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
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« Last Edit: October 16, 2009, 09:38:17 pm by hardluck »
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