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Embark on a thrilling adventure as we explore the fascinating legends surrounding a mythical pirate treasure.
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00:00It all happened in 1708. On June 8th, the Spanish galleon San Jose was going back home to Spain from
00:08the Caribbean.
00:09In total, there were 17 ships. The captain of the San Jose knew they were in for some trouble, as
00:16English ships were lurking in that area.
00:18He knew they would be after the treasure loaded on the ships.
00:22The price of the treasure from the New World was so astronomical that it could turn the course of historic
00:28events in Europe upside down.
00:31In order to be safe, the Spanish galleon was to reach Cartagena de Indias. It's where we have Colombia now.
00:39But sadly, other things were predestined for the San Jose.
00:44The four English ships appeared. The galleon couldn't just escape them. There was no choice but to turn around and
00:52fight.
00:53Then all the chaos started. Red flags showing that the battle started. Firing cannons. The smell of gunpowder.
01:02Nobody knows exactly how it all ended. As dusk fell, it was hard to see clearly what was happening.
01:08The only thing that remained in history was the sinking flagship San Jose.
01:14Then, silence.
01:17No wonder that San Jose, being the flagship, was the most strategically important galleon.
01:23She would carry an insane amount of precious metals, such as gold and silver, pearls and gems such as emeralds.
01:30All of that went to stay on the bottom of the ocean for the next three centuries.
01:36But how come this lost treasure got so legendary?
01:40First off, the financial estimates made by scientists shocked people.
01:45The ship reportedly carried 7 million to 12 million pesos.
01:49Let's translate that to today's money.
01:52Yeah, it may not be the wealth that Elon Musk has, but it's around 10 billion dollars.
01:57With that money, you could treat yourself to a couple of private jets, a whole car park of Lamborghinis, and
02:04a posh mansion.
02:05And you'd still have a lot of money left.
02:09You may think it almost have gotten rusty, just like the bits and pieces found in the Titanic.
02:15But when it comes to gold, things work differently.
02:18The Titanic didn't carry gold.
02:20Or at least not that much of it.
02:22The jewels that were on the Titanic were personal belongings.
02:26And the cool thing about gold is that it never reacts with oxygen.
02:30It means that real gold won't rust or tarnish.
02:34So if your golden necklace got somewhat darker, it's a telltale sign it's not pure gold.
02:40It's an alloy, which is also cool, by the way, as you can easily clean it.
02:45Going back to San Jose's lost treasure, the golden coins there, even over 300 years later,
02:51were supposed to look the same way as the day they were minted.
02:56Now, going back to the place where the ship supposedly sank,
03:00remember I told you the captain wanted to go to the shore where Colombia is today?
03:05Well, on December 4th, 2015, the ship was indeed found in the waters of Colombia.
03:14As with many other important things today, the world learned about it from a tweet.
03:19It was sent by the Colombian then-president Juan Manuel Santos.
03:24People have been looking for the San Jose for decades.
03:27And once it was finally found, it only got more popular.
03:30And even more myths about it began to appear.
03:34One of the legends was told by Señor Santos himself.
03:38After the wreck had been found, there was a short radio interview.
03:42Thing is, the discovery was pretty unexpected.
03:45Many people spent a lot of time and effort looking for that wreck.
03:50And many of them even gave up hope of ever finding it.
03:53Juan Manuel Santos told a story about how the wreck had been discovered.
03:59There was an official event outside Colombia where he was accosted by a man.
04:04He looked like the famous writer Hemingway.
04:07He sported a white beard and had white hair.
04:10The only thing that Hemingway-looking man wanted was two minutes of Santos' time.
04:15The president conceded and listened to the man.
04:18What happened next was unbelievable.
04:21The man pulled out an antique map, more precisely, a carefully framed copy,
04:27and told the president that no one else knew about it.
04:30The man pointed to one exact spot.
04:33He said that it was the exact location of the treasure,
04:36and that that place didn't appear on any other map.
04:40He guaranteed that he knew where the treasure was.
04:43The story sounded crazy and swashbuckling.
04:47Whoever that man was, he turned out to be right.
04:51His identity remains a mystery for everyone.
04:54But somehow, that man found the funding, determined the area to be inspected,
04:59and even made his way to meet the president.
05:03Right, the San Jose was stuffed with gold,
05:06and whoever found it would get filthy rich for the rest of their life.
05:10But let's face it, there's no way an ordinary person could ever discover such a treasure,
05:15as it requires too much effort and too much funding.
05:19But what if you're into treasure hunting,
05:20and you want to go and find some treasure chest somewhere?
05:24Well, I guess I have a story about ordinary people looking,
05:27and even eventually finding real treasure.
05:32Meet Forrest Fenn, an eccentric millionaire who hid a $1 to $5 million treasure.
05:39The exact worth was unidentified.
05:41You see, even Mr. Fenn himself said he never tried to appraise it.
05:45Inside the chest, there were 265 American gold eagles and double eagles.
05:51Ancient coins, gold nuggets, you name it.
05:54Forrest stashed the chest in the Rocky Mountains and announced the treasure hunt back in 2010.
06:02Now let's focus on a map for a little bit and see how vast the Rocky Mountains are.
06:08Basically, the treasure hunters were supposed to sweep the two countries, both the USA and Canada.
06:15At first, it was a small treasure hunt with only a couple of people who knew about it.
06:20But sometime later, there was pretty much a competition,
06:23as tens of thousands of people set off to look for the treasure.
06:27There was research stating that over the decade,
06:30about 350,000 people tried their luck looking for the mystery chest.
06:34To announce the hunt, Forrest Fenn used a poem made up of 24 lines.
06:40The poem had some hints in it that most treasure hunters failed to decode.
06:44It was so well hidden that it took 10 years to finally discover it.
06:50There was also a blog called Thrill of the Chase.
06:54And on June 6th, 2020, Mr. Fenn finally posted the long-awaited news.
07:00The treasure had been found.
07:02Forrest himself admitted that anyone who read the instructions from the poem carefully
07:06could find the treasure.
07:08The poem created a lot of buzz on the internet,
07:10with many users trying to decode the nine hints the poem had.
07:15Some of them even suggested the possible keys to decode the puzzle.
07:20Those speculations might have helped the person who eventually found the treasure.
07:25At first, even Forrest Fenn himself didn't know who cracked all the codes in the poem,
07:30made it through the dense forest, and retrieved the chest.
07:33The lucky finder preferred to stay anonymous.
07:36And all we initially knew was that it was a man from the eastern United States.
07:41The winner sent a photograph to Forrest Fenn,
07:43and thus the treasure hunt was officially over.
07:46Sometime later, though, he revealed himself.
07:49It was Jack Stewart, a former journalist and medical student.
07:55The treasure was hidden under a canopy of stars in a forest in the Rocky Mountains.
08:00The vegetation there is lush, so the chest was hidden deep within.
08:04The chest had never been moved from the place where it was originally hidden.
08:08The exact location is still unknown, but we know that the treasure was hidden in Wyoming.
08:16Jack admitted that not all the advertised treasures were found in the chest.
08:20A small gold frog on a necklace and a Spanish emerald ring were missing.
08:26Forrest indeed found the frog in his collection and gave it to Stueth,
08:30but he failed to find the ring.
08:32The treasure hunt created by Forrest Fenn may seem extravagant,
08:37but he explained why he decided to start it.
08:39The only thing he claimed to have in mind was to give people some hope.
08:47They say this place is swarming with money.
08:50It's been stored there for centuries, but no one managed to take it away from this island.
08:55Treasure hunters have been bewitched with this place since 1795.
09:02Many people have tried their luck looking for the treasure that could be hidden there
09:06by the Spanish pirates or even by the Knights Templar.
09:09But today, it's impossible to get there, as it's a private place.
09:13So all you can do is book an ocean tour around this island.
09:17Otherwise, you can take a peek at it in a TV reality show starring the Legina brothers,
09:23Rick and Marty, who are a team of enthusiasts looking for the treasures of Oak Island
09:27in Nova Scotia, Canada.
09:29Yeah, seems like there's no place where TV producers can't get to.
09:35One of the most famous discoveries out there was the so-called Money Pit.
09:40Despite the promising name, it wasn't full of money.
09:43Now we have to jump to 200 years ago.
09:46The Money Pit was first found by a 16-year-old kid in 1795.
09:51One day, Daniel McGuinness went fishing at Oak Island.
09:55He saw a tree there.
09:56Unsurprisingly, it was an oak, and it had weird markings.
10:00They didn't seem to be natural, so Daniel decided to check the area.
10:04He then saw a sunken patch of ground and started digging immediately.
10:09His two friends helped him out.
10:11But instead of treasures, the guys only found logs placed underground at regular intervals.
10:16It looked like a place where someone could hide money or jewels.
10:20But nothing precious was found.
10:23However, there was something curious down that pit.
10:27Someone found a granite stone there, and it had an engraved inscription on it.
10:32There were many attempts to decode it, but most of them ended up in failure.
10:36There's one translation, though, and it says,
10:43The next fun thing about the Money Pit is the coconut fiber found down there.
10:53They say that large amounts of this fiber were found at a depth of 60 feet.
10:58It may not surprise you, but I have to remind you of one thing.
11:02Oak Island is in Nova Scotia, Canada.
11:05Coconut trees do not grow there.
11:07The nearest one is about 1,500 miles from Nova Scotia,
11:11which makes it obvious that someone brought this fiber purposefully.
11:15Researchers came up with an idea that coconut fiber could have been used to make ropes
11:20and lower all the treasures down the pit.
11:24Next up, we have not one, but two mysteries.
11:28In the late 1800s, the Oak Island Treasure Company was thoroughly inspecting and excavating the island.
11:35Everyone believed something enormous was hidden there.
11:38These guys managed to drill 153 feet underground.
11:42That's like 15 stop signs stacked one on top of the other.
11:46You might have guessed that they didn't find pounds of gold and diamonds,
11:50but they found a manuscript.
11:52There's a theory claiming that it's one of Shakespeare's lost manuscripts.
11:56Some scientists believe that it was hidden there by the writer and scientist Francis Bacon,
12:01the true author of Shakespeare's works.
12:04Yeah, rumor has it it was Francis and not William who wrote all the plays and sonnets.
12:09But there's no proof it was really so.
12:12The money pit may be the most popular shaft on Oak Island,
12:16but it's not the only one and it's not the first.
12:19Before the money pit discovery, treasure hunters were drilling at Smith's Cove.
12:24While damning there, they found a wooden piece.
12:27It was a U-shaped formation that had Roman numerals.
12:30After a more thorough inspection,
12:32the specialists realized it was supposedly dated to 1769.
12:37The money pit was discovered 26 years later.
12:40This fact created many speculations that this structure might have been part of the real shaft
12:45with treasures everyone was looking for.
12:48Now, look at this Templar coin.
12:51It wasn't the first discovery on the island, but it was crucial in some way.
12:56Even if it may not sound like a big deal today,
12:59in medieval times, those coins would amass an insane amount of wealth.
13:03They were typically stored in European fortresses.
13:06For the treasure hunters, this coin was a sure sign there was more to be found on the island.
13:12The logic is simple.
13:13If there's one coin of that kind, there must be something else.
13:17And they were right.
13:19It wasn't the only Templar discovery.
13:21On the southwest shore of the island, a crossbow bolt was found.
13:25Experts say it dates back to the 13th century.
13:28But, once again, that wasn't something the treasure hunters were after.
13:33Some more coins were found on the island.
13:36Rick and Marty Lagina retrieved this precious piece from a swamp.
13:39The coin is made of copper, and this time, it originated from Spain.
13:44When it was found, the Lagina brothers could only see the number 8 engraved on it.
13:49But later on, some experts studied this coin and claimed it was made sometime around the 17th century.
13:55They managed to clean it well and saw the date 1652 engraved on the back of this coin.
14:02There's a theory stating that Spanish explorers found some treasure,
14:06but hid it instead of taking it to the king.
14:08So maybe this coin just dropped out of the chest full of coins and jewels
14:13and is part of the treasure everyone was after.
14:16Or someone could have accidentally lost it while looking for the treasure.
14:20Who knows?
14:23One more famous treasure hunter is Gary Drayton.
14:26Gary and his team, together with Rick Lagina,
14:29came across two coins while metal-detecting the island.
14:32Those were 17th century King Charles II Britannia coins.
14:37One of them had a very clear inscription on it,
14:40stating that the coin was minted back in 1771.
14:45Another swamp treasure of possibly Spanish origin is also here.
14:49This time, it's a silver ring.
14:52A specialist studied it closely and reported that it had been repaired twice.
14:57The ring was once made bigger, and it was also made smaller once.
15:02It's decorated with a floral design, which was popular in Europe in the 1730s.
15:08Among all the other curious things,
15:10Rick and Marty Lagina found a silver button at Isaac Point.
15:14The button's pretty old.
15:16It supposedly dates back to the middle of the 18th century,
15:19and the notorious money pit was discovered later.
15:23This is why it wasn't a big deal of a find.
15:26It could simply belong to some farmer,
15:28peacefully raising livestock on the island.
15:30There's no official record of any chest full of gems and coins found on Oak Island,
15:36but enthusiasts did find some jewels there.
15:39First off, the team found a brooch with a magnificent red gem.
15:44They mistakenly thought it was a ruby,
15:46but a professional gemologist stated it was a garnet.
15:50The piece was made of silver, and it's pretty old.
15:53Experts believe it was made around the 15 or 1600s.
15:57Another brooch they found didn't have any gems on it,
16:00but it had an intricate design.
16:02It's a brooch with a leaf design and an ornate rope.
16:06There are 13 branches of the leaf,
16:08which instantly created more mystery to the whole treasure hunting.
16:13First off, there's a carving with a 13-branched tree on a rock
16:17on the north shore of this island.
16:19What's more, many people believe that the number 13
16:22is important to the Knights Templar.
16:25The enthusiasts also found a brooch not far away from the place where Daniel McGinnis,
16:31the guy who found the money pit, lived.
16:33The brooch was shown to a professional gemologist, Charles Luton Brain.
16:38He had to break it to the team that there were no gems adorning this piece of jewelry.
16:42In fact, the stone that seemed to be a gem was just a piece of glass.
16:47It was processed using a special technique, though, so it was leaded glass.
16:52The enthusiasts decided to study the brooch even more
16:55and found out that part of the brooch was made of gold.
16:59The specialists claim that the brooch dates back to the 14th century.
17:03Was it the treasure everyone was looking for?
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