hat_man
Jr. Member
Hello everyone. I was just thinking how nice it would have been to have had GPS when pirates (or the Spanish) buried treasure. Then as I let my mind wander I thought "Well, maybe they did."
Now don't get me wrong, this is just an off the top of my head idea, and I have NO experience with Pirate or Spanish treasure hunting or anything other than a desire to think "outside the box" or look at a situation from a different angle.
Pirates traveled by way of the stars and most probably used a sextant to go along with their charts. The sextant was probably the most accurate way of navigation at the time. You could use a compass but even if you were off by a degree you could end up miles from your intended destination over the span of an ocean. Now not wanting to misplace a great treasure, wouldn't you use the most accurate means of mapping you had available?
I have never personally seen anything that would be considered a treasure map or even have a remote idea on how they work, so I suppose my ears will soon be ringing with the sound of laughter, but it seems like a feasible idea. Even once on an island the stars wold be the same. If there are numbers on a treasure map maybe they correlate to a sextant and not a compass?
As for the Spanish I don't know how the navigated. Maybe just a compass, maybe not. But from what I can gather the must have buried a whole mess of treasure all over the west and southwest. They would have needed an accurate way of sending another group of men out into a large area to find a spot maybe only 10'x10'. Imagine just being in one square acre and knowing there were 100 gold bars buried in a 10'x10' area 6' deep. Now imagine a small army of Spanish soldiers faced with the same dilemma looking out over 1 million acres.
I guess all I am saying is that the "hiders" would have to be very accurate so the "finders" could find the loot. Even with trail markers and maps there must be something more to help the people these maps were entrusted to.
Just the ravings of a Nu-B here. Take it for what is worth. Now I just need the most accurate way to find my mind. It's lost somewhere on this site.
Hat_man
Now don't get me wrong, this is just an off the top of my head idea, and I have NO experience with Pirate or Spanish treasure hunting or anything other than a desire to think "outside the box" or look at a situation from a different angle.
Pirates traveled by way of the stars and most probably used a sextant to go along with their charts. The sextant was probably the most accurate way of navigation at the time. You could use a compass but even if you were off by a degree you could end up miles from your intended destination over the span of an ocean. Now not wanting to misplace a great treasure, wouldn't you use the most accurate means of mapping you had available?
I have never personally seen anything that would be considered a treasure map or even have a remote idea on how they work, so I suppose my ears will soon be ringing with the sound of laughter, but it seems like a feasible idea. Even once on an island the stars wold be the same. If there are numbers on a treasure map maybe they correlate to a sextant and not a compass?
As for the Spanish I don't know how the navigated. Maybe just a compass, maybe not. But from what I can gather the must have buried a whole mess of treasure all over the west and southwest. They would have needed an accurate way of sending another group of men out into a large area to find a spot maybe only 10'x10'. Imagine just being in one square acre and knowing there were 100 gold bars buried in a 10'x10' area 6' deep. Now imagine a small army of Spanish soldiers faced with the same dilemma looking out over 1 million acres.
I guess all I am saying is that the "hiders" would have to be very accurate so the "finders" could find the loot. Even with trail markers and maps there must be something more to help the people these maps were entrusted to.
Just the ravings of a Nu-B here. Take it for what is worth. Now I just need the most accurate way to find my mind. It's lost somewhere on this site.
Hat_man
