Hello all
Here is another island that claims to have a buried treasure legend.
The Treasure of Trinade Isle.
There is a barren little island off the coast of Brazil that was so unpromising no country claimed it for many years. The Island of Trinade has an unusual history. It was once used as an observatory by the famous astronomer Halley in 1700. A later dubious adventurer claimed kingship on the island and advertised for immigrants to go to his new found Kingdom. The scheme or scam as some claimed it was failed as it attracted little prospective immigrants.
Finally the British looked at the island as a telegraph station towards the end of the 19th century and eventually ownership of the island was claimed by Brazil through the courts. Today there is a small garrison of Brazilian Naval Personnel stationed on the island.
The barren waterless pile of rock is the remains of an undersea volcano. The Island is very mountainous with strange rock peak or almost un-climbable pinnacle formations that stick out all over the island. Not much else could be said of this strange little island in the Atlantic, except it is said that a fortune in treasure is still buried there?
The first inklings of the origins of the treasure story came out in a book by E F Knight called ?Cruise of the Alerte?. In 1889 E F Knight found out that a treasure was allegedly buried on Trinade that was stolen from the churches in Peru during the war of independence around 1820.
Many such rumors came out of South America and indeed there is good cause to believe in the possibility of some of them as there are historical records that support the events that happened. Many colonial Spaniards in terror of Republicans fled with their wealth out of Peru only to be murdered by unscrupulous sea captains or attacked by Pirates or Privateers.
However the origins of this treasure story following a familiar pattern a sole dying sailor gives all the information to person who has shown him some kindness. The person of the dubious reward sets out to recover the treasure. Indeed for over the last forty years since 1841 similar claims had been made about Coco?s islands and many shysters took advantage of naive and gullible investors. Was this story just another version Cocos story?
E F Knights story that does not go into the exact details told of how a dying Scandinavian sailor gave a certain captain the details of buried treasure on Trinade. This captain made several attempts to recover the treasure himself but due to the hostile environment of the island and the half hearted attempts at recovery he never succeeded.
E F Knight who had by coincidence had been to Trinade many years before on yacht called the Falcon. He knew about the island and knew what was needed to conduct a successful treasure search of such a remote and hostile Island. However before he set out on expedition he wanted to find out more about the previous searches.
He went down to South Shields in England and met the Captain Patterson who allegedly had been the Captain given the details of the treasure by the Dying Scandinavian Quartermaster. E F Knight discovered more about the last expedition on a vessel called the Aurea in 1885. It was clear to Knight that this expedition was badly organized with the wrong type of crew to do the job. He believed that there was still a chance that the treasure may still be there.
E F Knight bought a new vessel named Alerte which was much bigger than his old vessel. He recruited a highly selected crew for the job and recruited a select group of partners? investors to take part in the expedition. The Alerte with its treasure hunters arrived at Trinade in 1889.
Landing on the barren Island was very difficult due to the surf and rough seas and the perils of navigating between jagged reefs that is dotted around the island. It resulted many times the long boat was overturned in the surf. The barren island was very hot in the tropical sun and temperature rose very high in the midday sun and they tormented by huge land crabs.
Knight and his treasure hunters were looking in the bay with a rock pinnacle called the sugar loaf. There were three cairns they had to find and dig in between. The trouble was there are many pinnacles on the island and none could be exactly identified as the sugar loaf. In all their effort they were never fully sure they were in the exact spot. Also there had seemed to changes in the terrain that suggested that there had been earth quakes and landsides.
In all their tormented digging in the hot tropical sun, tormented by lack of water and constantly attacked by hoards of land crabs and flies, washed overboard from the longboat and starvation they finally admitted defeat.
E F Night was gracious in his failure as he claimed he had done the best they could in the climatic conditions of the island. He claimed he was never convinced either way if the treasure was still there but believed undoubtedly that the treasure was there at one time.
E F Night went on to be a successful war correspondent and wrote many books. The book Cruise of the Alerte can be found online which goes into more detail.
Critics have recently claimed the whole story was a fabrication to sell books in which Knight it is claimed organized the expedition to promote his latter book at the expense of Investors. Robert Louie Stevenson in 1880 had popularized the theme of treasure buried on remote islands and it was claimed that Knight cashed in on the popularity.
Hysteria of treasure hunting on Cocos Island at that time had been taken over by the shysters making all sorts of absurd claims and burying the real secrets of the island with the legend versions we hear today. Some researchers say the Trinade Island treasure is an extension of the Cocos legends simply transplanting islands.
There may or may not be treasure buried on that lonely barren Island as there is no real proof either way. And I suppose not knowing either way is what I find interesting about treasure legends.
But until I hear or see more compelling evidence of historical evidence of treasure independently verified being buried on the island of Trinade, I think will be leaving the shovel and metal detector at home.
Hardluck
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There are 5 attachment(s) in this post which you can not view or downloadPlease register for viewing them. THE TRINADAE TREASURE THE AVERTISER WED 19TH MARCH 1902.jpg isle of Trinidale.jpg t03.jpg t17.jpg t20.jpg
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« Last Edit: December 12, 2009, 01:09:02 am by hardluck »
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