America Unearthed: The Hunt for Captain Kidd's Pirate Treasure (S3, E6) | Full Episode | History

uh um um so the history that we were all taught growing up is  wrong my name is scott walter and i'm a forensic   geologist there's a hidden history in this country  that nobody knows about there are pyramids here   chambers tombs inscriptions they're all over  this country we're going to investigate these   artifacts and sites and we're going to get to the  truth sometimes history isn't what we've been told americans love pirates we're  fascinated with tales of adventure   and swashbuckling and the quest for hidden  treasure as a kid i loved learning about   guys like blackbeard and captain kidd to  me pirates were our original gangsters   i just got an amazing tip on what might  be the best pirate story of all time the story starts here in boston where  captain kidd was imprisoned back in 1699   before he found himself behind bars captain  kidd made his fortune during the golden age   of piracy which lasted from 1690 to 1730.  surprisingly kids started out as a good guy   he was a scottish sailor who earned his  keep as a privateer working for the crown   before turning criminal and becoming the  legendary pirate we all know today once a pirate   he never looked back kid plundered his way around  the upper east coast reportedly amassing millions   of dollars before being punished for his crimes  but his famous treasure was never recovered because his fortune was built on  brutality some say the treasure itself   is badly cursed i'd like to be the judge of that my tipster is meeting me here with the clue that  could not only reveal the whereabouts of captain   kidd's missing fortune but something even more  riveting turns out there's another character to   this tale a person who was once the richest  man in america his name is john jacob astor bill how you doing good to meet you i'm guessing  you wanted to meet here because this was an   important place in captain kid's life but i gotta  believe it looked a lot different in his day   didn't it oh absolutely most of what you see here  doesn't date back much more than a hundred years   on the spot where this building now stands was  the old jail okay this was the principal block   up until 1822 and it was torn down and this  is where captain kidd was brought and put in   solitary confinement when he returned to boston  after his privateering mission so what did he do   to get himself in trouble well captain kidd had  been engaged by a consortium of wealthy backers   some very powerful lords in england they were all  partners in a privateering mission that kid was   supposed to lead and they were all going to share  in the profits so i have to believe that the crew   he had was pretty salty to say the least how  did he keep all these guys under control well i   really didn't keep them all under control when you  comb through the waterfront taverns and dives and   pick up a crew these guys are unruly and hard to  control and they're not getting paid by the hour   they're getting paid by the share so if they  don't capture ships they don't make any money   so they kind of push you to borderline operations  how did he end up in jail here well he knew that   there were rumors going around that he was an out  and out pirate he wanted to come back and clear   his name one of his backers was lord belamont  and he was in massachusetts at the time so kid   felt well if i report in explain myself everything  will be clear instead belmont who didn't want to   be embarrassed by association with this guy  who everybody believed by now was a pirate   truman irons put him in this jail it stood right  here okay so it was probably more a political move   than it was a move to bring justice right what had  happened was that kid had become an embarrassment   for his wealthy and influential backers and they  wanted to shut him up get him out of the way   by the time they put kid away he had already  amassed the treasure we're still searching for   today as a privateer he was making money for  wealthy people like belmont but when he put   on his pirate hat he was making money only for  himself and his men in 1698 desperate for loot   kids spotted a 500 ton armenian ship carrying a  treasure trove of riches that he couldn't resist   the question i have is did he take the secret  of where he hid those riches to his grave i   know that he died shortly after right he was in  solitary here he was put on a british navy ship   brought to london where he was again put in  solitary in the old nougat prison which is   a place you wouldn't want to be for two  days let alone the better part of a year   eventually put on trial not only on  counts of piracy but on account of murder in 1697 kidd was said to have killed his  crewman william moore by hitting him in   the head with a bucket after a disagreement moore  suffered a fractured skull and died the next day   okay so let's talk for a second about captain kids  treasure there's all kinds of legends and stories   about treasure being hidden all up and down the  eastern seaboard of north america what do we   know about that well we know that captain kidd  had some treasure with him when he was arrested   and that it was eventually confiscated uh but he  had been out in the indian ocean for over a year   and they had captured several ships some of  which were carrying quite a bit of treasure so   it's pretty easy to surmise that some of this was  either buried by kid himself or by some of his men   although i should point out that it wasn't the  common practice of pirates to bury treasure   they generally burned it all on on rum and  women in whatever port they could land in and   find the local taverns and bordellos well that  makes some sense but let's just say that there   is treasure out there or there was treasure  out there what about this rumor that uh the   richest man in america at the time john  jacob astor came into some of his wealth   from captain kidd's treasure john jacob astor  was america's first millionaire a successful real   estate tycoon he left a lasting legacy the famed  waldorf astoria in manhattan was named after him   as well as his hometown of waldorf germany but  a rumor has circulated for more than a century   that some of the money that helped him morph into  an american icon was none other than captain kids   in 1801 astor's manhattan bank account supposedly  shot up to half a million dollars from just four   thousand dollars after striking a deal with  a french fur trader who supposedly came upon   kid's pirate chest while trapping i want to know  the truth we know that john jacob astor started   out poor and ended phenomenally wealthy when he  died in 1848 he was worth the unheard of some   of 20 million dollars which has been estimated to  be well over a hundred billion in today's money a   hundred billion hundred billion so he would have  been richer than warren buffett or bill gates   sure now we know he started small he got into  the fur trade when he first came here and he   did very well at it that was the foundation  of his fortune whether or not his net worth   mysteriously and suddenly bumped up early in his  career is what's at issue so we know john jacob   astor made the bulk of his fortune in the fur  trading business and real estate but do you think   captain kids treasure could have been part of that  well scott that's where this clue might come in what is this i was hoping you could tell me what is this i was hoping you could tell me   bill let me see if i have this straight this  sequence of numbers you're saying ties captain   kids treasure with john jacob astor one of the  richest men of all time well the story has it that   this sequence of numbers was on a  paper that kid handed to his wife so captain kidd gave this sequence of numbers  to his wife how does this all tie back to john   jacob astor well supposedly this could be  a clue as to the location of kids treasure   now the question is whether or not astor or  someone working on his behalf found the treasure   so bill what i want to know is how does this all  connect with john jacob astor i mean we know that   he became very wealthy through the fur trading  business are you suggesting that he may also   have gotten a hold of captain kidd's treasure well  there were stories that went around to the effect   that john jacob astor's bank account took a sudden  and dramatic jump fairly early in his career   uh this leads to the question of where did he get  the money supposedly captain kids treasure was   phenomenally lucrative it was said to be 20 bars  of gold and the quote was rick stahler's manifold   rick's dollars what are those well that was the  currency that was used in use in europe at the   time okay we're talking about a lot of money  right manifold meaning a great deal okay so   this note with these numbers was passed on to  his wife correct one zero six eight one eight   so what do you think these numbers mean i'm not  really sure a series of numbers scribbled on scrap   paper could mean just about anything they could be  a combination to kids treasure chest or important   dates in kids life but a part of me also thinks it  could point us in a much more specific direction   well you know when i look at this i see  something that i recognize 44 i bet is a latitude   and if that's a latitude i bet the last  four numbers are probably a longitude   makes sense let me pull out my phone  here i'm going to plug these numbers in dear isle does that mean anything to you well   there is an island by that  name off the coast of maine   since captain kids sailed all over the atlantic  a stop in maine wouldn't be out of the question   in fact some treasure hunters believe  kids stashed away hordes of loot around   maine it's also possible that john jacob  astor expanded his fur business into maine   as he looked for more opportunities well if  captain kidd gave these numbers to his wife   and this is a latitude and longitude maybe  that treasure is still there worth a look bill and i think we have the coordinates  to what could be the exact location   where kid left his treasure but the question  is did a fur trader already find it there   and give it to john jacob astor  as part of some sort of deal the asters might know but tracking one down and  getting them to talk to us about it wasn't easy after doing some digging i found a descendant   willing to meet with us at one of  the astor's original summer homes but can i convince her to reveal what  could be an explosive family secret alexandra hello scott walter hi i'm alexandra aldridge welcome  to rope b well this is a beautiful estate the   grounds are lovely this house i mean how big of  an area is this and when was this house built   well this is a 450 acre estate located in the  hudson valley of new york it was originally   part of a land grant from king james ii to my  ancestor robert livingston the house itself is   a 43-room mansion that was built in 1815 by a man  named john armstrong who was a general in the war   of 1812 and my direct ancestor now alexandra what  is your connection with the astor family well john   jacob astor was my great great great great great  grandfather that's five greats um and his son   william bacchus astor married into the livingston  family and roqueby became his primary residence in   the mid 19th century well as beautiful as it is  out here i bet it's even more interesting inside right music has always played a prominent role  in our family and my great-grandparents played   duets on these two steinway grounds in fact my  great-grandfather richard aldrich was a prominent   music critic for the new york times well john  jacob asked her himself although he was not an   educated man loved music in the performing arts  he liked nothing better than an evening musical   at his home in new york city and in fact he  owned one of the prominent theaters in new   york in the early 1800's that's correct you know  alexandria one of the reasons that we're here is   there's a an old story about the astor  family coming into some of its money   through captain kids treasure  does that ring any bells for you so you know alexandria one of the reasons that  we're here is there's an old story about the   astor family coming into some of its money  through captain kids treasure does that ring   any bells for you well if there is any  treasure i haven't seen a speck of it if i found pirate treasure i  know i'd never have to work again   my kids might not have to work again and  their kids might not have to work again   but as i was about to learn living  life as an aster wasn't what i imagined   tell me what was it like to grow up  in the astor family here at this house   i lived a double life because on the one hand i  grew up in what was essentially a house museum   the house is on the registry for historic places  so that meant that historical societies visited   us very frequently i was often part of the tour  but on the other hand my parents and i lived on   the third floor in the old servants quarters  my father was not only one of the owners but   the de facto maintenance man because the money  had basically run out to maintain the property   so what happened to the money i mean john jacob  astor was the one who basically made the the   family fortune in the fur trade right that's right  so what happened after that well his son william   was a prudent businessman and it is said of him  that he never made a penny and never lost a penny   so he inherited this massive fortune he became  the richest man in america after his father died   so that when my great-grandmother's generation  came along she and her siblings inherited the   third largest portion of the astral fortune  okay and what happened then well she   lived to be almost a hundred she never  knew how to work so she lived on her money   so that ate up a lot of that that wealth that  she inherited that's right so when she died   in 1963 she basically left the property to  the family without the money to maintain it   so you were part of the next generation  right what what did you guys do   when i was growing up it seemed that everyone  was living in the past and nobody really   attended to the needs of the present including the  needs of the children so there was a tremendous   amount of neglect but on the other hand it's such  a source of pride and my family would never give   up this property because that then they would  lose their identity because this is who they are   if john jacob astor did strike it rich thanks to  captain kids treasure it seems all the good luck   has now faded away who knows maybe there's  some truth to this cursed treasure after all   tragedy has found the asters more than once  astor's grandson john jacob astor iii went down   on the titanic when he was worth about 150 million  dollars and another prominent astor relative   injured her head falling down a grand staircase  that left her with dementia until her final days maybe it just proves that rich  people suffer bad luck too well i appreciate you being so candid about your  family's history and you know just looking around   here i can imagine all of the interesting and  important people that have been inside this house   and have followed in the footsteps of your  ancestors i mean it's really incredible   but to your knowledge is there anything that  might connect with captain kids treasure to your   family fortune not that i know of is it possible  that maybe some people might have been jealous   of the astor wealth and created this story  it's a definite possibility well if there's   one thing i've learned in these stories and  myths is that there's always some truth to them   so if there isn't a connection here  that means i have to keep looking while i came up empty at the aster estate i  still believe there's some truth to this legend   maybe the treasure's still out there i need to go  back to my only real evidence the piece of paper   kid gave to his wife my hunch is these numbers  represent coordinates that point to dear isle maine with so many small islands and inlets maine  has thousands of potential hiding places there's   something alluring about the ghostly open waters  rocky shores and gloomy fog rolling out to sea i wouldn't be surprised if captain kidd did  choose this spot to leave his rumored fortune scott we're heading out of stonington harbor  stonington is the busiest lobster port in the   united states when you think of stonington you  think of lobsters well speaking of lobsters we got   awful lucky hitch and ride on this boat it's the  off season can you imagine would have been like if   we were here during high season oh no chance  and you know a lot of people head out on boats   here looking for more than lobsters there's been  treasure hunters up and down this coast for years   so where do you think a pirate like captain  kidd would bury his treasure well of course   the most famous treasure story in this part of the  world is on the other side of the gulf of maine   oak island in nova scotia i know oak island  very well oak island has been the site for   hardcore treasure hunting for over 200 years it's  rumored that kid may have hit some treasure there   but so far nothing's been recovered i've  even looked for treasure there myself but   no luck if captain kids treasure is not on oak  island where would it be in this area well when   you talk about captain kidd you're looking into  so many different treasure stories that he'd   have to have lived to be 100 years old with  buried treasure every place they say he did   specifically along this stretch of coast there  are a couple of pirate stories one has to do   with a character named dixie bull who was  a small-time operator in the early 1600s   and then later on in the 1700s you had a somewhat  more famous character named black saiyan bellamy   captain of the wider the wider was found by the  way off cape cod it uh wrecked there drowning   captain bellamy and his crew just a few months  after he set up shop here as a repair base for his   ship so this whole treasure business it's pretty  dangerous isn't it it was dangerous being a pirate   and sometimes i guess it could be dangerous  looking for whatever they might have left hey wait a minute who's this how you doing hi are you scott walder uh yes sir i hear you might be looking for captain kids  treasure yeah we are i might be able to help you i'm in maine hunting down captain kidd's treasure   it's believed he has precious loot hidden along  the coast but so far nothing has turned up   i found an astor relative willing to speak with  me about treasure but come to find out she never   heard of kids treasure while i haven't seen any  pirate treasure yet i know there's some out there huge stashes have been found before off the coast  of cape cod more than 10 million dollars worth of   artifacts was recovered from the widest ship that  sank back in 1717. some of it included gold coins if kids treasure even comes close to that  it'd be a huge discovery but where is it hey wait a minute who's this how you doing hi are  you scott walder yeah yes sir i hear you might be looking for captain kids  treasure um yeah we are i might be able to   help you why don't you come with me and we'll  find a place to dock and we can talk some more i don't know who this boat captain is but he  must have something important to say if he's   tracking us down on the water fog and all at  least i can tell he's leading us in the right   direction to dear isle maine the location  to where captain kids coordinates lead to so who are you and how did you find us   it's a very small island and i heard you were  doing some treasure hunting i'm walt reed i'm a   charter captain here on deer isle hey well are  we in the right area what do you know about it   well there's been a long-standing myth  that captain kidd buried treasure here on   deer isle it's a myth wait a minute what about  this what's that the supposed secret code that   captain kidd was said to have passed along to  his wife before he was taken away for trial 8 1 8 4410-6818 the latitude and longitude  coordinates of this island and that's absolutely   true those are the latitude and longitude  coordinates for this island and it was part   of the myth so this whole thing is a story well  what about the connection with the aster family   is this part of this story part of the myth as  well yes the myth has it that john jacob astor   had a trapper here on deer isle who found the  cave where captain kidd had buried his treasure   and took the treasure chest to new york where  the astor family opened it found the jewels   and got their seed money for  the rest of their fortune   in the beginning the aster fortune was worth  between 20 to 30 million dollars and it allegedly   dried up over the years according to alexandra  one of astor's descendants whether that money   came from kid and whether his treasure chest  was found here on deer isle we may never know or will we a local skipper tells me it's all  a myth it's amazing how some of these stories   can just grow on their own and become  truth to many people it's a great story   it stays alive for many years many  people have come to look for it and   no one's ever found anything so did captain  kidd leave a treasure buried anywhere there's   no treasure here but there may be a treasure  somewhere else is this captain kidd's treasure chest is this captain kidd's treasure chest could be   so where is this pirate chest well it's  not here it's in st augustine florida this is a case of cryptic clues and even though  i asked walt wouldn't tell me anymore about   how kid's chest ended up down south when  he was a pirate up here in the northeast   here's what i know so far before captain kidd  was put to the gallows he secretly handed his   wife a set of numbers that were supposedly a clue  to the whereabouts of the treasure he left behind   first i thought the numbers could  have been a code to unlock a chest   but the combination lock wasn't invented  until the 1860s so that was a dead end   all i know is i need answers  but all i have are questions while at the airport i did some research to  figure out exactly where in saint augustine to go   i discovered there's another millionaire  who figures into this mystery a man here named pat croshy who was once  the owner of the 76ers basketball team   and who seems to be the guy who has kid's chest i want to see just how much treasure this guy has pat how you doing man scott i'm doing great  welcome to my pirate museum now how can i help you   well i'd love to talk about basketball i know  you like that but actually i'm here i'm looking   for captain kid's treasure heard you might know  something about it come right with me all right so scott you wanted captain kidd here's captain  kidd that's captain kidd's personal treasure   chest okay when i hear captain kids treasure i'm  thinking of heaps of silver and gold coins satins   sugar muslins and other valuable goods spilling  out of a treasure chest but i never thought about   it looking like this that's over 300 years old  so yes you're gonna have to put on your glove   i know already if i'm gonna get access you're  the only one who has unique access we usually   keep this under lock and key security armed guard  these things don't get out in the public i really   appreciate this opportunity i know how valuable  these things are not just to you but to everybody   because these are important historical artifacts  but i have to ask you what tells you that this was   captain kidd's chest first and foremost his name  is on the front if you look at the lock all right   you'll see a william kidd oh leith scotland okay  yes now anyone could put a brace like that on it   but then when you look inside see the coin in the  back it gives it a little more dimension that's a   king charles ii coin which happens to be in the  era of like 1660 to 1685 somewhere around there   which the whole chess is wallpapered  with remnants of the british britannica   now you gotta remember something and i'm sure that  you thought about this the coin has to make sense   in context with the time of captain kidd and his  adventures and the coin does seem to make sense   earlier than him if it was later we got a problem  big problem and the paper has to the match date   wise and now go down into the treasure chest  and you'll see there's a fake false bottom yes   about an inch so there was a piece of wood  that was over here and he had must have been   documents or maybe some coins or currency or  evidence or whatever okay and the wood itself   and the construction i mean i'm not an expert  on period wood boxes like this but it sure looks   authentic to me so i love having you in our museum  because now you get to see some of the artifacts   that validate captain kidd as a pirate well and  they also bring him to life who was this guy   and this this whole discussion about treasure  you know i'm sure a lot of people would say   well to me treasure is this box filled with gold  and silver but quite frankly to me some of the   most incredible treasure i've ever seen were long  lost documents letters that people had never seen   that show up and to me that's gold  well then i have some gold for you the further i get into this mystery the more  i wonder what's the real treasure here if   it's not a cache of gold and silver maybe it's  something else kidd was no ordinary pirate he was   a celebrity of his time and some believe a patsy  since he was set up by the people who hired him   maybe the real treasure is uncovering the  truth about who captain kidd really was because i think this journal will be gold to you  because this is a journal by a lieutenant longish   okay it's dated october 24th 1699 16.99 what  makes the famous is if you open it up there's   several sections in it but let's look yeah right  there where your finger is if you can read that   third line from the bottom we say we received  look at these next two words captain kidd look at that i can just see that popping up and  three more on board is our prisoners and and   what's interesting is it's there's nothing that's  elevated about it it's not like its own page   it's just another entry this guy was doing his job  and to me that reflects authenticity obviously it   did to you without a doubt and throughout  it you'll see they gave him a little more honor they put him separate than the other  prisoners and you'll see that in the journal   but i just think it's fabulous that here  we have a document gold in your world right   that's over 300 years old that demonstrates   captain kidd's last voyage this famous  merchantman privateer pirate now is a prisoner how about this document here  these are all the remnants of   exactly what happened at trial of captain  kidd as you see the murder and piracy right   six indictments he had five indictments  for piracy one for murder he's the only   pirate maybe the only man we know who had  six indictments and was hung three times kidd may have been a ruthless pirate but  to be hanged three times sounds excessive on may 23rd 1701 execution dock  in england he's walked up the   gallows scaffold they put the rope around his neck the trap door drops his neck doesn't break the  rope breaks he falls down everyone's cheering 200   000 people are hoping kid says where he helped  buried his treasure they're cheering because   the pirate's still living they walk him back up  the gallows again put the rope around his neck hang him till dead they let him down untie the rope you take  them into a back of a vessel a barn they tar   tarm to preserve the flesh they put them in  chains they take them to tilbury point in the   thames estuary they hang them again from  a gibbet as a warning to all other pirates   and he swung in the wind watching  his body decomposing for years   sending a message to people this is what we do to  pirates we know captain william kitt is a pirate   we think he's the ultimate pirate no his name is  the ultimate pirate blackbeard was a better pirate   henry avery was a better pirate but he has a  notoriety because of being a political scapegoat so pat this document here basically is a flyer  that was talking about the hanging of captain kidd   exactly scott i'll read the last paragraph take  warning now by me for i must die from my stye take   warning now by me for i must die lest you come  to hell with me for i must die for i must die   lest you come to hell with me for i must die wow  well there's the end written in the words that   everybody could see there were 200  000 people there at his execution   and most pirate executions were a carnival  people come out and celebrate but for him   there was another reason they wanted to know and  hoping that he would reveal at his last moments   of breath where he hid his treasure because  we know for a fact he buried some treasure well pat i have to say throughout this  investigation i've been to some amazing   places where captain kidd was following this trail  to try to find the treasure which i think we agree   some of it may have been found but some of it  is still out there yet to be discovered but   i have to say after looking at all of this and  seeing these artifacts and the fact that you are   sharing these artifacts with the world that's  not lost on you you want this story and these   artifacts to continue into the future from my  perspective captain kids treasure is right here my search for captain kids treasure took  me from the remnants of the first american   millionaire's fortune to america's remote  northeastern isles after meeting up with   bill and alexandra i still have no proof astor's  wealth came from captain kidd but investigating   the link brought me to the only remaining  relic of the notorious pirates real treasure   maybe john jacob astor found captain kidd's  treasure maybe he didn't either way there's   treasure i've seen the end of two giants  fortunes one a crumbling mansion in new york   the other a weather beaten box and a glass case it  reminds me that legacies aren't embodied in things   but are kept alive in the spirit of adventure if you have a mysterious  artifact or site i need to see   i want to know about it go to history.com on earth you

Channel: HISTORY

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Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, america unearthed, history america unearthed, america unearthed show, america unearthed full episodes, america unearthed clips, full episodes, full episodescarvings, America Unearthed season 3 episode 6, America Unearthed s3 e6, America Unearthed s03 e06, America Unearthed 3X6, America Unearthed s3 full episodes, America Unearthed season 3 clips, Episode 6, Season 3, Captain Kidds Pirate Code, Scott Wolter

Id: 7xRF5cn5lHQ

Length: 42min 29sec (2549 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 14 2021