[x] Welcome at THunting.com!

A fun place to talk about Metal Detecting, Treasure Hunting & Prospecting. Here you can share finds and experience with thousands of members from all over the world

Join us and Register Now - Its FREE & EASY

THunting.com
Treasure Hunting & Metal Detecting Community
   
Advanced Search
*
Welcome, Guest! Please login or register HERE - It is FREE and easy.
Only registered users can post and view images on our message boards.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with email, password and session length
Or Login Using Social Network Account
2
News:
Pages: 1    Go Down
Print
Share this topic on FacebookShare this topic on Del.icio.usShare this topic on DiggShare this topic on RedditShare this topic on Twitter
Tags:
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Offline hardluckTopic starter
Gold Member
*

Join Date: Aug, 2009
Thank you8

Activity
0%
Posts: 1738
Referrals: 0

8875.00 Gold
View Inventory

Awards
« on: October 16, 2009, 09:36:27 pm »
Go Up Go Down

Hello everyone.

Here is a little known treasure story dating back from Napoleonic wars.

The Indian Ocean had been an important strategic region for British trade since the first British trading posts were developed in India. By the Napoleonic Wars, millions of pounds worth of goods crossed the ocean's trade routes every year, mostly in the heavily guarded convoys of East Indiamen.

The French recognized the economic importance of these convoys but until 1808 failed to provide sufficient forces to disrupt the Indian trade. Late in 1808, it was decided to send a strong frigate squadron to the Ocean under the command of Jacques Hamelin to augment the forces available on the island bases of ?le Bonaparte and ?le de France and raid British shipping in the region.

Hamelin was an able commander and between May 1809 and July 1810 his ships captured seven East Indiamen and a large number of small merchant ships and warships.
The British response to Hamelin's deployment was provided by Admiral Albemarle Bertie, who collected a squadron of ships from those available at the Cape of Good Hope and placed them under the command of Commodore Josias Rowley.

Admiral Bertie gave Rowley instructions to blockade the islands and prepare for invasion attempts once the required forces could be spared. During 1809 and the spring of 1810, Rowley maintained the blockade and launched a series of small raids, the largest being at Saint Paul on ?le Bonaparte in September 1809.

By July 1810, Rowley had developed sufficient forces at his island base on Rodriguez to successfully invade and capture ?le Bonaparte, which he restored to its former name of ?le Bourbon.

In August, Rowley attempted to extend his blockade of ?le de France by seizing small islands off the main ports that could control the passage of shipping through the coral reefs that surround the island. The first operation was to capture ?le de la Passe off Grand Port, which was successfully secured on 13 August.

Shortly after a French squadron forced passage into the harbour and Captain Samuel Pym ordered the four frigates of the blockade squadron to attack the ships anchored in the bay. The ensuing Battle of Grand Port was a disaster for the British.

Two frigates were wrecked on the reefs and two others captured with their entire crews: only the very seriously wounded, including Captain Nesbit Willoughby, were repatriated to ?le Bourbon.With his squadron reduced to a single frigate, Rowley sent urgent messages to the British bases at Madras and Cape Town requesting reinforcements.

The British naval authorities responded by sending the forces they had available to join Rowley at Rodriguez. The first two frigates to arrive, HMS Africaine and HMS Ceylon were both attacked while sailing alone and captured by Hamelin's squadron, which was now blockading ?le Bourbon.

Rowley was able to recapture both ships within hours of their loss, and was also able to seize Hamelin and his flagship V?nus at the Action of 18 September 1810. The loss of the French naval commander was a serious blow to the squadron on ?le de France, which was also beset by supply problems resulting from a lack of naval stores and food supplies.

Unable to make the lengthy cruises needed to disrupt the Indian Ocean trade routes, they were forced to remain in harbour as Rowley was heavily reinforced during September and October 1810.

The Invasion of ?le de France, Mauritius as it is now called became inevitable as the British conducted a complicated but successful amphibious operation. During the operation, a substantial British military force was landed by the Royal Navy at Grand Baie on ?le de France.

Marching inland against weak French opposition, the British force was able to overwhelm the defenders in a series of minor engagements, culminating in the capture of the island's capital Port Napoleon, now called Port Louis and the surrender of Charles Decaen, the French governor.

The surrender eliminated the last French territory in the Indian Ocean and among the military equipment captured were five French Navy frigates and 209 heavy cannon. ?le de France was retained by Britain at the end of the war under the name of Mauritius and remained part of the British Empire until 1968.

The story of treasure comes from the time the British Invasion of Mauritius. The French Governor Charles Decaen before surrendering decided to remove all the wealth out of the capital, which included the accumulated wealth of the merchants and citizens on the island with the treasure that was captured off the British Merchant men by Commodore Hamelin.

The treasure was allegedly removed to the Black river region of the island. French colonial documents of these events resurfaced around 1900 in Port Louis the Capital of Mauritius. Details of this treasure and an attempt by a syndicate that formed into a company, searched
for this treasure in the Black mountain area of the Island.

This was reported in an Australian newspaper , the Advertiser in 1905. The newspaper story claimed that there could be between 20 and 30 million pounds of treasure lie in the Black Mountain area of the Island.There was no follow up account if the search was a success or not, or of any other latter recovery attempts.

Is the treasure still there, some where in remote hidden valleys of the black River district of Mauritius? Current figures of today's value of the treasure could be worth over 100 million dollars.

I think if I was ever planning to have a holiday on that delightful tropical island of Mauritius, Id pack a metal detector and a shovel, along with my sunglasses and suntan lotion!

Hardluck  Grin



 

 




Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,8663.msg54354.html#msg54354



There are 3 attachment(s) in this post which you can not view or download

Please register for viewing them.

509px-Bonne_-_Isle_de_France_(Detail) small.jpg
800px-Grand_Port_mg6971.jpg
TREASURE AT MAURITIUS THE ADVERTISER WED 6 SEPTEMBER 1905.jpg


« Last Edit: October 16, 2009, 09:38:17 pm by hardluck »
Logged
Offline hardluckTopic starter
Gold Member
*

Join Date: Aug, 2009
Thank you8

Activity
0%
Posts: 1738
Referrals: 0

8875.00 Gold
View Inventory

Awards
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2009, 01:41:16 am »
Go Up Go Down

Hello Everyone

Here is more information on some of the privateers that operated out of the Island of Mauritius during the Napoleonic wars.

In October 1987, a Frenchman arrived in Mauritius on board a vessel equipped for underwater exploration. He announced he was leading an expedition to locate wrecks of the 16th and 17th centuries and that he intended to prepare a marine archaeological map of them to present to the government.

Since his name was Eric Surcouf and he confessed to being a descendant of the celebrated corsair, Robert Surcouf, Mauritians assumed a treasure hunt was underway. Surcouf's purpose, he said, was to recover what is in the wreck he located and donate it to form a marine museum in the island. For Mauritians , the name of Surcouf and treasure are inseparable.

Robert Surcouf was real, the most famous corsair of his time; his treasure remains a legend. From 1793 to 1802, a total of 119 prizes were brought into Port Louis by corsairs. The booty was valued at 2,500,000; most of it was traded with neutral ships. However, in 1799, Surcouf captured the East Indiaman Kent, a large vessel of 1200 tons. Legend insist he dumped his rich haul of treasure from the Kent somewhere in the vicinity of Port Louis harbour, rather than hand it over to the French.

If Surcouf and his fellow corsairs (pirates) did leave treasure on the sea bed or buried on shore, no one has admitted to finding any. Nevertheless, wrecks abound and relics have been retrieved from the reef - fringed lagoon.

The site of the wreck of the St Geran, a vessel of the French East India Company which sank near the Ile de Ambre (Amber Isle) in 1744, was known by local fisherman in 1966. By the time marine archaeologists explored it scientifically in 1979, it had been stripped. Perhaps treasure was taken too. Its bell is in the navel museum at Mahebourg. ( The wreck of the vessel forms the climax of Saint Pierre's novel, Paul et Virginie).

In the late 1960s, a treasure hunter spent years trying to find some 10 million pounds of corsair's treasure supposedly buried near Tombeau Bay. Rumours persist and some old Franco-Mauritian families are said to have maps....

Today who knows what treasures lay hidden in that most exotic mysterious treasure Island.

Hardluck  Cool

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,8663.msg55354.html#msg55354



There are 3 attachment(s) in this post which you can not view or download

Please register for viewing them.

800px-Flicenfac.jpg
800px-Ile-de-la-Passe.jpg
Surcouf Erick Marine Archeolgist.jpg


Logged
Offline Idaho Jones
Gold Member
*

Join Date: Apr, 2009
Thank you2

Activity
0%
Male
United States
Posts: 1560
Referrals: 0

7930.00 Gold
View Inventory

Awards
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2009, 09:26:31 am »
Go Up Go Down

Fascinating! I am guessing nothing was ever donated by Surcouf?

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,8663.msg56876.html#msg56876




Logged
Offline hardluckTopic starter
Gold Member
*

Join Date: Aug, 2009
Thank you8

Activity
0%
Posts: 1738
Referrals: 0

8875.00 Gold
View Inventory

Awards
« Reply #3 on: November 03, 2009, 05:10:51 pm »
Go Up Go Down

Hello Idaho Jones

I am not sure what Eric Surcouf  has recovered over the years or what he has donated to museums. I know of him through a mutual friend.

Who recommended me to be wary of him as a potential competitor on one of the projects we are working on. Eric Surcouf has been involved with books and TV documentaries. Mauritius is his old stamping ground but he has ventured to other places where he has crossed paths with other associates of mine.

Hardluck  Wink

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,8663.msg56930.html#msg56930




Logged
Print
Pages: 1    Go Up
Jump to:  

Powered by SMF 1.1.19 | SMF © 2005, Simple Machines | Sitemap
Copyright THunting.com