Five Scottish shipwrecks whose treasure has yet to be discovered
Five Scottish shipwrecks whose treasure has yet to be discovered
SCOTLAND boasts over 6,000 miles of coastline, and from the Isle of Mull to the Firth of Forth it's absolutely peppered with hundreds of shipwrecks. Could any of these sunken vessels be hiding treasure? Here are five Scottish wrecks which might be worth a deep sea dive.
SCOTLAND boasts over 6,000 miles of coastline, and from the Isle of Mull to the Firth of Forth it's absolutely peppered with hundreds of shipwrecks. Could any of these sunken vessels be hiding treasure? Here are five Scottish wrecks which might be worth a deep sea dive.
Tobermory's sunken Spanish gold
In the murky waters of Tobermory Bay in Mull, £30 million worth of Spanish doubloons is said to lie undisturbed.
The gold and silver hoard, thought to have been intended for the funding of an ill-fated Spanish invasion of England, is thought to have been aboard a galleon – some say the Florencia, others the San Juan de Silica – which sank in 1588 after fleeing north to escape the English fleet.
There have been a number of attempts to search for the Spanish Armada's treasure, the first in 1641, was granted to the Campbell clan by Charles I. In response, the MacLeans of Mull, who owned the waters, built a fort overlooking Tobermory Bay, promising to kill any Campbell who attempted to secure the loot.
General Monck's £12bn Tayside plunder
In 1651 General George Monck and his forces, under the orders of Oliver Cromwell, sacked the city of Dundee and burned it to the ground. Hundreds of the town's inhabitants were massacred, and their possessions looted.
Many of Scotland's wealthiest families had hid their riches in Dundee, believing the city was safe from invasion.
In September 1651, 60 ships from Dundee Harbour were commandeered and filled with around 200,000 stolen gold coins.
However, as the fleet attempted to make their way south, a terrible storm began to brew across the Tay estuary. All 60 ships and their heavy cargo sank to the bottom. Exact casualties are unknown, though General Monck survived.
It is thought that the immense treasure hoard, estimated to be worth up to £12bn could still lie at the bottom of the Firth of Tay.
The Blessing of Burntisland – the king's treasure ship
On 10 July 1633 a timber baggage vessel, loaded with the personal possessions and riches of King Charles I, foundered and sank to the bottom of the Firth of Forth, shortly after leaving Burntisland for Leith.
The sinking of the Blessing also claimed the lives of 35 of the king's domestic servants and personal entourage.
The boat was thought to be carrying a hoard of treasure worth £100,000 - a figure equivalent to approximately 20% of all the money circulating in Scotland at that time.
Shetland's sunken Dutch cargo
In December 1664, the Kennemerland, a merchant vessel belonging to the Dutch East India Company, was wrecked off the Out Skerries archipelago in Shetland en route to Batavia (modern-day Jakarta).
The ship foundered in the deep water and its remains were not discovered until 1971.
Some of the ship's cargo has since been brought to land, and includes gold, silver, mercury, jewels, golf clubs, and tobacco.
'Whisky Galore' in the Outer Hebrides
Perhaps the most famous of all Scottish shipwrecks is that of the SS Politician when it ran aground during stormy weather off the coast of Eriskay on 5 February 1941.
On 3 February 1941 the cargo ship SS Politician departed Liverpool packed to the gunwales with approximately 260,000 bottles of whisky which were bound for Jamaica and New Orleans. The ship was on her way out past the Isle of Man towards the Scottish west coast when she encountered fierce gale force winds, blowing her off course. On the morning of 5 February, the ship careered towards the sandbanks off Rosinish Point on the Isle of Eriskay and sank.
When the inhabitants of Eriskay discovered what had happened, and, specifically, what category the cargo fell under, a mad scramble commenced to seize as many of those 260,000 bottles as was humanly possible. News spread fast throughout the Hebrides, and boats came from far and wide to scoop up more than just an angel's share.
It is estimated that as many as 24,000 bottles of the SS Politician's precious cargo vanished from the wreckage site as islanders simply helped themselves. Eriskay's whisky supply had been exhausted due to wartime rationing, and the locals were keen to address this serious matter.
In the end, the decision was taken by the authorities to dynamite the hull and all the cargo with it. The Eriskay locals watched in disbelief, with one islander, Angus John Campbell, commenting: “Dynamiting whisky! You wouldn't think there'd be men in the world so crazy as that!”
In 2001, a report revealed that, in addition to the whisky which it was to ferry across the Atlantic, the SS Politician also contained 290,000 10-shilling notes bound for Kingston, Jamaica – a haul equivalent to millions of pounds in today's money.
Around 80,000 notes remain unaccounted for, along with approximately 25,000 bottles of whisky.