Along with wooden legs, bottles of rum and people who say “Arrrrr” for some reason, burying treasure is one of the most well known things associated with pirates. A mysterious treasure map with a large X on it to mark the spot has become the source of many treasure stories over the years, but is there any truth to it and did pirates really bury their treasure?
Arguments Against
The main argument against burying treasure being a common thing is simply the lack of evidence. There have been several cases of buried treasure being found, but the only pirate that is known to have buried treasure is William Kidd.
The stories also don’t check out about buried pirate treasure as the amount that’s said to be out there along with possible locations always seem to turn up nothing. A good example is the Treasure of Lima which is apparently located on Coco island, a small isolated piece of land just under 10 square miles in size. Its said to contain two life-sized statues of the virgin Mary made of solid gold, along with tons of gold coins and other treasure, yet thousands of treasure hunters over the years using modern day equipment haven’t found a single piece of it.
The biggest reason pirates didn’t bury treasure is due to the same reason people think they said “Arrrrrr”. During plays in the 1800’s pirates were displayed as some kind of low-lives who were mostly alcoholics and couldn’t speak properly, as during this time they were seen as pure criminals and displayed as such, with comical twists making fun of them and painting them as some kind of sailing primitives.
In reality a pirate was nothing more than a normal person who took to crime, with many pirates being considered highly intelligent and often outsmarting various experienced Navy Captain’s. The story of X marks the spot was something created during this time of pirate portrayal and doesn’t hold much credit as something they actually did.
Arguments for
Since the most successful pirates were normally well known and highly wanted by the authorities, this limited their ability to use banks or buy property and land. If someone turns up at an English dock during the 18th century with several tons of Spanish golden coins, it raises questions to say the least.
Having all their gold on one ship was also risky, especially if they were going into combat. This left few options as to were to put it other than on their ship or in the ground. Burying their stolen loot until the heat died down would seem like a smart thing to do, and there’s the very real chance they wouldn’t be able to come back for it.
The only other argument for the burying of pirate treasure is the retirement plan. If a pirate is lucky enough to get old they will need something to live one, and if they cant spend it on land or something to gradually sell, then their only option would be to hide it.
This also counts towards the ransom reason, as when a pirate is caught they normally have to retire there and then, one way or another. When a pirates ship is caught by the authorities they would seize everything on board, leaving nothing for the captain to ransom his freedom with. Burying a source of get out of jail gold would seem like a smart choice.
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