The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar

by Steven Sora

  The ships that were lost during the Spanish conquest of Mexico and South America number in the hundreds, and not all of them went down off the coast of Florida or in the Caribbean. In fact, the North Atlantic has more than its share of individual wrecks. In Nova Scotia, tiny Sable Island has claim to 250 such shipwrecks. The odds are high that Spanish ships, blown off course, are among those that lie wrecked in the treacherous waters of Nova Scotia. Could one or more have landed on tiny Oak Island and, unable to return home, buried its treasure under such a massive structure? The Spanish did employ miners for operations in South America, and it would not have been uncommon to have a mining engineer on board.

  In The Big Dig, D’Arcy O’Connor proposed that such an event may have happened.19 A battered ship is forced to land for repairs and is unburdened of its weighty cargo. The agent of the king who had the responsibility of safekeeping the king’s treasure orders a vault be constructed. Here the treasure will be stored until a better ship can be sent back. Once the work is done, the wounded ship, repaired as well as possible under the circumstances, sails off again, only to sink at sea. Thus there are no witnesses and no evidence—only a truly secret treasure. The idea of gold and silver looted by the Spanish conquistadors is intriguing. If the Spanish themselves did not build the elaborate Money Pit, there is the possibility that one of the many pirates and privateers who raided the Spanish Main was responsible. One of history’s most well-known privateers was Sir Francis Drake.

  Sir Francis Drake

  In 1990 I spoke with David Tobias, the current owner of most of Oak Island and the force behind much of the excavation since 1970. His theory is that Sir Francis Drake had the pit constructed to hide a portion of his privateering spoils. Drake made his name raiding the Pacific coast of Spain’s territory in the New World, where the Spanish assumed the English would not tread. That he was never hung as a pirate is testimony to his relationship with the Crown. He started his career young, capturing small ships in American waters. In 1572 he was ready for the big time and joined forces with William Le Testu, a French pirate who was later hung for his joint efforts with Drake. Drake not only survived but returned home a wealthy man.

  In 1576 Drake had a private meeting with Queen Elizabeth I, presenting a secret plan within a secret plan, according to James A. Williamson, his biographer.20 His cover story was that he was going to sail into the Pacific to discover lands to claim for his queen. This secret could safely be leaked, since it caused no embarrassment to the queen. The real secret may have been an arrangement to split the rewards of piracy with the Crown. On Drake’s voyage, his ship, the Golden Hind, circumnavigated the globe after taking on twenty-six tons of Spanish gold. Because Spain and England were not at war at the time, his acts could not openly be sponsored by Queen Elizabeth. We know, however, that he returned home as a hero, allowed to lead an openly wealthy lifestyle. He purchased the home of a rival and spent his own funds improving the water supply of his hometown, Plymouth, England.21

  After a few years of enjoying the good life, he returned to sea with the blessing of the queen. England was by then at war. During 1585 he raided ports and looted ships from the Caribbean to the Azores. Ten years later he set out for what became his last raid, he died of dysentery in Panama less than a year after setting sail. Tobias claims that after one of Drake’s raids he employed a boatload of Cornish miners to construct the secret treasure depository on Oak Island. The idea is certainly plausible in that Drake had the ability to mount such an expedition, which would have been too costly for most other individual pirates. He also could employ the technology, which an ordinary pirate could not. I considered the theory and at first rejected it—ironically, because it fit too well. It appeared to be just another “Captain Kidd” theory, which gave this short-lived pirate credit for half of the treasure stories of the Atlantic coast. Looking further, the theory seemed more believable but still appeared to lack a motive. Drake had no reason to hide his wealth; in fact, the act of buying his rival’s home was characteristic of Drake’s flaunting of his wealth. He publicly spent his funds, and even though his acts of piracy were never officially condoned, they were officially rewarded. In 1580 he was even knighted by the queen.

  It was wise to have friends in high places in the sixteenth century. The Inquisition had blazed across Europe starting in 1558, and Queen Elizabeth I of England had no room for its persecution of those who did not adhere to the Catholic doctrine, until she, too, was excommunicated. One reason for her expulsion from the Church was her belief that kings and queens could heal with their touch. She had even consulted her astrologer, John Dee, to fix the date for her coronation. Dee later wrote a book entitled The Perfect Art of Navigation, which convinced Drake of the possibility of circumnavigating the globe. While she lived her intellectual life through magicians and alchemists like Dr. Dee and Dr. Philip Sidney, Elizabeth lived a life of adventure through her privateers Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh, however, fell out of the queen’s favor and was banished from her court.

  Under James I, Raleigh was imprisoned for conspiracy against the Crown and languished in prison until 1616. There he wrote his own history of the world. In it he declared the sea god of the Philistines, Dagon, to be the same god as the Greek Triton. Just why this was important to him is unknown, but the god of Greek mythology has some significance to the Oak Island mystery. Triton was the god who came to the aid of the argonauts in their search for the Golden Fleece. Raleigh also wrote of his belief that the philosophers’ stone, the hypothetical substance that medieval alchemists believed would convert base metals to gold, was the Golden Fleece sought by Jason and his argonauts. Both Raleigh and Drake had pushed Elizabeth to pursue her rights to land in the New World. Since the Elizabethan court included magicians and alchemists like Dr. Dee, was there a prevalent belief that the philosophers’ stone, or the Golden Fleece, was in America? The Elizabethan court was a whirlwind of intrigue, and with the likes of the mysterious Dr. Dee and plotters like Sir Francis Bacon pushing Elizabeth to take her rightful place as Queen of America, we cannot rule out agents of the court as the catalyst for Oak Island’s construction.22 Another intriguing theory, however, is the belief that the original works of Shakespeare lie hidden in the Money Pit.

  Shakespeare’s Manuscripts

  More than one hundred years after the Bard’s death, a British clergyman, James Wilmot, decided in the 1770s that he would write about the man who was one of his two favorite writers.23 He went to Stratford-upon-Avon to collect stories about his subject, only to discover that there were none to be found. He then tried to locate books that once belonged to Shakespeare, since surely a man displaying such a worldly intelligence would have had a large private stock of books. Those, too, were not to be found. What Wilmot did discover was that this respected writer was a butcher’s son who took up acting, a less than respectable career in those times. He also determined that most of the stories about the butcher’s son were made up by people who stood to gain by the cottage industry of Shakespeare idolatry in Stratford-upon-Avon. Finally, Wilmot came to the conclusion that the works of Shakespeare were not his works at all. Shakespeare did not even own any of the original manuscripts at his death, nor did he provide in his will for any to go to friends or relatives. In fact, Wilmot concluded, the plays written by Shakespeare were written by his other favorite author, Sir Francis Bacon.

  Bacon had the worldly intelligence that Shakespeare only seemed to have. He had studied such varied topics as botany, law, government, history, and medicine, while there is no evidence that Shakespeare could even read or write. As a member of the Elizabethan court, Bacon had reason to hide the fact that he was writing for the theater. It was at best less than respectable; at worst it was mocking to the queen, who did not appreciate the works of Shakespeare.

  Later, in 1857, another British writer, William Henry Smith, published Bacon and Shakespeare, which chronicled the lives of both men and came to the same conclusion. Bacon had the knowledge to
write the works; Shakespeare did not.24 In America, Delia Bacon (no relation to Sir Francis), a schoolteacher, author, and lecturer, came to the same conclusion. Her work led others to question Shakespeare’s authorship; the list eventually grew to include John Greenleaf Whittier, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Oliver Wendell Holmes.25 Ten years after Smith’s book appeared, a librarian commissioned by the duke of Northumberland to seek out and preserve original manuscripts discovered manuscripts that had been in Bacon’s possession and a list of other works, not in the folio, that were allegedly written by Shakespeare.26 From then on, other books on the subject of Bacon and Shakespeare were released. There may be as many as four hundred such books covering the debate. Among those writers supporting the Bacon-as-author thesis were such luminaries as Walt Whitman and Benjamin Disraeli. So far, no one has located the manuscripts.

  The debate still rages today. William Shakespeare was the son of an illiterate butcher. His own children are known to have been illiterate, and there is evidence that he himself was at best “unlettered” and that he was paid by a supporter of Bacon for the use of his name.27 The mystery of the original manuscripts of the works attributed to Shakespeare still plagues supporters of the Bacon theory. While the manuscripts of most important English writers have made their way into the museums of Britain, not a single one of Shakespeare’s has surfaced. Bacon alluded to the fact that his real self would not be known until after his death. Why would his real self have to be so concealed? The answer can be found in the climate of the Elizabethan court.

  His very close friend was Henry Wriothesely, the earl of Southampton. The earl is known in history as the early patron of Shakespeare’s works. In fact, he allowed one of the Bard’s works to be performed on the estate of another friend, the earl of Essex. The play was Richard II, in which Shakespeare questioned the divine rights of kings (and queens). Essex and the earl of Southampton were then ordered arrested by the queen and attempted to start a rebellion to avoid their fate. The rebellion and their attempt to avoid death both failed. Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Bacon were forced to choose sides—they sided with the queen.

  Supporters of the Bacon theory believe this event to be the motive behind the concealment of the manuscripts by Bacon. In 1911 a certain Dr. Orville Owen came from Detroit to England to search for Bacon’s secret manuscripts.28 From clues he had found in one Bacon text, he led an expedition to Wales. Underneath the silt in the Wye River in southeast Wales, he found a stone and cement vault with coded inscriptions. The vault itself was empty. Dr. Owen and others believed the works had been there but later were removed to an even more secure location. The same text that took Dr. Owen to Wales contained a formula for preserving texts in mercury. The fact that Bacon had written of concealing works in mercury, and of constructing artificial springs, was brought to the attention of Oak Island treasure seeker Gilbert Hedden, by a student at Michigan State University, Burrell Ruth, in 1939. Hedden acknowledged that flasks of mercury had indeed been found in a dump on the island.29

  Sir Francis Bacon believed in the ideal of a New World. His most well-known work is the utopian fable The New Atlantis. In it, he proposed an ideal society, as many had hoped life in the New World would be. Bacon and his circle of friends in the Elizabethan court ended up owning property in the New World, although Bacon himself never made the trip to Canada to visit his property. The theory that Oak Island could be the repository of the underground works of a very public man has certain merits. The time frame fits, in light of the fact that Nova Scotia was parceled during Bacon’s time. The means were also available, since Drake had miners and engineers at his disposal. There is motive at least on the part of Bacon himself. The idea of constructing the Money Pit complete with the massive expense; the hiring and swearing to secrecy of hundreds of engineers, miners, and laborers; and the transatlantic voyages required, however, seem elaborate at the least.

  The theory that the Shakespearean originals were simply added to an already massive treasure hoard begins to hold water when the collusion of those in the court of Elizabeth is factored in. Bacon certainly had one foot in the visible world as a member of both Elizabeth’s court and later that of her successor, James I. He had another foot in a darker world. In addition to harboring beliefs that challenged the rights of royalty, authoring works under the pseudonym of a living person, betraying friends to save his own neck, and taking bribes of which he was later convicted, he was also reputed to be homosexual (as was the earl of Southampton).30 If all that were not enough baggage in a time when people were regularly executed for religious beliefs, Bacon may have been a member of a secret society known as the Invisible College.

  This group was composed of those who struggled for academic freedom in a world where science was decreed heresy and witchcraft. Numerous scholars, scientists, biologists, doctors, and philosophers communicated with each other, but away from the watchful eye of the Church. In 1660 the Invisible College emerged into the world as the Royal Society, but in Bacon’s time it was still deserving of suspicion. Bacon was at least aware of the group through his contact with several of its members. The Bacon link to Drake, Raleigh, Dr. Dee, and others will be shown to be very significant, but other theories abound. The next in a long line of suspects is the group we call the Acadians.

  The Acadians

  The British constantly harassed these French settlers because they were afraid that the French outnumbered the English. One theory proposes that the Acadians, once prosperous farmers and traders, built the Money Pit in preparation for raids by the English. The Acadians, of course, would have been correct in preparing for attack by the British when they took control of Nova Scotia. As we saw, the French were, in fact, forcibly evacuated from their homes and moved to locations as far away as Louisiana. The problem with the Acadians as suspects in the Money Pit scheme is that there is no evidence to back the theory that they ever amassed enough wealth to justify spending the time and effort to construct the secret complex. Religious persecution in Europe has contributed to another theory as well.

  The English Catholics, the French Crown Jewels, and Exiled Huguenots

  In the seventeenth century, the rising Protestant religion banned the trappings of the Catholic Church. Statues regarded as idolatry as well as gold and silver objects were confiscated from churches all over Britain. After the execution of Charles I in 1649, a hoard of these confiscated items disappeared. Oak Island theories have suggested that these items found their way to the New World and to the bottom of the Money Pit. In the same vein, the crown jewels of the French royalty, which disappeared during the French Revolution, also may have found their way into the Oak Island complex. It is a romantic idea, without any record or substantiation.

  Another, more plausible possibility adds the French Huguenots to the list of candidates. In 1685 fifty thousand Huguenots left France to avoid persecution. Many went to America. From their home port in La Rochelle, France, these settlers found their way to New York and a town they named New Rochelle. In 1928 Dunbar Hinrichs, a historian from Nova Scotia, said that he had been told a story by a man in France, the story of an underground vault built in Haiti and used to store Huguenot wealth.31 The unnamed storyteller also said that a second vault had been built in Nova Scotia. In Haiti evidence of a secret underground repository was supposedly found in 1947. Efforts to uncover it made by those excavating its Nova Scotia counterpart met with failure.

  Everybody’s Favorite: Captain Kidd

  The most commonly accepted candidate for just who it was that hid the treasure in the Money Pit is Captain William Kidd. Before his execution for murder and piracy in 1701, Kidd made a last-ditch effort to save his life. He told the British authorities that he would reveal the location of a treasure worth one hundred thousand pounds sterling. While he said it was buried in the South China Sea, treasure hunters took that to mean it could lie anywhere from the warm seacoasts of the Caribbean to the colder waters of the Canadian Atlantic.

  Kidd’s
career as a pirate was relatively brief.32 As a successful and wealthy merchant skipper based in New York City, he led raids against the French and, starting in 1689, against pirates. In 1691 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts hired him to catch a group of pirates that had fled to Nova Scotia. Receiving a tenth of the booty as his reward, he found it to be a lucrative business. And so, like Sir Francis Drake, he became a privateer. Kidd was in the employ of King William III of England, his mission to suppress piracy. His territory stretched from New England to the Caribbean. Once at sea, Kidd began to indiscriminately attack anything that moved, including one ship flying the English colors. If this were not enough, he was also accused of the on-board murder of a member of his crew. In 1699 while wintering in the Indian Ocean, Kidd discovered that he was being denounced as a pirate and could expect to be arrested.

  As insurance against losing all, he decided to take precautions. He transferred most of the loot captured from the Quedagh Merchant to another ship, the St. Anthony. The St. Anthony stopped first in Lewes, a town in Delaware, where some of the treasure was buried. Its second stop was in Oyster Bay, on the northern coast of Long Island, where Kidd may have buried more treasure. Sailing east from Long Island Sound, the ship then went to Gardiners Island on the extreme eastern end of Long Island and buried still more treasure. Other stops included Block Island and Rhode Island. Only on Gardiners Island would treasure be found and removed by agents of the Crown. Kidd’s last stop before landing in New York City was to deliver a jeweled necklace to the wife of the earl of Bellomont. Not happy with the attempted bribe, Bellomont, the governor of New York, sent Kidd to Boston where he was arrested and sent to England for trial. The earl had financed Kidd and was entitled to seventy-five percent of the booty Kidd had captured. It was Bellomont’s belief not only that he was not getting his fair share but also that Kidd’s exploits would bring the governor under attack. Meanwhile, the Quedagh Merchant, Kidd’s other ship, set sail to the West Indies. There she may have been taken by the man Kidd had entrusted to protect the ship. One man claimed that she was burned in the harbor at Santo Domingo. There was never any evidence that Kidd buried treasure in Nova Scotia, but legends of his booty spread anyway.