In
1750, the crew of the Spanish treasure galleon, Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe,
dropped anchor at Okracore, North Carolina to seek refuge from a terrible
storm. The Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe was loaded with tons of silver bars when
she was badly damaged during the storm. Her captain, Bonilla, was forced to
hire two English bi-landers to take his precious cargo and finish the voyage to
Spain. The treasure was transferred to the bi-landers, and while Bonilla was
dealing with taxation issues in Cape Fear, the crews of the bi-landers
absconded with the silver and sailed away. One of the ships never made it out
of the harbor in North Carolina, but the other was successful in the escape,
and that double-ended brigantine ship was captained by Owen Lloyd.
Captain Lloyd was very familiar with the Virgin
Islands and considered Norman Island to be the perfect place to divide the
ill-gotten gains among his crew and himself. After three uneventful weeks at
sea, Captain Lloyd and crew arrived at Norman Island. On board, their cargo manifest
included 55 chests filled with silver dollars, 3 large chests full of silver
plates and wrought silver, indigo, tobacco and animal hides and furs. The cargo
was worth $200,000 at the time; tens of millions today.
Captain Lloyd and his crew buried the treasure on
Norman Island, and possibly Tortola before sailing to St. Thomas to
clear customs. They left very few pieces on board–mostly cochineal (dried
bodies of Mexican insects that produce a bright red dye) and a few animal
hides, which they claimed at customs. However, Captain Lloyd made a fatal
mistake–he left three crew members behind on Norman Island to finish burying
and guard the treasure. The crew members weren’t secretive about what they were
doing, and soon the residents of Tortola were swarming Norman Island, digging
up buried treasure. The pirates were all captured and jailed and when the
frenzy subsided, only a small portion of the treasure had been recovered.
Since then, many have attempted to recover the
remaining treasure and there has been limited success. In the 1900’s, a group
of English treasure hunters formed “Norman Island Treasure Company” and began
blasting holes in the island with large charges of gunpowder to find the lost
treasure, but they had no luck. Their activity is believed to be the
inspiration for the story “Treasure Island” written by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Part of the booty was discovered by Gilbert Fleming,
the acting Lieutenant General of the Leeward Islands, who commissioned two
companies of soldiers to travel to Tortola in search of the loot. A
proclamation was issued whereby the treasure would be returned to Spain and the
finder would receive a 1/3 share as a finder’s fee. Treasure was found, but
only a portion of that was listed on the cargo manifest.
The most recent report of a treasure find on Norman
Island concerns the Creque family. Eggleston wrote: "just after the turn
of the last century an impoverished Virgin Islander named Creque made a
systematic search of the caves and found the treasure chest previously
mentioned. The well-heeled Creque family are prominent merchants in St. Thomas
to this day." (Mr. Creque bought Norman Island and the Creque family
became significant landowners on St. Thomas and St. John. Creque's Alley in
downtown Charlotte Amalie was the subject of a hit song by the Mommas and the
Poppas in the 1960's)
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