You’ll find Captain Kidd‘s only documented treasure burial occurred at Gardiner’s Island in June 1699, where he cached gold dust, silver bars, and jewelry in a ravine after capturing the Quedagh Merchant. Colonial authorities confiscated this plunder as trial evidence, but the verified burial sparked three centuries of searches across Long Island Sound—from Fishers Island to the Thimble Islands—where treasure hunters still sweep beaches with metal detectors, chasing fragments of Kidd’s legendary £75,000 haul and unverified caches that maritime lore suggests remain hidden beneath colonial shores.
Key Takeaways
- Captain Kidd buried treasure at Gardiner’s Island in June 1699, the only documented pirate treasure burial with an inventory.
- Documented contents included gold dust, silver bars, and jewelry, later confiscated and used as trial evidence against Kidd.
- Modern treasure hunters search Gardiner’s Island, Fishers Island, Thimble Islands, and Cockenoe Island with metal detectors for remaining caches.
- The Gardiner diamond and gold blanket fragment serve as verified proof that Kidd’s Long Island treasure cache was real.
- Unverified claims persist of additional treasures worth 50,000-60,000 pounds sterling buried in Long Island Sound and Caribbean ports.
From Privateer to Pirate: Captain Kidd’s Fateful Voyage
While serving in Caribbean waters during 1689, William Kidd joined a French-English pirate crew before orchestrating a mutiny that placed him in command of his first vessel.
You’ll find his early privateering challenges proved remarkably profitable—he captured French ships, seized a twenty-gun brig rechristened Blessed William, and raided Marie-Galante for £2,000 sterling.
Yet his pirate transformation began when King William III commissioned him in 1695 to hunt pirates in the Indian Ocean.
The king’s commission to hunt pirates ironically set Kidd on his path toward becoming one himself in 1695.
Departing aboard the 287-ton Adventure Galley in September 1696, Kidd’s voyage deteriorated rapidly. His frustrated crew pressured him toward piracy after scarce prizes and mounting illnesses.
When he refused attacking Dutch vessels, mutiny threatened. He’d mortally wounded gunner William Moore during one heated exchange—crossing the line from hunter to hunted.
The Adventure Galley was equipped with 34 guns and two banks of oars, providing exceptional maneuverability in calm waters when pursuing or evading other vessels.
The expedition operated under a £20,000 bond that Kidd had signed to guarantee its success.
The Quedagh Merchant and Moorish Ship Captures
The turning point arrived on 30 January 1698, when Kidd’s Adventure Galley spotted the Quedagh Merchant sailing 25 leagues from Cochin in the Indian Ocean.
After a four-hour chase, you’d find Kidd hoisting French colors and commanding the English captain aboard. The Armenian vessel carried French passes—technically legitimizing seizure under Kidd’s commission against French enemies.
Her hold contained silk, muslin, gold, silver, and jewels valued at £75,000, representing consignments for Armenian khoja merchants.
This wasn’t Kidd’s first prize; the Rouparelle Capture in November 1697 had yielded another Moorish ship bearing authentic French passports.
Yet both seizures sparked international scandal, damaging British trading relationships across African and Indian coasts.
The East India Company’s interests complicated matters—transforming legal privateering into political catastrophe. The ship’s inventory revealed cargo belonging to Muklis Khan, a nobleman with close ties to the Grand Moghul, further escalating diplomatic tensions. The British crown’s response was swift, declaring Kidd an outlaw pirate and severing any official connection to his privateering commission.
Gardiner’s Island: The Documented Burial Site
Fleeing the consequences of his Indian Ocean seizures, Kidd sailed north along the American coast in June 1699, carrying the most valuable remnants of his Quedagh Merchant haul.
He anchored off Gardiner’s Island, securing Jonathan Gardiner’s permission to cache his ill-gotten wealth in a ravine between Bostwick’s Point and the Manor House.
The documented contents included:
- Gold dust, silver bars, rubies, diamonds, and Spanish currency
- Elaborate candlesticks, porringers, and uncut sapphires
- Jewelry and crystals meticulously detailed in court depositions
When Governor Bellomont ordered the treasure excavation, court officials created an unprecedented inventory—the only verified instance of pirate treasure burial.
The recovery site’s burial marker still stands, marking where liberty met accountability.
Boston prosecutors presented every recovered item as trial evidence, sending the confiscated fortune to London for Kidd’s maritime law proceedings.
Kidd had begun his career as a privateer, attacking enemy ships on behalf of the military before political shifts ultimately branded him a pirate.
As gratitude for Gardiner’s discretion, Kidd presented Mrs. Gardiner with a sack of sugar and gold-threaded cloth before departing the island.
Gold Cloth and Artifacts: Tangible Evidence of Kidd’s Treasure
Among the scattered remnants of Kidd’s plunder, a single artifact bridges documentation and legend—the gold cloth he presented to Mrs. Gardiner for granting burial permission on their island.
This “length of gold threaded cloth,” alternatively called a “Gold Blanket” fragment crafted from Arabian gold and damaged muslins, was captured from a Moorish vessel off Africa’s coast. You’ll find a snippet displayed in East Hampton Village Library’s Long Island Collection, accompanied by handwritten provenance notes tracing its lineage through generations of Gardiners.
The 1695 cache contained far more than this textile: gold dust, silver bars, rubies, diamonds, Spanish currency, porringers, and ornate candlesticks. Remarkably, a sack of sugar was also among the buried items, reflecting the commodity’s considerable value during Kidd’s era.
While authorities confiscated most treasure artifacts for Kidd’s trial evidence, certain pieces—including one diamond and this golden textile—never returned to their rightful owners. The treasure discovery on Gardiners Island was reportedly a small cache that became directly linked to Captain Kidd’s legend.
Multiple Cache Locations Across Long Island
Beyond Gardiner’s Island’s documented cache, Captain Kidd’s twenty-day voyage through Long Island Sound in 1699 generated speculation about multiple burial sites stretching from Block Island to the North Fork.
Kidd’s three-week journey spawned treasure tales across dozens of Long Island coves, inlets, and barrier islands still unexplored today.
You’ll find pirate legends embedded in local geography:
- Cherry Harbor’s swampy terrain – Gardiner family lore identifies this location as a potential hiding spot for unaccounted plunder.
- Fishers Island encampment – Records from 1682 document pirate activity near Plum Island, where Kidd’s crew captured Isaac Arnold’s ketch.
- Block Island Sound waters – Modern treasure hunters actively search these channels where Mrs. Raymond’s Virginia ketch vanished.
The Quedagh Merchant’s massive haul suggests hidden treasures beyond the recovered Gardiner’s Island chest.
Jonathan Gardiner’s secretly retained diamond proves not everything surfaced.
Kidd’s crew operated under a no prey, no pay system, creating desperate incentives to conceal valuable plunder before his inevitable arrest.
Kidd’s transformation from privateer to pirate in the late 17th century made him one of maritime history’s most controversial figures.
These uncharted waters still beckon freedom-seekers with metal detectors, chasing three centuries of nautical mystery.
Betrayal in Boston: Arrest and Trial of Captain Kidd
While Kidd sailed toward Boston in July 1699 seeking refuge, the political winds had already shifted against him. Richard Coote, Earl of Bellomont—the very man who’d commissioned him as privateer in 1695—now feared the legal implications of association with a declared pirate.
Betrayal motives ran deep: Bellomont protected his governorship while the East India Company pressed the Crown for Kidd’s head.
You’ll find Bellomont’s promises of clemency were calculated deceptions. After Kidd cached his plunder on Gardiners Island and arrived July 3rd, arrest came swiftly on July 6th.
He’d trusted his wealthy patrons; instead, he found Stone Prison’s solitary confinement. Six months later, authorities shipped him to London’s Old Bailey, where conviction led to the gallows at Wapping on May 23, 1701.
The Legacy of Treasure Hunting in Long Island Sound
Kidd’s execution transformed him from condemned pirate into treasure legend.
Death’s scaffold converted Captain Kidd from mere criminal into an enduring maritime myth that still haunts coastal waters today.
You’ll find his documented 1699 Gardiners Island burial—gold dust, silver bars, uncut gems—sparked two centuries of treasure myths across Long Island Sound’s waters he navigated for twenty days.
Treasure hunters scoured his known anchorages:
- Gardiners Island – Cherry Tree Field where colonial authorities recovered his surrendered chest
- Fishers Island – Site of 1682 pirate encampments in Connecticut waters
- Thimble Islands and Cockenoe Island – Connecticut coastal hideaways within his 120-nautical-mile route
Pirate folklore merged with supernatural tales throughout Hudson River Valley.
By the 1820s, newspapers claimed subterranean hideouts existed in Kiddenhooghten.
You’re following a maritime legacy where one retained Gardiner diamond proves sometimes truth anchors deeper than myth in these storied nautical grounds.
Modern Searches and Enduring Mysteries
You’ll find modern treasure hunters still sweeping Cliffwood Beach with metal detectors, recovering fragments of gold and silver whose provenance remains unverified.
Kidd’s legend has spawned expeditions from the Gulf of Thailand to Japan’s Yokoate Island, though no documented evidence places the *Adventure Prize* in Asian waters.
Despite the 1699 Gardiner’s Island recovery, unconfirmed burial sites persist throughout Long Island Sound, fueled by prison-cell claims of 50,000 pounds sterling cached at Caribbean ports—coordinates Kidd carried to the gallows.
Metal Detector Expeditions Continue
Despite the recovery of Kidd’s Gardiners Island cache in 1699—a haul containing over 200 silver bars, 67 rubies, an enamelled silver box inlaid with diamonds, and various other valuables inventoried by Governor Bellomont on July 25, 1699—treasure hunters haven’t abandoned their search for the pirate’s remaining wealth.
Modern expeditions focus on Cliffwood Beach, where enthusiasts employ systematic treasure hunting methods:
- Metal detectors sweep shorelines between historic marker trees at Matawan Creek
- Shovels and organized digging apparatus target coordinates derived from old nautical charts
- Occasional discoveries of small gold and silver fragments fuel continued efforts
Generations of locals patrol Gardiner’s Bay beaches with visible sightings of the island.
You’ll find these searchers pursuing Kidd’s claimed Caribbean caches worth 50,000 to 60,000 Pounds—historical artifacts the captain swore “nobody could find but himself.”
Literary and Cultural Impact
When the recovered Gardiner’s Island cache reached Governor Bellomont’s hands in July 1699, it sparked a treasure-hunting fervor that transformed Captain Kidd from executed privateer into America’s archetypal buried-treasure pirate.
You’ll find his legend permeating cultural folklore through Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” (1824), Cooper’s *The Water Witch* (1830), and Poe’s “The Gold-Bug” (1843)—literary adaptations that cemented the swashbuckling archetype.
Post-trial ballads like *Captain Kid’s Farewel to the Seas* spread lurid details across colonial America.
By the 1810s, treasure-seekers wielding divining texts like *Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer* dug three-fathom pits throughout New England’s coastline.
The Gardiner family’s preserved gold blanket fragment—displayed in East Hampton Library—became tangible proof of Kidd’s 1699 visit, fueling centuries of excavations and maritime superstitions.
Unconfirmed Burial Sites Remain
While Gardiner’s Island yielded documented evidence in 1699, treasure hunters have scoured the Atlantic seaboard for three centuries chasing Kidd’s alleged secondary caches.
You’ll find legendary sites spanning from Nova Scotia’s Oak Island—where excavators discovered cryptic inscriptions and the infamous “Money Pit”—to Long Island Sound’s waters where Kidd navigated for twenty days.
Modern seekers with metal detectors continue searching:
- Block Island and surrounding Sound waters where Kidd cached wealth en route to Boston
- Liberty Island soil beneath Manhattan, fueled by ghost sightings and Kidd’s documented property ownership
- Connecticut coastline including Charles Island, Thimble Islands, and Cockenoe Island
These unconfirmed treasures persist through trial testimony mentioning additional burials and Kidd’s wife’s possible concealment efforts.
Despite centuries of excavation, freedom-seekers still pursue Kidd’s elusive plunder across eastern harbors.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Happened to the Crew Members Who Survived the Tropical Disease?
The crew survival stories reveal you’d face desertion and mutiny after disease impact decimated your shipmates. Most abandoned Kidd for pirate Culliford, leaving only thirteen loyal hands aboard the worm-eaten Adventure Galley before she burned.
How Did the Gardiner Family Acquire Legal Ownership of Their Island?
Lion Gardiner secured island ownership through a 1639 royal patent from King Charles I, establishing proprietary colony rights. You’ll find the Gardiners maintained this maritime domain through successive colonial confirmations, preserving their autonomous holdings against annexation attempts throughout history.
What Specific Evidence Was Presented Against Kidd During His London Trial?
Six separate indictments bound Kidd’s fate. Evidence presented included crew testimony about Moore’s murder and piracy accusations, while Kidd’s defense citing French passes was suppressed—documents proving privateering legitimacy vanished from Admiralty proceedings, denying you vital exculpatory proof.
Are There Any Authenticated Kidd Treasure Finds Beyond Gardiner’s Island?
No authenticated finds of Kidd’s treasure exist beyond Gardiner’s Island. You’ll find only speculation surrounds other Long Island locations. Lost artifacts remain undiscovered despite persistent searches—the documented 1699 recovery represents the sole verified cache with court-authenticated inventory records.
What Became of the Quedagh Merchant Ship After Kidd’s Capture?
Like many prize vessels meeting inglorious ends, you’ll find the Quedagh Merchant’s treasure fate sealed when Kidd scuttled her off Hispaniola in 1699. Her remains—cannons, anchors, iron ballast—lay undiscovered until 2007 near Catalina Island.
References
- https://hamptons.com/captain-william-kidds-east-hampton-buried-treasure/
- https://www.bu.edu/sequitur/2024/01/11/a-piece-of-the-gold-blanket-gardiners-island-captain-william-kidd-and-the-gifting-of-family-history/
- https://crimecapsule.com/buried-treasure-on-long-island/
- https://www.hrmm.org/history-blog/captain-kidd-the-war-hero-on-the-hudson-and-new-yorks-most-famous-17th-century-historical-figure-by-samuel-marquis
- https://www.discoveryuk.com/mysteries/the-hunt-for-captain-kidds-treasure-fact-or-fiction/
- https://www.nps.gov/frla/learn/historyculture/capt-kidds-treasure.htm
- https://www.pirateshipexperience.com/the-life-and-times-of-captain-kidd/
- https://waynesavage.com/william-kidd/
- https://www.legendsofamerica.com/captain-kidd/
- https://www.timelinefy.com/events/54980
