More Treasure Hunters in the news

I'd like to thank my buddy Homer for sending this to me. He did so without knowing that I had a personal interest in Cocos Island. This story is another from the internet.

Treasure hunter hopeful of making find of the century

Numerous expeditions have failed to uncover the legendary lost treasure of Lima, but a Melton explorer is hopeful he will make the find of the century.


Mike Thomas Munroe is putting the finishing touches to an expedition to Cocos Island, 350 miles off the coast of Costa Rica in South Amercia, to unearth the wealth of gold, silver and jewellery buried there.

After more than a decade of research he's quietly confident his quest will be a success and now he has won the support of another amateur treasure hunter, Shaun Whitehead from Grimston.

Shaun has agreed to sponsor the £2,500 cost of the trip and his company Scoutek, which supplies technology such as robots and probes for explorations, will be providing the equipment for the search.

The two men got to know each other after Shaun bought some of Mike's paintings from his stall on Melton's Saturday street market.

Mike said: "I'm very excited about the prospect. It's the chance of a lifetime and I'm pretty confident we will find something.

"The treasure was valued at £100m in 1930 and if it is found it will be split three ways between the Costa Rican government, the Peruvian government as the treasure was stolen, and the salvor."

The treasure was shipped out of Lima, Peru, on the Mary Dear during the last days of Spanish control in 1823. The original inventory listed 113 gold religious statues, 200 chests of jewels, 250 swords with jewelled hilts, 150 chalices and hundreds of gold and silver bars.

The ship was bound for the relative safety of Mexico under the command of Captain William Thompson, but he turned pirate and sailed to Cocos Island to stash the haul.

Mike plans to charter a boat from Costa Rica and spend four days on the island to search 10 sites having studied sand and soil conditions as well as battered maps and documents.

And thanks to new technology the search will be an eco-friendly one.

Mike said: "We will be using a special metal detecting mat, like a nylon mesh, which gives a three-dimensional scan of the ground, probe bars and something called a snake camera. It means we can see what is beneath the surface without having to dig it all up."

The 55-year-old will keep a journal of the trip, scheduled for November, and film what they're doing. He has also pledged to create six big pieces of work for Cocos Island National Park.

Shaun said: "As a kid I loved exploring and treasure hunting and this reminded me what fun it is. If I can help someone have a shot at their dream that's great, too.

"I've been toying with the idea of joining Mike and the more I think about it the more likely it is I will go, too."
 

 
My personal observations:
 
I don't know about you but Mike Munrow (on the right) looks a little like a rum drinking pirate himself!
 
I also wouldn't trust the Costa Rican government on getting my share either, just my jaded opinion you understand!