Divers Think They Found Captain Kidd's Treasure

Silver bar pulled from wreck off Madagascar, but it's not confirmed
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 7, 2015 6:16 PM CDT
Divers Think They Found Captain Kidd's Treasure
A portrait of Captain Kidd at the Museum of London Docklands in east London.   (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

There are all kinds of maybes involved, but an American explorer thinks he's found Captain Kidd's pirate treasure. Barry Clifford brought up a 110-pound silver bar from a wreck off Madagascar believed to be the Scottish pirate's flagship, the Adventure Galley, reports the BBC. Clifford presented the bar to Madagascar's president in a ceremony Thursday, and he swears there's more where that came from. "I know the whole bottom of the cavity where I found the silver bar is filled with metal," he says. "It's too murky down there to see what metal, but my metal detector tells me there is metal on all sides." He says he's sure it's Kidd's loot, though October Films, a British company filming Clifford's search, was more reserved, saying that "further analysis of the ingot will be required."

The US ambassador attended the ceremony and seemed swayed, making a point to say the find could be "great for tourism." Skepticism should be expected, given the countless claims about Kidd's treasure over the centuries. As the headline on a backgrounder about the new find at the Daily Beast asks, "How Many Times Are We Going to Find Captain Kidd's Treasure?" The UN has taken notice of the claim, though not necessarily in a good way. UNESCO is worried that Clifford and the film crew might be trampling a valuable archaeological site and plans to send a team, possibly to take control of the site, reports AFP. (Clifford previously claimed to have found Columbus' Santa Maria, though UNESCO cast doubt on that. Meanwhile, a Florida family has a pirate yarn of its own.)

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