Greatest Treasure in History Found: $10 billion

Poststructural Pub
1

BBC News
Wednesday, 28 September 2005, 18:25 GMT 19:25 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4291334.stm

Gold fever grips Chilean island

The treasure is said to have been found with a metal detecting robot
An epidemic of modern day gold fever has hit a Chilean island after the claimed discovery of an 18th Century treasure trove worth $10 billion.
The gold rush began on Monday after salvage firm Wagner announced the discovery on Robinson Crusoe island, using a specially designed robot.

“Its the greatest treasure in history” said Wagner lawyer Fernando Echeverria.

According to legend a Spanish navigator hid the 800-tonne pirates’ booty on the island in 1715.

Disputed ownership

Although the find is yet to be confirmed and excavated, an argument is already raging in Chile about the ownership of the treasure.

Wagner salvage insist they will not reveal the exact location of the treasure until they are guaranteed half of the find.

The exact location is not yet known and for the moment it’s better that we don’t know, otherwise everyone would be digging holes with picks and shovels

Mark Gonzalez, Mayor of Robinson Crusoe Island
Education Minister Sergio Bitar has stated publicly that the government should get the treasure.

The Mayor of Robinson Crusoe, Mark Gonzalez, has recommended that the island’s 600 inhabitants should receive half of the value of the booty.

Gold fever already grips the island, 372 miles (600km) west of the Chilean coast, where residents talk of little else.

“The exact location is not yet known and for the moment it’s better that we don’t know, otherwise everyone would be digging holes with picks and shovels,” said Mr Gonzalez.

Legend

Treasure hunters have been seeking the golden hoard for many years with a 1998 expedition the last to fail.

But Wagner’s discovery claims have been given credibility by the reputation of their sophisticated ground scanning robot which has already solved crime mysteries in Chile.

The treasure is reputed to include gold bars and coins
The TX spider robot is known as Arturito and is named after the R2D2 robot from the Star Wars films.

It has been credited with finding the buried weapons arsenal of a right-wing sect and the bones of a missing businessman.

Legend has it that Spanish Navigator Juan Echeverria hid the fortune on the island after it had been amassed over centuries by pirates.

It was then found and moved to another area of the island by a British sailor Cornelius Webb.

It is said to contain coins, jewels, gold bars and at least one papal ring.

The island is already famous as the place Scottish Sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned for five years in 1704.

His survival provided the inspiration for the Daniel Defoe novel Robinson Crusoe.

2

Wow!
That’s one of the coolest things I’ve seen all week.
It’s always exciting to me to hear of treasure being found; when I was a lad I was a big follower of various legends that claimed either treasure or loot of some nature was hidden underground or buried or whatnot…there’s even a local legend here in Utah (whether it’s true or not is doubtful as there is some great speculation as to whether or not the location was actually in Utah or Nevada) about some folks who had found a great deal of conquistador gold while in the southern part of Mexico and secreted it away… the story goes that there was one party or other after these men (some variations on the legend say it was a Mexican posse or army, others say it was bounty hunters, lots of speculation), and they realised that they could not get the gold back to California (again, speculation as to where they were from) without getting caught so they stopped and buried the gold in what was to become southern Utah (again, lots of speculation, very little facts known. According to legend, they noted natural landmarks but never created any other way of getting back to their loot, or so the story goes. Eastern Nevada has been speculated as a possible location also.).
Lots of hunters, never any finders, and I doubt they ever will find it, if it exists.
There are lots of other legends that are a lot of fun too…


like City Slickers. :stuck_out_tongue:

3

It sounds like something that comes out of a story.

4

If they found the papal ring, would they have to give it back?

5

Which Pope’s ring is it? In any case, they’re most likely dead, and not bound to notice its return. :smiley:

6

I have a feeling there’s some kind of joke going on here that I don’t get.

I feel like that a lot, actually…

7

Arrrrggg, that be pirates’ gold, and pirates don’t give a feck fer the pope, or ‘is nose. The booty belongs to them whats finds it, says I. The people of the island ain’t earned it, nor the gum’nt neither. Lots o’ lookers but few the finders. Finders keepers, says I. Aaarrrgg.

djm

8

I heard that National Geogrphic had an article on this subject lately (before the treasure find was announced). There’s more coverage on the find [u]here[/u].

9

Cool! I love stuff like this. Treasure Island is one of my favorite books. :slight_smile:

10

Arrrr! Where be those interferin’ blagards? Dead men tell no tales! Arrrr!

11

$10 Billion? Jaysus, and to think I’ve been putting my money in the bank all these years, I’m going to get a shovel.

12

I think the store might be sold out by now. :laughing: