single year, 1699, three famous pirates, including the well-known Captain William Kidd, visited Block Island.
As it turns out, Rhode Island--or Rogue’s Island, as some called it--was an absolute haven for pirates. And there is just something romantic about the idea of pirates, isn’t there? Adventure, danger, exploration, a daring hero--buried treasure, perhaps?
Between the 1650s and 1730s, piracy was in its Golden Age. With frequent wars happening between the European superpowers, these countries looked for easy and inexpensive ways to increase their naval power--and sea-faring colonists provided the perfect solution. Many seamen and merchants were enlisted by their respective governments as privateers licensed to raid enemy ships. This was essentially legalized piracy, with the major difference between privateers and pirates being some flimsy little papers--called letters of marque. The lines between privateering and piracy were as blurred as you would expect, and they were pretty much washed away entirely in the early 1700s when sailors and privateers, left unemployed by the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, found that they really didn’t want to go back to their lives as ordinary sailors. Many turned to outright piracy, largely in the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, the East Coast of North America, and the West African coast.
Rhode Island, which was essentially founded as a home for outcasts, remained true to form and welcomed pirates with open arms during this period. Piracy was an industry in the state. Ships were outfitted, privateer letters of marque were given by corrupt officials, and goods and services were bought and sold without paying taxes to England. One of the biggest draws to sponsoring a privateer were the goods procured. Captured ships and their contents were legally declared the property of the privateer, with a percentage going back to the governor or government issuing commission. This allowed Rhode Island to grow government income without taxing residents.
Rhode Island’s reputation as a haven for buccaneers spread. In 1697, the English Board of Trade referred to Rhode Island and neighboring Connecticut as, “having become a great receptacle for pirates,” and Cotton Mather, a famous Puritan minister of Massachusetts, called Rhode Island, “the sewer of New England.” Harsh.
But it’s sort of a relatable sentiment, right? Because while we’ve definitely romanticized them in books and movies, there are also some pretty negative stereotypes of pirates as dirty, hard-partying rogues who just wanted to have a good time and loot ships, even if that meant resorting to some pretty shocking acts of violence.
But maybe pirates weren’t always quite as cruel-hearted as we would imagine. One of the earliest Rhode Island pirates (and he was sometimes just called THE Rhode Island Pirate) was Thomas Tew, and he was described as being “notoriously kind.” It was said that victimes would often surrender immediately after learning the identity of their attacker. Tew was remembered for pioneering The Pirate Round, which was a famous long-distance route from the Americas to rob Muslim and East India Company targets in the Indian Ocean. And while he had a relatively short career and used unconventionally kind methods, he managed to amass a pretty substantial fortune, estimated to be around $112.8M dollars, making him the third highest earning pirate, according to Forbes.
So, Tew wasn’t exactly the cold-blooded criminal we might imagine. And neither was another local pirate-turned-Jamestown, RI-resident, Captain Thomas Paine. Paine began as a pirate, before becoming an influential and upstanding citizen of Newport and Jamestown. In 1683, he received a commission from the governor of Jamaica to seize, kill and destroy pirates. Instead, he joined four other privateers in a raid against the Spanish town of Saint Augustine, Florida. Afterwards, they sailed north to Rhode Island to resupply, knowing the state was friendly to pirates, but were arrested by a visiting governor from New Hampshire for violating England’s peace agreement with Spain and for carrying forged documents of commission. But Rhode Island governor William Coddington Jr. refused to arrest him for piracy, saying Paine’s papers were in order.
After that, Paine stayed in Rhode Island, going into something of a retirement. He married Mercy Carr, the daughter of a prominent political figure, and settled in Jamestown. And when it came to his huge fortune, well, he accounted for it by saying it came from finding an abandoned Spanish wreck in the Caribbean. And who would question that, especially when it was adding valuable gold and silver to RI’s treasury.
But Paine’s pirating days weren’t completely behind him. He remained connected to other pirates, and was involved in the cargo and resailing for local pirate ships, including that of Captain William Kidd. And he even got back out on the open seas a couple of times! During King William’s War, in the early 1690s, Block Island was attacked by French privateers. With his reputation as a daring pirate, Paine was rallied to defend the area and drive out the enemy. This success firmly painted Paine as a Rhode Island hero. It’s also said that in 1706, at the age of 74, Paine was given command of two ships during Queen Anne’s War, and he captured a French privateer. The fact that he even lived into his seventies is impressive, considering many pirates died pretty young.
Of course, these noble pirates might have been the exception, not the rule. There were others, like Edward Low, who was known as, “a man of amazing and grotesque brutality,” according to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In a three year career, Low captured 100 ships along trade routes from the Caribbean to New England, burning most of them and violently torturing the prisoners before murdering them. He became known for forcing crews to eat the heart of the captured ship’s captain, and in one account, he was said to have cut off a captain’s lips, roasted them, and forced him to eat them while hot.
And these stories are just of the victims who died. Pirates also were known to take prisoners, and one famous Rhode Islander found himself a prisoner to a pirate crew for 7 years! In 1682, Samuel Cranston married his sweetheart, Mary Hart--who happened to be the granddaughter of Rhode Island’s founder, Roger Williams. Cranston was young, only 21, and decided to seek his wealth by pursuing business in the caribbean. After arriving off Key West, Florida, his ship was attacked by pirates, who murdered the whole crew except Cranston. As I mentioned, he remained a prisoner for 7 years, in a pirate stronghold off the coast of Honduras. But I didn’t give away the whole story. Because get ready for the amazing part.
One day, Cranston saw his opportunity to escape. He stole a small boat, and sailed for six days before seeing another ship, who rescued him and brought him to Halifax, Nova Scotia. From there, they gave him enough money to get to Boston. From Boston, he apparently walked to Newport (for context, this is about an hour and 20 minute DRIVE). He arrived at Howland’s Ferry, just a little ways before Newport--almost home--when he found out that his wife, thinking him dead, was about to be married to someone else, that evening! Hearing this, Cranston hustled. The wedding guests were beginning to assemble when he arrived. He asked a servant to call for his wife and tell her that her husband was on his way home to his family. When she came down from her toilet, he lifted his cap, pointed to a scar on his head, and she recognized that the bedraggled sailor before her was her husband, returned home after seven years. The wedding was called off, and instead became a welcome-home party. Lucky for Cranston, but oh man, that poor other guy! Cranston was obviously pretty resilient--he went on to serve as governor of the colony of Rhode Island for 29 years, making him the longest serving governor and the namesake of the town of Cranston.
Okay, so you get the point. There was a lot of pirate activity in Rhode Island--some bad, some not so bad, some sounding like it was right out of a movie. But at this point you’re probably wondering one thing: What about the treasure? They must have buried treasure somewhere, right? Well, here’s the thing about burying treasure--it was actually not that practical or popular. If you need convincing, I’ve dug up some relevant info: a study done at the University of Richmond cites that squirrels fail to recover up to 74% of the nuts they bury. So, there you go. Don’t bury your treasure. If you buried $100 bucks, you’d be liable to only find $26 dollars of it. Not good, just put it in the bank or in an IRA. But also, pirates didn’t expect to live that long. Most of them died early--some in their 20s, many in their 30s or 40s. So planning for the future wasn’t a top concern.
But, even though it wasn’t very practical and most pirates didn’t do it, there is a pirate who did, and he visited Block Island during a treasure-dispersing spree in 1699. So, there’s a possibility there just might be treasure hidden somewhere on Block Island, and no one’s found it yet.
Captain William Kidd is one of the most legendary pirates, largely because of the myth surrounding his buried treasure. Had he never buried anything, we might not be talking about him today, because it doesn’t really sound like he was the best pirate, and in my opinion, it kind of sounds like he wasn’t a pirate at all--but a privateer who made some errors along the way.
Kidd was commissioned by the English Earl of Bellomont (who was the governor of Boston) in 1695 to attack enemy French ships as well as pirates from New England and other parts of America, including specifically Thomas Tew I told you about earlier. Bellomont and the other lords who backed him financially saw an opportunity for great wealth--with 10% of the loot reserved for England--and he was outfitted with a custom built ship that was particularly well equipped to attack pirates, with 34 cannons and oars, which would have allowed the ship to row up on enemies if wind died down. When Kidd arrived in Madagascar, he initially failed to find the pirates he was looking for. Before long, a cholera outbreak, leaks on the ship, and the lack of attacks on pirate ships made it clear that the ambitious enterprise was failing, and Kidd’s crew began to doubt their captain.
But things appeared to be turning around when in 1698, Kidd commenced his most notable attack on the 500 ton Quedah Merchant, an Indian ship hired by Armenian merchants. The ship was sailing under the French flag, which would have meant Kidd could legally attack, so he did. And this ship was stocked with riches. But, once they overtook the vessel, Kidd made a troubling discovery: the captain was an Englishman, sailing under French protection. Once he realized this, Kidd tried to persuade his crew to return the ship, but they refused. He now had two choices: command his crew to return it, potentially losing control of his men who were liable to mutiny, or maintain what little control he still had and keep the prize. Kidd chose the second, but he kept the French passes of protection to defend his actions. Surely Bellomont and others would agree it had been a perfectly legal attack.
Before heading back to America, Kidd made another stop in Madagascar, where he came upon his first pirate ship. Unfortunately, he had pretty much lost all control of his men at this point, and all but 13 abandoned ship, joining the pirate, Robert Culliford, instead. Kidd then began his journey back to New York to argue his defense, abandoning the Quedah Merchant (which he had renamed the Adventure Prize) along the way.
When he reached Long Island Sound, Kidd sent a messenger to shore to get his lawyer and deliver a message to his wife. Then the ship began a round-about route towards Block Island, where his wife and daughters would be waiting for him. Along the way, he began hiding some of his treasure, including gold bars, coins, gold dust, silver plates, precious stones, jewelry and silks. Small ships would meet him at sea and carry away bundles of treasures to be protected by friends, and he stopped at Gardiner’s Island, in NY, to bury treasure with the permission of the Island’s owner. He hid about $30,000 in treasure, marking the burial spot with a cairn. Some accounts say Kidd threatened the family should anything go missing before his return.
He then made his way to Block Island to meet with his wife and daughters. It’s believed that he may have hidden some of his treasures here as well. Later, one of his shipmates would be documented returning to Block Island, perhaps looking for the treasure they’d left behind.
From Block Island, they headed to Narragansett bay, where Kidd’s lawyer proceeded to Boston to meet with Lord Bellomont while Kidd sought Captain Thomas Paine’s advice and aid.
Bellomont, likely fearing he would be implicated in Kidd’s actions, promised security, “if he would prove himself as innocent as his lawyer said he was. But when Kidd and his family arrived in Boston, he was imprisoned, never to be free again. He was shipped to London in 1700, tried, and hung in 1701. Truthfully, Kidd expected kinder treatment. British courts had often turned a blind eye to privateers who dipped into piracy. But Kidd received no mercies. At his hanging, the rope actually broke and Kidd survived. At the time, this would have been seen as an intervention from God and the prisoner would have been spared. But no such luck for Kidd, who was hung again just moments later.
But the trail of treasure remained as Kidd’s greatest legacy. Every state that might have been touched by Kidd’s circuitous route wants to lay claim to treasure. New Jersey believes he may have hidden treasure near Sandy Hook, on a small island where some 17th century Spanish gold coins were found. Rhode Island has Block Island and Jamestown, where Paine was said to have received treasure. Massachusetts has Boston Harbor. And New York has Gardner Island, the real X marks the spot.
In the 1800s, Block Islanders would have treasure hunting parties. And in June 1955, a joint effort undertaken by the Rhode Island Development Council and a company called Radiac Co. attempted an ambitious search for the treasure around New Harbor. Following directions provided by the Rhode Island Historical Society, the searchers used equipment said to be able to detect gold, silver, tungsten, copper or iron many feet beneath the surface. Unfortunately, their search didn’t turn up any treasure.
But maybe that’s for the best. It leaves us with the dream that the treasure may still be out there, hidden somewhere along the shores of this favorite summertime vacation spot. And if you don’t have the patience to go search for it, but you’d like to see what real pirate treasure looked like, you’re in luck. There’s one last local pirate worth talking about, called Black Sam Bellamy, and his ship was actually discovered in 1984 by Marine underwater investigator, Barry Clifford.
Black Sam Bellamy was another of the noblemen pirates I talked about earlier--he had good manners, dressed neatly in elegant clothes, and always wore four ornate dueling pistols in his sash. He was sometimes called the Prince of Pirates, and had a reputation as a democratic captain who treated those he captured like he would have treated his own crew.
Maybe kindness was the way, because in little over a year of activity, he became the richest pirate in history, taking over 53 ships and capturing treasure estimated at $120M today by Forbes.
When he was caught in a storm off the coast of Wellfleet, MA, Bellamy and 140 men died, and his fortune went down with the ship. When it was discovered in 1984, it became the world's first fully verified pirate shipwreck, and it was packed with nearly 5 tons of treasure. So far, 200,000 artifacts have been uncovered, including one of those dueling pistols Bellamy carried. And while the excavation is ongoing, the treasures that have been found are displayed in the Whydah Pirate Museum on Cape Cod.
Of course, piracy didn’t remain popular in Rhode Island forever, or maybe we’d still see some of them sauntering around. Rhode Island started a slow reform in the 1700s, probably because Newport merchants were finding themselves being robbed and attacked, or maybe due to pressure from the English Board of Trade. In 1723, 26 pirates were hanged in Newport, in a stark expression of the shifting attitude. But it’s still pretty cool to think that at one point, pirates lived in our little state.
And if you’re wondering, like I was, if pirates actually kept parrots, well that might be one of those stereotypes that was true! People would pay good money for exotic pets like parrots, and sailors could easily buy them in Caribbean ports. They were entertaining, sold for a good price, and were cheap and easy to feed and keep alive. So, go ahead and keep picturing that pirate with a parrot perched on his shoulder.
Thanks for listening! Come back next week as I bring you more stories about all things weird and wonderful in the little state of Rhode Island. And if you liked what you heard, help us out by recommending it to your friends and family! Finally, if there's a topic you’d like to hear about, let us know! Leave a review (and a rating while you’re there), or you can email us at Weird Rhode Island @ Gmail.com. Until next time!