Divers find wreck of legendary pirate treasure ship - Polidicks

[quote] The wreck is thought to be of the [i]Port-au-Prince[/i] sunk by local islanders after its pirate crew had filled the ship’s hold with gold and treasures looted from British vessels. The British ship sailed into Pacific water in search of whales in 1806 after straying from its main mission of ambushing and capturing treasure ships. But upon finding the Port-au-Prince in Tongan waters, the local king Finau Ulukalala II and his people seized the ship and massacred most of the crew. Tongan legend has it that chief Ulukalala then scuttled the vessel with nearly all its treasure still on board. The sunken hoard, which has inspired generations of adventurers to search for it, is believed to have been found off the coast off Foa Island, in the Ha'apai Island group. Sandra Fifita, a tourism official, said the Tongan government was ready for the discovery of the wreck to trigger a treasure hunt. “If it proves to be the Port-au-Prince then we may have treasure hunters and Tongan locals clambering to find the remains of years of successful pirate raids against the enemies of the British,” she said. “Legend tells that the chief salvaged the iron, which was of great value in Tonga at the time, and then sunk the ship and all her bounty. It is believed that a considerable amount of copper, silver and gold is resting with the wreck, along with a number of silver candlesticks, incense pans, crucifixes and chalices.” The ship wreck was discovered by local diver Tevita Moala. Greenwich Maritime Museum and the Marine Archaeological Society has confirmed the age of the wreck after analysing copper sheathing found at the site. “This is a significant find for the people of Tonga. This ship wreck will reveal a great deal of information about the history of Tonga and specifically the Ha'apai Islands,” Mrs Fifita said. [b]It is known that the Port au Prince, a French built vessel, arrived in the Ha’apai island group on November 9 1806 laden with spoils including silver and gold ore. After being attacked by islanders all but four of the crew were massacred, including the ship’s captain, and the ship was burned to the waterline.[/b] However, chief Ulukalala took William Mariner, a young deck-hand on the privateer, to live with him and his people for four years after the massacre. Mariner took the name Toki Ukamea, meaning Iron Axe and on returning to England, he wrote a detailed account of his experiences which then became one of the main sources for historians studying pre-Christian Tonga. Over the years dozens of people have clamed to find the wreck only to have their hopes dashed. In 2009, Brian Heagney, the owner of a local diving company FinsnFlukes, discovered what is thought to be the ship’s anchor lying at the ship’s last known anchorage. But as chief Ulukalala Tongans had cut the ship loose and dragged it ashore for its iron before sinking it, finding the anchor gave no clues as to the final resting place of the Port au Prince. [/quote] [url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/tongafrenchpolynesia/9463622/Divers-find-wreck-of-legendary-pirate-treasure-ship.html[/url] It's cool that we're still finding these things in this day and age. There's still millions of shipwrecks waiting to be rediscovered.

Damn that's cool

So who owns the ship and its contents? It needs to go to the correct people and/or a museum.

Huh. Didn't they find an old Roman ship with all of the food intact just a few days ago? Is there some kind of treasure-hunting week that I don't know about? Can't wait to see what they find onboard. It would be awesome if they managed to take pictures of the inside of the ship, I can't begin to imagine what it would look like. [editline]10th August 2012[/editline] Wait, did they actually find it, or are they assuming they found it? I'm a little confused by those last few sentences in the article.

They think it's the ship but they aren't sure yet.

I love things like this. It's like a time capsule, but completely unintentional.

I'm half-expecting it to be a giant pile of wooden planks with a few golden flecks buried under a rock. Did they get any pictures yet?