Josh Gates Hunts For Captain Kidd’s Lost Treasure | Expedition Unknown

Santa Domingo, the oldest European city in the  Americas. Was founded by Columbus, eventually sacked by Francis Drake. This is a place that  is synonymous with explorers and pirates.

The city boasts the oldest tavern in  the New World, the first university, and the first cathedral in the Americas.  Today, it is a quintessentially Caribbean port.

Lots of life, lots of humidity, and plenty of  reminders of the country’s swashbuckling past. So, the plan now is to head about 75 miles  due east, almost to the end of the island, to meet up with an explorer and an archaeologist  who are following new leads that Captain Kid’s treasure may be right here in the Caribbean.  Captain Kid. Yes. Mhm. Before he went up to New York to try to clear his name and ultimately,  you know, died. Sure. He was down here, right? He was in the Caribbean. Yes. Right. So, so how did  he come to be down here? So, he comes down here from from Madagascar, arrives here in this part of  the world, and finds out that he’s been declared a pirate by the English crown, and it’s going to  be very difficult to clear his name. While sailing in the Indian Ocean, Kid seizes a ship known as  the Kada Merchant. He believes it to be French,

which would make it fair game. But it turns out to  be the property of the East India Trading Company, which means it’s technically owned by the British,  who he works for. So, he’s got this boat that he shouldn’t have taken. Yes. But it’s loaded with  loot. Exactly. Yeah. The kids got a big problem.

The Ketta merchant is unique looking for this  region. It looks very different, and he knows that he’s going to get caught if he uses that ship.  Right. This is like driving around in a flashy stolen car with big rims on it. Right. Exactly.  So what does he do? He lets the qua merchant right here in the Dominican Republic and heads for New  York. And what becomes of the Kada merchant? Well, the Kada merchant unfortunately comes to kind  of a sad end. She’s anchored right over here, but she gets looted. She set a drift, set on fire,  and ultimately she thinks just a few kilometers from here. And that wreck has been found. Yes.  Yet it has. The wreck has been found and she’s been securely identified. So we know it is  a K merchant. And so what’s the plan today?

What are we doing today? Plan for today is to  go out and dive on the Ketto merchant. And if you want to learn about Captain Kid, this is a  chance to dive on his actual ship. So how does this shipwreck potentially help us to find his  treasure? We know that before it sank, this vessel was anchored off Mona Island for a couple weeks.  And what’s he doing there for 2 weeks? That’s a good question. It’s a long-held belief that he may  have buried some of his treasure on Mona Island.

Mona Island, halfway between the  Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, was well known in Kid’s era as a hideout for  pirates and privateeers. And it’s where Kid and the Kada Merchant laid low before he abandoned  his ship off the Dominican Republic. After a couple of weeks on Motor Island, a bad storm  came through. Right. So, he cut two of his anchor cables. Those two anchors have never been  found. So, we don’t know where he was anchored.

It’s entirely possible that Kid stashed his  treasure while on Mona Island. And considering the weight and size of the loot, it was likely hidden  near wherever he anchored. A ship the size of the Kada merchant would have had up to six anchors  identical in size and make. This means that when Kid cut two anchors in the storm at Mona Island,  he inadvertently left two fingerprints at the scene. But before we go looking for them, we need  to know what they look like. If we can examine the anchors on the wreck of the Kada merchant, we can  then go to Mona Island and try to find Kid’s lost anchors there. By matching the anchors at both  sites, we’ll learn where Kid was posted up and where he likely hid his loot. Absolutely awesome.  Cannons like these had barrels over 9 ft long, and the Kada merchant had 30 of them mounted and ready  for a fight at the drop of a hat. You did not want

to mess with this ship. Hey Josh, come over here.  This is the main depart of the lake. Copy that.

Look at that. There’s one there and another.  They’re all just piled up on top of each other.

The way the cannons are are laying, I think  they’re in the hold. We found the cannons, so hopefully the anchors will be close by.  We fan out to look and sure enough, Josh, look. We got an anchor. Look at that. You can  clearly see the arms and you can see where the shank goes back here. No doubt about it. That’s  a huge anchor. Absolutely fantastic. A telltale sign of the anchor’s age is the absence  of an iron cross beam. In kids’ time, those beams were made of wood,  which means it rotted away long ago.

The weather above the surface is turning  darker and we may only have scant minutes before conditions turn for us down below. While  Jose remains stationed at camp, Brad and I hike into the wilderness. He believes that the  most probable sight for Kid to have hidden his treasure is the caves. So, we make for one  of the entrances we saw from the water. [Music] The wilderness of Mona Island is an  eerie realm dominated by hermit crabs and patrolled by giant iguanas and home  to a maze. This one eons in the making.

The perfect hiding place for a stash of  stolen millions. Wow, look at that. Well, we’re looking for a a pirate cave. I mean, you  can’t get much more Goonies than that, can you?

You’re thinking the same thing I am. You ready to  go in? Yeah, let’s go check it out. Come on, let’s do it. Sounds great. Wow. Erosion has bored out  over 200 limestone caverns that ring the island.

Fortunately, these caves are 200 ft above sea  level, so any treasure kid might have left will still be high and dry. Oh, Brad, come  here. Look at this. Look at this. Holy Oh, that’s carved. Wow. Look at that. It’s a turtle.  That’s more of it. See there? Oh yeah. Yeah. This cave is just covered in native art. This is  absolutely incredible. Look at those lines in there. You see that? This is really old native  art. This is probably Tyino. Holy smoke. The Tyino were the original native people of  the Caribbean. But they disappeared from Mona well before kids time. Tragic victims of  disease and conquest. Cave art such as this though would be valuable to pirates as markers,  landmarks to note where they’ve hidden treasure.

So Brad, in terms of the size of the treasure,  h how big is it likely to be? You know, what are we looking for? Well, according to  records, he had about 2,200 ounces of silver on the vessel. And you take into account, this is  a real piece of eight. This is one of the first pieces of treasure that I found. Pieces of eight  were silver Spanish coins worth eight real. They were the currency of choice in the 17th century  Caribbean among both traders and pirates. 2,200 of those. There be 2,200 of these, right? Plus  all the gold. Plus all the gold plus the silks plus the jewelry. Plus what else? You know, who  knows? So, either it’s one massive hiding spot or it’s split up. I’m going to go with the  fact that it’s probably split up cuz Captain K was known to be very cautious, right? And he  wouldn’t hide everything in just one spot. So,

this is this is the pirate version of diversifying  your portfolio. Exactly. I like that. I like that. Well, that’s Well, that’s Well, that’s  good for us. Maybe more things to find. Well, let’s find them. Okay. Okay, we got it. [Music]  We break out the metal detectors and see if we can pick up a trail that might lead to  signs of kid’s presence or his treasure.

With all this real estate to cover,  it seems like the only way to find something is by accident. But  then again, accidents happen.

I got a hit here. You do? Yeah, I  got a strong hit here. Maybe turn my detector off. Yeah, let me get the pinpointer.

You get something right there.  That’s a good solid hit. Oh, what are you? What is that? Let me  piece of metal. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. There’s some markings on it. Hold  on. Holy smoke, buddy. Look at that. There is a cross right there. That is a cross. Is  this a piece of eight? Yes. You got a piece of piece of That is a piece of piece of Look  at that. Yeah. Look at that. There’s a castle, a lion. A cast and lion. That’s for the two  provinces of Spain. Castle. Yeah. Yeah. I can see the castle. Look at that. Yeah. Holy.  That’s buried treasure. Congratulations, buddy. Join the club. Join the club, buddy.  That is awesome. This could be, no joke, a part of kids treasure. Yes, you’ve got to bury  treasure, buddy. This is an amazing discovery. A piece of eight lying hundreds of feet inside  a cavern that takes some contortion to even

access. It’s hard to think that this is here by  accident. I can tell you one thing, we are never leaving this cave. Okay, get more batteries. Get  some food provisions up here. We live here now.