Pirates are lots of fun. There’s been a resurgence of interests in pirates since the Pirates of the Caribbean movies came out. However a lot of what we “know” about pirates is based on myth and story, not factual evidence. Let’s take the idea of pirate treasure.
If you get your ideas of pirate treasure from popular culture, you might think there is pirate treasure buried everywhere. All you need to do is find a convenient treasure map, and the chase is on! The truth is much more mundane. There are almost no examples of pirates burying their plunder. There are a few reasons for this. First, pirates tended to have a fairly democratic system for distributing their treasure. Every sailor got an equal share in the treasure, with the captain getting a one and half or double share. This captain, along with his mates, were (usually) elected by their crews. This system means that whatever plunder the pirates seized, it was immediately distributed throughout the crew.
Most pirate plunder wasn’t treasure. There were treasure ships carrying gold and silver from the new world to the old, but these were exceptionally well guarded and more than a match for an average pirate ship. Most of the time, pirates would capture whatever ships were passing by. Sure there was coin and some gold to be found, but these were mostly basic goods like cloth, grain, and alcohol. This isn’t stuff that kept well in a treasure chest!
These stories, like some many pirate legends, got their start in popular literature. In this case it was Robert Lewis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. This is a terrific story. I suggest everybody read it. It also seems to be the genesis of the buried treasure legends.
There is one recorded example of a pirate captain burying treasure. This was the famous William Kidd or Captain Kidd. The legend is that Kidd had plundered a Moorish ship and retreated not to the Caribbean, but to New York State. The tale says he buried some of his loot on Gardiner’s Island in Long Island Sound, then sailed up the Hudson to hide some more.
As the story goes, Kidd scuttled his ship at Dunderberg Mountain — right across the river from Peekskill — then retreated inland with his sailors with as much treasure as the sailors could carry. Where, nobody knows. Later efforts to find the treasure ship were inconclusive. So it may be there, or not.
Either way, it’s fun to think that maybe there’s real buried treasure right across the river from Peekskill.
Sources:
Stevenson, Robert Lewis. Treasure Island. New York, Dover Publications, 19 Apr. 1993.
Woodard, Colin. The Republic Of Pirates. New York, Harcourt Mifflin Harcourt, 12 May 2008.