The Search For The Sunken Dutch Treasure Ships | Search For Sunken Treasure | Timeline

Australia's treacherous coastline and coral reefs have claimed more than 8,000

ships

, some carrying fabulous

treasure

s. Remains of early Dutch and English exploitation that now crash against irregular reefs. They have become

sunken

treasure

s and archived dreams. The Dutch were the first to explore Australia in 1606 and the bones. Of seven of his Batavia-bound treasure

ships

located along the western coast of Australia, the unknown eastern coast was not explored until 1770 by Captain Cook. An era began in which thousands of ships fell into a watery grave ravaged by storms and inaccurate charts. I found over 100 of these shipwrecks are moored off Adam please, I am now looking for those that had treasure on board.

My

search

for these

sunken

treasures must surely be the most tantalizing and subjective of all my discoveries, now that it is not far above the sand, just three feet away. or two and from what I have heard is that a large pile of ballast stones must have fallen from the cyclone because it is sitting here 15 miles from Port Douglas in the shipping channel and we don't know what ship it is, there is no record of this ship sinking here every time I come across a shipwreck like this I think of the treasure ship Madagascar that left Melbourne in 1853 with 60,000 ounces of gold on board and is now worth about $40 million and disappeared and never to be seen again saw again. no one really knows where it was lost and one day you know one lucky diver is going to stumble upon this treasure ship and all that gold and that's why you know, every time I see a shipwreck like this I guess you never know, it could be Madagascar.

I'm going down to check out Pete West and I have talking masks. Visibility will be poor. Communication is essential. Well, I'm at the bottom. I could make out a dark mass ahead. It appears to be spread over a considerable distance. Look. in that pile of power stones many very tame lionfish my eyes are focused on the glitter of gold and I only take a passing interest in this brass ring from the ship's helm here is a cannon it is on top of another the ship must be old this one It is a large ship of more than 100 tons, large enough to be the Madagascar.

I think I'll keep an eye out for the color yellow. There was no yellow color. I left Pete in Port Douglas and headed north with a crew of four, my son Adam. lynn roberts john harding and erin please mark we enter bathurst bay where the aborigines painted history on the walls of the caves that connect to australia's biggest maritime disaster ah here it looks good they are really something lin aren't they beautifully drawn axes some pipe scissors here another one? racks obviously the aborigines that drew this were given to them by the white men who worked for the pearl divers and obviously they were paid in these products so they brought the scissors, the axes, the pipes and they drew them exactly, I can't say exactly What are they. with the h all i can think of is maybe pearl shell bags and h would be the name of the company this is interesting lynn look at the jacket you know when you look at this for the first time you think wow this is a gentleman you know from the 18th century elegant jacket tight pants like pants and down here high heels you know I was looking at this thinking boy you know this could be English Portuguese Spanish French you know it a long time ago but looking at him more no no absolutely not a rancher the main thing What gives him away is the head, that's a profile and I know that Aboriginal people never drew profiles of white people until much later, when they got to know them very well, when they actually lived with them and worked with them, so this would be a drawing from around 1890, I guess at the same time the luggers came here and of course the rancher came in and they thought we'd draw it more here, but it would have to be a knife and take a look. the roof, this has to be a dolphin or a dugong or maybe a pilot whale, yes it looks a bit like a dolphin you are digging, this would be a mother ship so all the sails would have been sailing right around here in Bathurst Bay and you should be part of the pearl fleet, the mother ship and that intricate design, you know, especially with the sails, maybe the portholes, maybe even the name here, no, beautiful dugong Up here, this is a beautiful drawing of a lugger, the incredible thing here, this is history, see?

These luggers would have been drawn in the 1890s when the pearling fleet was here, when the Aboriginal people helped them collect their knives and axes, but these luggers no longer exist, they were wiped out in the great cyclone of 1899 right here. In Bathurst Bay John there are so many wrecks, you know, 70 of them, a lot of luggers, but we have to go out and find some of them, at least you know, I'm pretty sure I know where the light bar is anyway. do that the first 300 people drowned 70 ships sank in the most powerful of all cyclones.

Now we are approaching the lighthouse. Now you can see the marked position on the GPS. I found her about 18 years ago. You see, I marked it on it. graphic and we didn't die because the water was very dirty and on the way up we saw a tiger shark and we said oh we'll leave this for another day in two days one day she sank in the cyclone of 1899 and the waves just enveloped her and she went to mooring and is the only light wreck in Australia so definitely worth a dive. Visibility is poor at 25 meters depth, so we extended the line from the anchor and swept the ocean floor to locate the wreck.

He will also be our guide back to the anchor chain and my boat. The key to this being the light ship is the artifacts we find. Marine organisms in sea water attack a sunken ship like a long-buried mummy. The remains of the ship will deteriorate if taken to the bottom. the air is so hardly recognizable this is an ancient grindstone here are two oil lamp bases and Adam has found the ship's bell the shipwreck is in fact the canal rock the light ship the divers raise baited hooks lower the cyclone of 1899 created A massive 12 meter tide, the highest height ever recorded, swept the bodies and equipment from the ships far above the beach area.

I hope to find some evidence of this flotsam girl. Take a look at this eroded shore here because you know things could be exposed if we get washed away. the cyclone worth looking at I'm going to follow the stream here john john what do you have brass wow some debris yeah oh I can't even yeah look I think it's what what's a diver's helmet okay over here yeah, there's more than just fish and corals down here on Clack reef now we are up on the eastern argosy where the ground was not totally destroyed he got off but before getting off he had to throw all the cargo overboard and it is literally a minefield of cargo down here There are lots of dishes, some liquor too, but the water is dirty and you'll have to rummage around.

She ran aground in 1970 so that she does not fall under the historic shipwreck again and so you can bring these things to the relics. in the mud they are well preserved, but corals grow rapidly in the exposed cargo, even mundane relics are exciting to find. 1970, yes, and the glasses are nice, some of them are broken, but even this you know the delicate corals and look what John found, yes, there would be boxes of this down there, lots and lots of them, would you be sorry if only have you found one? You had to go. Come back and get more, I think we should try it.

It has an airbag so it should be fine. Yes, Erin, can you get me a bottle opener? Please, we will try. Thanks, this should be a nice drop. Hey, you can try it, man. okay, oh yeah, comes out easy, here we go, here we go, that tastes good, I'll tell you what a powerful drop it is, you're right, it smells better now, oh, I don't think we're going to look for more, where are they? We are reaching Ferguson Reef and we are going to see the wreck there. It's actually called Ferguson and sank in 1840. I found it about 25 years ago and it's worth doing.

A lot of reputation has been created and tarnished. In the treasure hunt, direct diving does something for you, but the common sense law stops the pirate who stirs in your blood. All property recovered from those over 75 years of age must return to the bottom of the sea and that is something difficult to do, believe me. . Uh-huh, you know what that is, no, no, it's a trigger guard from a brown model with the name of the rifle in those days, you might see the wrestling, too bad, you have to go and give it back for real, oh, oh, Good John, these were commemorative. buckles and they crossed the sash, you know, the straps that crossed the chest crosswise and yes, well, they commemorated the battle of the Nile and you can see here the 50th region, well, these were called the 500 combats, the famous regiment Well, John I.

I'm reaching the area that is a graveyard of old sailboats. This is a big separate reef where we are here now and I know there were seven shipwrecks on this particular reef and years ago we

search

ed this whole area of ​​the reef here and I found six of them, one was missing and the reason I want to find this seventh It is very important because one of the ships was called Fatima and it sank with 18,600 ounces of gold and that is worth about 11 million today. I've looked at all these other wrecks and haven't found any signs of gold so if I can find the seventh maybe that's the one we want we'll get a little closer to the breakers John look for dark spots on the reef on any line straight upright and look at the chain here oh this is a shark shark too big oh good party shark okay you can come in with that good we have our shipwreck number seven here is another shark coming now here he is a little more the fatima is a typical ship of the treasure where fate so cruelly took the gold from its rightful owners identifying the ship is difficult I have seven names and seven shipwrecks to choose from finding the right cargo will help me okay?

You know what? okay, that's a crucible, that's what they, uh, you know, I say precious minerals and they put them in little test glasses to test the mineral and here I have a test glass, yeah, ah, it's mate and this one , you know what it is, no. It is not a cross, it is part of a scale. Oh yes, we are definitely on a ship that was transporting precious metals. Could that be Fatima? I would say yes, but now we are really going to strike gold and the problem is. The gold won't be here where this thing was washed up, it'll be right out there in the waves and it's heavy, it'll be right at the bottom and if it's gold dust we forget, but if it's gold fingers, you know?

They do it by pouring the gold into grooves in the sand so we have a chance we are very excited now all eyes are focused on the shine of the gold my heart jumps every time I see the color yellow turns out to be a common color In the corals, we poke through the remains for two days and we could not find the mother cargo of gold bars. It is possible that it is buried under 150 years of coral growth. It is very likely that the intimidation was mainly gold dust now scattered like grains of sand across the reef floor and lost forever.

It is not just gold that shines the reef shines in the clear waters of the coral sea its inhabitants are large and friendly catching food is easy as long as I reel it in quickly before the sharks take it from me it is good, we visited Charles Hardy Island was once a refuge for shipwreck survivors. You know, Lynn, there are so many legends of Spanish galleons in Australia and I've researched them all and they're just not there, except for one. I have my doubts about one and it actually happened well. here on Charles Hardy Island and that was because the ship Mariner was wrecked there on a large separate reef where we were and the survivors landed here and found two remains, one recent and old and from the previous one they recovered this bronze cannon to use as ballast on the ship and it had the markings of Santa Barbara and apparently the date 1596.

So maybe there is a Spanish galleon here, but only here, all the others in Australia, no, they don't exist, anyway, there is the water up there . The water well, this was very important for the castles, it was marked on the old maps and that's why they came here and also the other good thing is that there were no scammers here, so every castaway, every shipwreck, came here. to sir charles hardy to drink this water, how is it okay? It's okay if you're still desperate, it was vital for them. Well, it's a child's grave. You know, too small.

Not many children you know survive the ordeal of being a castaway. cockburn reef another ship graveyard what is it for this is a board question i'm going to tell you on the other side of the reef here because there are nine shipwrecks here and one in particular i want to find because it's called anne and it sank with a cargo of species that are coins from 1853, okay, who is the first? I'm ready, I'll throw it to you. The motherboard is simple and efficient. We cover a large area in a short time. Experience is required to identify any passing coral-wrapped shapes that may be shipwrecks.

He has something, what did you see? piles of remains, there are iron cauldrons everywhere, they must be a burden for acast iron the wheels are for transporting those cast iron pots to the furnace now the treasure ship Ana could have carried them, but our next excellent ruins my hopes Try it, okay, they are good bullets. You also have a lot. I admit they are .45 caliber. You know they used them on Colt pistols in the old Wild West movies. It's a shame because this dates back to the accident. You see, they didn't. I won't start making them until the 18th of 1873 and Anne died in 1853, you know, 20 years before, so we know.

We're not on the wreck I want, but it's still an interesting story because they're 58 caliber and they used them on the Snyder rifles they had. They actually had a cardboard backing, which is why you don't see the rest of the shell now. They're the calibers of the rifles that were given to the natives of the north of the islands when they were traded for Kanaka labor, so you're probably on a black bertha here anyway, we have to take them back, he's got something, right ? I see a big pile of ballast, okay, and what looks like some keel bolts now look more promising.

The line of death bolts shows it to be a wooden sailboat that broke its back on the reef. It is a glass skylight that was once a fixture on the upper deck. What is this? It's very heavy, it's heavy now, that's a lead line, you see, that's what they drop to determine the depth and you can see this hole here, that's where they put suet and so they know what's on the bottom. They fall too late to save her. All that remains now is the line of deadly bolts, a canyon, and a large mound of ballast rocks.

The remains are completely covered in algae, which eliminates our chance of seeing a mound of coins that will look like one of those rocks anyway, let's forget it, John. that grass just makes it impossible you know there will be lost treasure that will stay lost yeah treasure hunting is very frustrating but I never lose hope I'm just running to the top of Ashmore Reef now Adam yeah another half hour. I want to look for a shipwreck high above the sun, that's that old treasure ship, isn't that the case with all coins? right 30 or 40,000 Spanish silver dollars oh that's worth a little now they said it sank in the eastern fields but I remember Wally Gibbons and I 25 years ago we actually searched that reef and then I realized that yeah it always They are in the latitude of longitude, they are correct and at the same latitude we have a small reef and also another one.

The clue I have is that in 1906 some native divers were fishing around it for myrrh on the beach and came across this shipwreck and recovered a small brass cannon that was a French Spaniard. Now the captain of the sun was also French. she was a French ship and most likely they found the forest of the sun. Look at that black line crossing the reef. Now that's the anchor chain from a shipwreck and I think that would be the treasure ship. Sun. I think we could have found. Let's take a look, there is definitely an anchor chain, it just goes down near the end.

I want to find the ballast pile. This will be where the ship broke up. of the coins will be on a large rock as a conglomerate of many coins used together since 1770 most of the ships that used Australian waters were English and they were a poor bunch when it came to carrying treasure the glory days of the Spanish conquests and pirates and

dutch

were about this treasure ship the sun was an exception forty thousand spanish coins relive the childhood dreams of the pirates of spanish maine hey we have something there hey a couple of coins oh yes definitely very embedded coins i thought it was just a little metal but no, that's coin, yes, that's a coin, but we'll have to put them in some acid, you know, find the date, the date is important, so we know we have the wreck in daily trade , oh, it's hydrochloric acid about an hour or so and they.

I'll be sparkling clean, it looks good, I think it's good, it should be good, let's see what we got good, that one didn't clean much at all, Aaron, that one you got, didn't it? This one here has a hole. on it, I would have worn it around someone's neck, yeah, it looks like a four-reel reel, huh, this one looks good, Dave Aaron, you've got better eyes than me, yeah, 1807, 1807, so the sun set on 1826, and that's perfect. This has to be the sun, but where are the rest of the coins? Since I've been waiting for this to turn out well, I went through all my files and found something that is quite disappointing.

Now that you've heard about the famous jardine treasure jardine treasure jardine sent a schooner here and they accidentally found a shipwreck and when they checked around an anchor they found these huge coins, thousands and thousands of coins and they brought them back now, they never exactly said , you know where they found them and There were so many legends attached to all this, but Jardine drew a map and this map is identical to the one there. There is the vertical anchor. There is the canyon on the left. This anchor here where you found the coins. The long chain and this circle here represents. the coins they found a large amount of coins, so the treasure existed, but it disappeared, someone else beat us to it, we should arrive soon, we are on the lower level, 100 feet, 30 meters, a shipwreck where the treasure still exists.

This is the Pandora that I discovered in 1977. She was returning to England with mutineers captured from the famous bounty and crashed into a coral reef when trying to pass through the Torres Strait. The chained mutineers barely escaped when the ship sank. Here it comes. Yes, this is the Pandora. We have him drop the marker guys so he can anchor, release them a short distance away and run back in the boat. I don't want my heavy anchor and chain to spoil the view of the wreck. She is a perfect time capsule of a British naval mansion. war of the 18th century, all the elements carried by a ship and its crew lie buried at the bottom of the sea, which is why it is claimed to be the most important marine archaeological find in Australia.

Queensland museum divers have carried out the grueling process of exhuming artefacts for further study on land and creating a pandora museum in townsville from unrecognizable clusters of concretion emerge a sextant and the ship's surgeon's gold watch , everything carefully restored in this room, what are you doing, Alexandra? I am in the process of repairing a couple of pandora glass shards. I will use an adhesive and an epoxy adhesive to glue the shards together. Are they all from Pandora? Yes, they are, yes, yes, and what we're doing here is trying to evaluate the condition of the object and what it is. the reading for Andy this is a ph reading and this is just here to check the stability the solution to make sure that the iron will be stable at that ph level, that it is in the correct range and we are impressing a current in the metal that converts the corrosion product and actually helps release chloride ions that will cause deterioration of the fixture in Townsville.

I'm looking for a legendary pirate legend. You know, Lynn? There is a great treasure story here on Magnetic Island. A Japanese pirate. A Yamada Nagamasa. apparently he was plundering ships, you know, in the southwest pacific and he came here to magnetic island and apparently he buried his treasure somewhere here and people have searched for it but no one has found it yet and this bay here is the only anchorage in the one who could have sat down. while he buried the treasure, so what I'm looking for is some significant landmark that I wouldn't be able to recognize if he wanted to go back and collect the treasure, what about that big rock up there?

Ben, let's move down the middle, yeah. that's a real landmark, i think we should check it out, ah there it is, there's a crack running through it, i think we can get in, wow boy, so what are we looking for, an x ​​sign marks the spot. ah ah, look at this, lin, look at this. a little gap here and a cross and there's a line two that comes out and it looks like an arrow a couple of diamonds definitely something quite faded I think we have to draw it and I can see very well what it is, all good, there's a ring and a cross and this big sweep with the two arrows oh little gecko looking at it and these diamonds I wonder what that means you know, two diamonds and finally a little arrow at the top there it is len, what does it mean?

I showed the symbol to a reputable psychic and she said that it tells you that a fabulous treasure is really buried here. The Dutch found the west coast of Australia by accident and left the bones of seven galleons and a fabulous treasure in the coral reefs. Beacon Island became an isolated strip of hell when Batavian survivors landed in 1629 riches in a warehouse 10 chests of silver and gold sparked a riot massacre madness and torture 96 men, women and children were massacred archaeologists have unearthed gruesome hints of violent deaths this one suffered an uncut blow to the head in 1973 i joined the western australian museum team of archaeologists on their first excavation of the batavia in this archive film divers are placing sandbags on the wooden hull excavated to keep it in place until it is raised and restored we helped with the recovery of coins there are thousands of Hundreds of bricks that were destined for the fortress of Batavia, the Dutch capital of Java, were rescued.

Australia's richest treasure is painstakingly restored today. Some coins can still be found in the Batavia cemetery if you know exactly where to look for the mutineers in their horrendous murders for the treasure met equally violent retribution, they were tortured for ten days until they signed their confessions, then their hands were cut off and They died by hanging oh, that was good, let me get rid of that, look what we have. a wild man is a german coin from the 30 years war he holds the trunk of a tree like a cane and looks at the date 1624 i mean it is old and on the reverse it has a beautiful design now this is a very valuable coin okay, you know, at least a couple thousand dollars, but I can't sell it.

The Australian government actually owns all the currencies here. Oh, I recognize this as William of Orange, he has a sword on his shoulder and now he was the cause. of the 30 years war because he was killed by the Spanish so the Spanish and the Dutch went to war on the date 16 19. ah, this is a cross, I think it's called a cross dollar, this is also German and here we have a double. eagle, a double eagle there and look at the date there, it's 1586. That's 200 years before the colony of Australia was founded with Captain Arthur Phillip and it's been at the bottom of the sea for 150 years before Cook Save along the east coast on the australian coast this has been sitting that's amazing the remains of three other

dutch

treasure ships were found in 1656 the golden dragon piled up on a reef 110 kilometers north of perth all on board perished Because those who managed to reach land died of thirst carrying handfuls of useless coins.

The calm sees the lie belie the tragedy that unfolded here. Their remains are so scattered and buried that it is only by chance that I find a little of the treasure they were carrying, so how was it? Oh, I have some goodies, hold out your hand, there you are. Be careful, yes, there are Spanish eight-real pieces in those days, this coin was a common denomination all over the world, you know, the English, the Dutch, they all used this as a general currency, way beyond, the people, you know , the museum has collected thousands and thousands of These, somewhere along the rugged coast of Western Australia, lie three more Dutch galleons.

A huge treasure of gold and silver is yet to be found. The crew who did not drown were thrown ashore on an inhospitable coast and the little wealth they could have taken with them is now the silver of the dead men.