Every man was once a little boy who, after seeing his first pirate movie, spent many of the following years dreaming of finding pirate’s gold.
He played pirate treasure games and made do with hiding coins in the ground, all the while imagining how incredibly cool it would be to sail the high seas and find real sunken treasure.
As he left childhood behind, he gave up on his dream of finding pirate gold, chalking it up to just another fun adventure of being a kid, like the story of Santa Claus or the legend of the tooth fairy. Pirates.. were they even real.. and there certainly isn’t any real lost treasure in the sea, is there?
It turns out that there’s not just a little bit of loot on the ocean floor but a whole hell of a lot. How much? The ball-park figure is estimated to be at $60 billion.
Sunken shipwrecks are estimated at about one-million and that’s just the best historical guess. Some historians believe the number to be closer to three-million. One thing we know for sure is that a lot of ships didn’t find their way back to land back in the days before GPS was around and men shot cannon balls at each other’s boats instead of seeing who could throw a pigskin the farthest.
How Did That Gold Get There?
Maybe you still gloss over the possibility of these wrecked ships having any real treasure? After all.. what kind of people were running these ships, that they would honestly have huge amounts of gold just sitting around in chests?
It turns out that the majority of ship-wrecks were around the time explorers were finding new lands. Thousands were taking to boat to migrate to these new, unexplored territories with the hopes of getting rich. Some were relocating permanently and some were just interested in the dream of finding riches, much like the 49er rush to California in 1849. Precious metals were a hot commodity (people certainly weren’t looking for cash in the new lands) and the jam-packed trade routes of the seas were all about importing and exporting, with gold, bronze and precious metals being used as the main currency.
National Geographic
As gold was in abundant supply, and cop boats were yet to be invented, the practice of high seas pirating became big business. It was a fun lifestyle. You got to dress like a rock star, make good money, wield a sword, force men to walk planks, and get all the sunshine and water you ever dreamed of. We’re not telling you anything new though, as you’ve seen all the Jack Sparrow movies.
We suspect that pirates would steal so much gold and precious metals that robbing people became less of a rush and blowing up ships was far more entertaining. That may be historically inaccurate but all we really know is there’s a lot of boats down at the bottom of the sea (with a lot of treasure on board still today), so there were either a lot of really bad drivers in that day or people were blowing other people up. Many of these boats even have known whereabouts and historical evidence in support of carrying a lot of treasure.
How Do You Find the Gold?
Many old time ship manifests are still in existence today and available to modern day treasure hunters. Another option is to search out gold on land and many would prefer to do this anyway. There are even books on Amazon that give instruction on finding buried treasure.
In 2011, an exploration party discovered a sunken ship carrying 48 tons of silver and new findings are being reported year-round by different groups of treasure hunters.  There’s actually a surprisingly high number of modern-day treasure finds.
Daily Planet Photos
The money is there for the taking but the expense coupled with the time and commitment is what kills the thrill for most people. We’ve got mortgages to pay, grass to mow and mouths to feed. It’s just not as easy as it was for the average swashbuckler in the 1600s. Seriously… what the hell else did pirate guy have to do?
If nothing else, you might consider an outback adventure for seeking out lost loot. Lots of companies book treasure hunting excursions and that might well prove to be the vacation of a lifetime.
It’s time to get back to being a kid again and start searching for lost pirate gold. It’s returning to the days of yesterday but with the very real possibility of making one of the most exciting discoveries of your life.
