Treasure Hunter Flans To Use Radar Set To Unearth Wealth

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 14, 20 January 1948, Page 4

Treasure Hunter Flans To Use Radar Set To Unearth Wealth

In 1846, a wild, unkempt, silent man came to Boston, got a lonely job as keeper of Bug Light, finally retired to salt-bleached solitude on an outer harbour island. Known as the King of Calf Island, by waterfront legend he was one of the pirates who ravaged the West Indies early in the 19th century. The King died in 1882 without discussing the matter.

Twenty years later a man claiming to be his brother spent weeks probing the sands of storm-swept Great Brewster Island off Boston with long steel rods. He told two or three people that he was hunting a map, key to a treasure buried by the King. One of the men, Peg-leg Nuskey, passed the story on to a Boston writer,'Edward Rowe Snow, in 1937. Shortly afterward, in the best treas-ure-hunting tradition, Peg-leg Nuskey was found dead under an upturned dory with a towline around his neck. But he had talked to the right man. Snow, a burly descendant of New England sailing masters; had been hunting treasure unsuccessfully for 20 years. World War II halted his search for the King of Calf Island’s gold. But a few weeks ago Snow, out of the army, took up the search once more. Beneath the floor of a .deserted shack on Great Brewster, he unearthed a 17th-century Italian book. At the Boston Public Library, where .he took it for appraisal, Harriet 'Swift noticed a pattern of pinholes on page 101. The holes pierced letters, formed a simple code message: The King of Calf Island had buried a treasure on Strong Island, Off the shore of Cape Cod.

Snow headed for the island with a shovel and an electronics device like a mine detector, used in locating metals. Five times he dug down, found buried hulks. The sixth excavation hit the jackpot: a small encrusted copper box, full of tarnished old coins minted in Peru, Mexico, Portugal, France and Spain. At most the trove was worth only 1900 dollars, but Snow was jubilant. He plans to get a radar set, go hunting storied New England hulks (like the British privateer Mary Ann sunk- off Chatham with 1,000,000 dollars in bullion) which have hitherto evaded unscientific treasure seekers.