Blackbeard's Lost Treasure

by Caleb Wygal

  She looked at him as if he were an alien visiting Earth for the first time. “Well, welcome to Edisto. One day here, and you’ll never forget it.”

  Darwin gave a painful smile. “Ain’t that the truth?”

  She turned to Lynn and gave her a skeptical look. “You’re not the same woman he was here with last time.”

  Lucas nearly choked on his tea in mid-sip. “No. No, she’s not,” he said. “That person is, uh, out of the picture.”

  It was Lynn’s turn to be confused. “What person?”

  For an uncomfortable moment, Lucas didn’t want to respond. He hadn’t mentioned his soon-to-be ex-wife to Lynn yet. He felt as though he had a connection to her, but didn’t know if this was the time to bring that up.

  Darwin did it for him. “Oh, Lucas is married.”

  “That’s interesting,” Lynn said in a disappointed manor.

  Lucas, sitting next to Lynn, placed a hand on her wrist and cleared his throat. “What my friend meant to say is that, I’m getting divorced.”

  She held the other hand up to her mouth. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Not as sorry as I am for going through it,” Lucas said dryly. He knew that when the subject of his impending divorce came up, people were curious as to why. It’s not as if he had done anything wrong. “She cheated on me and walked away. Simple as that.”

  She rubbed his hand. “I’m sorry to hear that,” she repeated and then added, “Her loss.”

  Sensing she’d perhaps touched on a sore subject that may have nothing to do with why they were here, Angie changed the subject. “So tell me, what happened to you this morning?”

  Lucas gave her the amended version of what they’d been through the past couple of days, culminating with Riddick riding to Charleston in an ambulance.

  Angie shook her head in disbelief during the telling. After Lucas finished, he took a long sip of his tea and said, “Whoever would’ve thought Blackbeard had set foot near Edisto Island?”

  Angie’s eyes lit as a thought struck her. “You know, it’s not that crazy.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Well, because pirates destroyed the Grimball plantation a long, long time ago.”

  The three adventurer’s eyes went wide at the same time.

  “When was this?” Darwin asked.

  Her brow furrowed in concentration. “Dunno. Early 1700’s I think.”

  The two men looked at each other and shared the same thought: Could it be?

  She explained that Paul Grimball was the first person granted ownership of land on Edisto Island from the Lord’s Proprietors. He settled on the other end of the island on the banks of the North Edisto River. His plantation thrived from the sale of indigo and Sea Island cotton.

  The estate was situated in a strategic spot with easy access to the Atlantic Ocean and the Inter Coastal Waterways to Charleston and Port Royal.

  Sometime in 1717, unknown pirates thought to be Spanish sacked, pillaged, and burned the house to the ground. Only a twelve-foot tall portion of one of tabby corner walls remains.

  “What’s a tabby wall?” Darwin asked.

  “It’s a form of concrete used back then made of water, sand, ash and oyster shells used by early settlers in this area.”

  “Oh, that’s cool.”

  “Yeah, they had to use what was available to them back then.”

  “So what happened to this Grimball guy? I assume he had family too.”

  “I think he died, but some of his kids were able to escape,” Angie said.

  “How did they do that?”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “I’m not sure.”

  Darwin, Lynn, and Lucas shared a look, as though trying to read each other’s thoughts.

  “This is the end of the line,” Lucas said to them. “We traced the map and found its location. The treasure wasn’t there. I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to go home yet. This may be our last chance.”

  “I don’t see where else we would go with this,” Darwin said. Lynn agreed.

  Lucas nodded. “Okay then. I say we follow this lead.” Darwin and Lynn agreed. Lucas turned to Angie. “You wouldn’t know how we can get out there would you?”

  She smiled conspiratorially. “As a matter of fact, I know the person who owns the estate now.”

  • • •

  They savored their fish tacos, paid their bill, thanked Angie, and set off for Point of Pines Road at the northern end of Edisto Island, back along the same two-lane road they traveled on earlier.

  It was this or nothing.

  35

  After calling and speaking to the owner of the Grimball Estate, the man agreed to meet them at the entrance to the Point of Pines Plantation at the end of that road. They traveled up Route 174 and found the road hidden over a bridge, just past a restaurant named The Old Post Office.

  Point of Pines Road meandered through three miles of flat country with alternating fields of cotton plants in front of an ancient oak forest. The limbs of the trees had wisps of Spanish moss hanging from them, fluttering in the soft breeze. The paved road ended and continued as hard-packed sand mixed with gravel. The small Toyota skidded and swerved in some of the looser areas of the sandy road. Lucas thought his Jeep would have fared much better, but he knew that wasn’t going to happen.

  Near the end of the road, they left the dense woods and came to a clearing covered with sea grass interspersed with oaks. A silver gate spanned the road adorned with various strongly worded “No Trespassing” signs. The message was clear: enter at your own risk.

  An older man with a long-sleeved Guy Harvey fishing shirt, cargo shorts, sunglasses, and flip-flops leaned against the bed of a new Chevy pickup beneath the gate, blocking the entrance. His name was Earl Grimball. The seventh great-grandson of Paul Grimball.

  Lynn pulled to a stop behind the truck. They got out and walked up to the man.

  Lucas shook his offered hand and introduced Lynn and Darwin.

  “Nice to meet you all.” He regarded the three of them and said to Lucas, “I assume it was you I spoke to on the phone?”

  “It was.”

  “So you really think there’s treasure on my grandpop’s farm?” Earl Grimball said in a thick Southern drawl.

  Lucas looked to Darwin and Lynn before answering. “We do. We think it may have been Blackbeard himself who destroyed this place.”

  Grimball placed a hand over his mouth and ran it down his chin. “That’d be something. We were always under the impression the culprits were Spanish pirates from the south of here. The old man actually traded goods with them from time to time. We thought it was maybe done in revenge for a deal gone sour or something.”

  “Angie told us your ancestor died during the attack.” Darwin asked.

  Grimball’s features saddened. “He did. Only three of his kids survived. One son and two daughters.”

  “How did they escape?”

  “They found some place to hide,” Grimball said. “Where that was, they never revealed. The pirates were here for three days and killed Paul and his wife and their servants as well as over three thousand heads of livestock. They razed cotton fields and destroyed the house with cannons from their ship.”

  “We’re that close to the river here?” Lucas asked.

  Grimball jerked a thumb in a general direction over his shoulder past the gate. “Yeah, the North Edisto winds past here just beyond those trees. The house was set right on the river bank.”

  A thought began to form in Lucas’s mind. He asked, “Were there any Indians around here when he settled?”

  “There were. Of course, we had the Edistow tribe here on the island. Then there were the Toogoodoo’s on the other side of the Intracoastal Waterway.”

  “What type of Indians were they?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, were they peaceful or warlike?”

  Grimball scratched his chin. “The Edistow’s were mostly peaceful, I believe, but
they would fight about protecting what was theirs if it came to it. The Toogoodoo’s, now they were aggressive. They didn’t like or trust anyone or trade with anybody and crossing them often led to violent results. Why do you ask?”

  “Just trying to get the lay of the land. Get a picture of what your ancestors were dealing with when they settled here,” Lucas said. “So, you’ll allow us to take a look at where the plantation house used to be?”

  “I will, although if you find any treasure, remember who owns this land. I’ll be the one to decide what gets done with it.”

  Lucas did some research the night before on the laws and regulations of South Carolina concerning the finding of treasure, artifacts, and antiquities. If you find something on state owned land, you must seek the proper permits before digging. On the other hand, any treasure found on privately owned land—such as the Grimball Estate—was finders keepers. If you found something and weren’t the rightful owner of the land, you had to take it up with the person who held the deed.

  If they found Blackbeard’s treasure somewhere on this estate, then it was up to Earl Grimball to decide its fate. If he wanted it all to himself, then that was his prerogative. If he desired to split or donate it, then he could do that as well. Lucas wanted to stay on good terms with Grimball after Angie warned them that he could be ornery.

  Darwin knew this as well. He said, “Absolutely. If nothing else, I just hope you’ll allow us to catalogue and report what we find. If we find anything, that is.”

  The older man studied the three for a moment. “Okay then. Just so we have a basic understanding. Follow me.”

  He climbed in his truck and Darwin, Lynn, and Lucas got back into her car. They followed him through the gate down the sandy road through a narrow field with short grass. Lucas imagined a herd of cows grazing here three hundred years ago. At the end of the grassy expanse, the road turned sharply to the right into a thick canopy of oaks.

  A moment later, they emerged into a clearing overlooking the North Edisto River. The water sparkled in the sunlight. The site rested on a small peninsula jutting out into the water offering grand, sweeping views of the salt marshes on the other side. The open area of land was roughly a hundred yards long and fifty feet back from the riverbank. The land was flat. Near them, to their left stood the remaining wall: a whitish corner formed with cement made of oyster shell. The tabby wall. Other than that, the area was barren besides a few clumps of grass and bushes. The sour smell of the river floated on the breeze.

  They climbed from their vehicles and Grimball led them to the edge of the ruins.

  “This is it,” he said. “All that remains.”

  “Wow,” Lynn said. As was her nature, she had been quiet throughout much of the day. Never in a million years would she have figured she would be on a treasure hunt. She didn’t truly believe what Lucas and Darwin were telling her until she saw the devil image scraped into that rock on Pine Island and the gold coin tumbled out of the scoop of sand.

  “How much have you all been out here?” Lucas asked Grimball.

  “Not very often to tell the truth,” he said. “Not much here as you can see.”

  “Anyone ever come and research this place, you know, from a historical standpoint?”

  “Well, to tell you the truth, not this spot.” He pointed over their heads where the road emptied out into the ruins. “There used to be several slave cabins over there that people from the Smithsonian and people in Columbia took a big interest in. They even tore one down piece by piece and reconstructed it in D.C. at the Smithsonian. Although no one ever asked about this piece of land right here,” he said, pointing at their feet.

  “That’s interesting. I would’ve thought they’d want to check out a place destroyed by pirates.” Now that he saw the house’s setting, the premise Lucas imagined for the way the Grimball children hid and escaped the pirate attack seemed a real possibility.

  “Well, they never did,” Earl Grimball said.

  Darwin set about getting his metal detector going. Lynn went and sat in the shade under an oak to watch. Lucas and Earl stood together as he pointed out various locations where he believed various structures used to stand such as an outhouse, a barn, servant’s quarters, a bathhouse, and a dock and boathouse. The dock was on the side of the peninsula facing out to sea. They couldn’t see the Atlantic from here, although Grimball assured them it wasn’t far. The location of this strengthened the theory Lucas had in his mind as he looked to the opposite bank of the finger of land. That side faced inland and was well concealed from passersby on the river.

  After the metal detector started chirping in a staccato rhythm, Darwin began to scan the areas around the home’s foundation and barn. They figured those areas would be the most likely place to hide treasure. He spent a few minutes crisscrossing those regions and came up empty.

  He started to expand his search when Lucas asked, “You know Darwin, I never did ask. How deep can your detector find metals?”

  Darwin stopped. “Depends on a couple things. The type of metal, soil and how much there is. Usually this thing can find a coin a foot or two deep.”

  “OK. What if there were a large concentration of gold and silver?”

  Darwin looked thoughtful for a moment. “Dunno. Certainly down several feet. The bigger the amount the better your odds of finding it if it’s deeper.”

  “What if it’s below rock?”

  “Below rock? Like bedrock? No, you’d need ground-penetrating sonar for that. Why?”

  Earl and Darwin looked at Lucas expectantly. Lynn got up and walked over from the tree to hear Lucas’s answer.

  “I think that if this was Blackbeard’s doing, he would have torn up everything trying to find his treasure.” He looked to Earl. “I think your ancestor somehow found where Blackbeard buried his treasure on Pine Island, dug it up and brought back here and hid it. They were the only family here on Edisto and you say he traded with pirates, Blackbeard may have known who Paul Grimball was. Before Grimball could figure out what to do with treasure, the pirates killed him. Everyone here who knew about it died with him.”

  “What about his kids?” Earl asked. “They made it out somehow.”

  “That is why I asked you about the natives in the area earlier. If there were any aggressive ones around.”

  “Okay. What of it?”

  “Bear with me here,” Lucas answered. “During the early days of colonization, when they built homes, sometimes they had to prepare to escape or hide should they get attacked by Indians. If they lived on a river such as this place, then they would build an escape tunnel that let out into the river.”

  “Wait,” Darwin said. “You mean like Governor Eden had in Bath? Where Blackbeard allegedly smuggled goods into his home?”

  “Exactly,” Lucas said with a point of his finger. “Earl, I bet when Paul Grimball had this house designed, he had tunnels added to protect him and his family.” He let that settle in. “When Blackbeard arrived here, Paul knew he was in trouble and had his kids escape into the tunnels. He and his wife didn’t make it.”

  “Then wouldn’t the kids have known about the treasure?”

  “How old were they?”

  “Young,” Earl answered. “I think the oldest boy was ten at the time.”

  “Just old enough to know how to get a raft on the river and get him and his siblings to safety. Maybe not old enough to know what the treasure was. Or maybe they never saw it. Maybe it was hidden in a closed off spur of the tunnel.”

  “Then how come Blackbeard didn’t find the tunnel if it’s here?”

  “Well, one, we don’t know he didn’t. He could have and the treasure could be somewhere else entirely.” Earl got a disappointed look on his face. Lucas went on, “Listen, this is it for us. We have no real proof that there’s anything here. Just circumstantial evidence. What we do know is that a few months after Blackbeard attacked a treasure ship returning home to Spain and then stashed the treasure somewhere, unknown pirates destroyed this p
lace. Those pirates may remain nameless because the children who escaped may not have known who they were.

  “To answer your question,” Lucas continued, “the entrance and exit to the tunnel may have just been very well hidden.”

  Earl cocked his head to the side. “You know, you could be on to something there.”

  “So, do you want me to keep scanning?” Darwin asked.

  “Yeah, you can. You never know. If it’s here, then it could be near the surface.”

  “OK,” Darwin said and set off to scan another area.

  “How can we find out if there are tunnels underneath us?” Lynn asked.

  Lucas looked out over the full river and turned to Earl. “Do you know when low tide is supposed to be today?”

  “Ah, around five, six o’clock I believe.”

  “You wouldn’t happen to have a boat I could borrow for about an hour around then do you?”

  He smiled. “If it leads to treasure, I absolutely do.”

  36

  A few hours later, after they helped Earl get his boat in the water at nearby Steamboat Landing, they motored back down the North Edisto River towards the Atlantic to the Grimball Estate ruins. The four of them crowded into Earl Grimball’s old fishing boat. The tide was on its way out, exposing the riverbanks around the peninsula. Tall, puffy clouds rolled in from inland as the heat of the afternoon energized the atmosphere. Lucas hoped it wouldn’t storm while they were out here.

  Lucas hoped his theory proved true with the tunnels. If not, it would be time to go home and get back to life. He knew he had divorce proceedings to deal with soon as well as figuring out what would happen with the insurance company and his Jeep. What happened with Riddick could keep him bogged down with a police investigation and court proceedings for the foreseeable future. He had wanted to open a second bookstore, although he knew with all that was going to happen, he might have to push that plan aside for now. There was also the bullet wound on his shoulder to worry about. He had taken some Aleve he had picked up from the grocery store just before Earl arrived with his boat. That medication felt like it was beginning to wear off, leaving a dull ache in his shoulder.