(ORDO NEWS) — The journeys of these treasure hunters are more like the scenarios of box office action adventures, but not real life.
However, treasure hunters did participate in adventures. What ended their attempts to get rich – read the material.
Spanish gold wrecks
The famous American treasure hunter Brent Brisbane, owner of Queens Jewels LLC, received the rights to search for ships that sank in 1715 on the way from Havana to Spain about ten years ago.
According to historical sources, 12 galleons loaded with gold set sail from the shores of the New World.
But during the journey, a hurricane overtook the column: only one ship managed to cope with the violence of the elements, the rest were sunk. Today, the value of Spanish treasures is estimated at 400 million dollars.
Over the years, Brisbane and his team have been lucky enough to unearth several caches.
So, not far from the coast of Florida, treasure hunters raised from the bottom of the lantaka – a bronze swivel cannon that was installed on merchant and military ships.
The find turned the gold diggers’ heads: this is the first weapon of this type found by modern researchers. But the surprises didn’t end there.
Later it turned out that about a hundred rare gold coins were stuck in the muzzle of the cannon.
In July 2015, Queens Jewels subcontractors were scouring the Gold Coast north of Miami. The expedition was led by a certain Eric Schmitt, for whose family treasure hunting has long become something of a hobby.
Surprisingly, the experienced captain once again managed to restore a fragment of history. Among the jewels that ended up in Schmitt’s hands are a gold chain and money artifacts.
For example, a royal coin made at the court of the Spanish ruler Philip V. After this incident, the Brisbane company received another 350 gold doubloons.
Gold of the King of the Inca Empire
The story of the next treasure hunt ended not in success, but in tragedy.
In the XVI century, when the Spanish conquistadors captured the lands of the Incas, the commander Francisco Pizarro captured the last king of the Empire – Atahualpa.
In exchange for freedom, the ruler promised the enemies to fill an entire room with gold and silver.
There were legends about the riches that the Inca people collected to save Atahualpa. Witnesses said that cups, bowls with emeralds, tiles of temples were melted down into ingots and sent to the Spaniards’ camp.
When they got into the treasury, they were stacked on top of each other in columns exceeding human height in height.
The Spanish conqueror accepted the condition, but soon abandoned his promises and ordered Atahualpa to be strangled and then burned.
When the Incas, who were transporting precious metals, realized that their journey no longer made sense, they decided to leave part of the treasure in one of the mountain caves.
There is a version that the map indicating the location of the “treasure” was allegedly found by the English botanist Richard Spruce in the middle of the 19th century.
Later, in 1886, treasure hunter Bart Blake used the scheme to find his way to the gold. In letters to acquaintances, he wrote: “There are thousands of handmade gold and silver items here.”
Supposedly, Blake took as many artifacts as he could carry, but mysteriously disappeared on his way back to New York.
Some climbing explorers who tried to make their way through the jungle to the treasure met the same fate – they did not return alive.
Modern archaeologists do not deny that the map once found by Spruce does indeed direct explorers to a cluster of mines in the Lyanhanatis Mountains, but they are not sure that there is a “cave of wonders” among them.
Greetings from the Vikings, or the mysterious chest of the British Isles
In 1840, while repairing the embankment of the Ribble River, not far from the English city of Preston, workers accidentally discovered the largest treasure in the history of Great Britain: a weighty chest with silver coins, jewelry and ingots was pulled out of the ground.
The treasure weighed approximately 40 kg and consisted of more than 8,600 items, which experts later estimated at $ 2.6 million.
After studying the find, scientists came to the conclusion that the silver could belong to the Vikings, who fled from Dublin in the 10th century.
The builders immediately handed over the old box to the local police, leaving nothing to themselves.
However, everything ended on a positive note: the exhibit was moved to the British Museum, where it can be seen today.
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