Pinaki Island Treasure

[jeff of pa]

The Morning Tulsa daily world. (Tulsa, Okla.), 17 July 1921.










https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...t=&proxValue=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=9

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Blak bart]

I have herd a slightly different version of the same story. Very similar though. Ill send my tahitain friend to look for it and send us our cut jeff !!

 

[South Sea mariner]

I have herd a slightly different version of the same story. Very similar though. Ill send my tahitain friend to look for it and send us our cut jeff !!

Hola black Bart

Me thinks it might be all a little too late? The Chinese wanted to lease the atoll as a fish farm.

I have seen the island many times from the bridge of my ship. My ship passes the island regular as my ship sails from Valparaiso Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga Fiji. We sadly are scheduled to a deadline and do not have the capacity to stop there. Even if we could there is no safe anchorage. By law we are a foreign flagged vessel we have to land at Tahiti first as that is the custom immigration entry point. The only time we can breach that protocol is in effect during a rescue at Sea. that said i pass it within 1km of it to the south abut 8 times a year.

One year we came across a salvage dive ship with tender boats ROVS and gadgets. Met the steward and some of the crew off the vessel in Tahiti he claims most of crew was no privy to the operations of the vessel.Had to sign no disclosure agreements It was official scientific expedition. Yet why all the secrecy?

Mal

 

[Simon1]

Almost sounds like Snake Island treasure.
Looks like someone is pretty serious to search.

 

[South Sea mariner]

Hola Simon

I heard the crew was later discharged at a drop of hat. Allegedly chartered by an English lord living in Spain. And new CREW flown in. Next time I was import the ship was listed for sale. I heard it was also charted by the son of Jacques Cousteau. All I know some one spent some serious money to go to Pinacki.

oh I should elaborate more.... the vessel went straight to Pinacki returned to Tahiti. Sacked the crew with days there was a new crew which went back to Pinacki then gone. I understand it was Chinese money that bankrolled the project through this English Lord.

Maybe perpetration work for the proposed fish farm? or perhaps looking for treasure? I leave it to more qualified opinions that one.

Mal

 

[Simon1]

Hola Simon

I heard the crew was later discharged at a drop of hat. Allegedly chartered by an English lord living in Spain. And new CREW flown in. Next time I was import the ship was listed for sale. I heard it was also charted by the son of Jacques Cousteau. All I know some one spent some serious money to go to Pinacki.

Mal

His son that died in a seaplane accident or his grandson ? I hear his grandson is constantly on the prowl for treasure, or historical artifacts.

 

[South Sea mariner]

Hola Simon

It must been the Grandson I heard about.... The perils when you hear secondhand information. that was in 2016 0r 2017 the yeas go so quickly....

Mal

 

[jeff of pa]

it was Cousteau's GrandSon & Wife ,Ashlan Gorse and her husband, Philippe Cousteau who was just on a Treasure Hunting Show a Few Months ago.
Sorry the show wasn't too Memorable.

 

[Simon1]

I hear you, they would be on the verge of a discovery and then, poof, they take off for another adventure elsewhere.

 

[Blak bart]

Hmmmmmm...........

 

[ARC]

"several million dollars"... in 1921 dollars that is. heh

 

[South Sea mariner]

Hola AARC

I think we cannot rely on what newspapers say entirely.... What price can you put on a historic treasure? Probably not as much as the newspaper Hype but treasure all the same.

But The fact remain Charles Edward Howe spent 7 year on Pinacki alone digging for treasure. That is what we know. Some thing motivated him to search Pinacki?

He had had allegedly gained information off an alleged dying pirate in Sydney who gave him a crumpled old chart made from hide or sail cloth that had key landmarks but more importantly key land marks to find this buried treasure. The map however had no name of the island on it?

One clue was Coral Pinnacle an pear shaped pool in the reef. The Pinnacle was north of the pass into the lagoon. Pinacki sort of fitted the description on the map he had. But the question remains was he on the right Island. Some have speculated that it was Tepoto or another island nearby? The key for him was the fact Pinacki had a pinnacle.

Below is rare map of Pinacki with description showing land marks....No pinnacle shown as a land mark on it?



Around 1900 14 years before Howe ever arrived.... An American expedition arrived searched the island they may have good reason because it has been alleged the very treasure mentioned below from the Lima cathedral was lost during the war of independence.



Is it still there or on an island somewhere? Or perhaps on the island traditionally believed to be on Cocos Island?

Of course the whole Pinacki story MAY just another manifestation of the Cocos island treasure story?

I leave that to more qualified people here to decide that....

But as I sail pass it on regular basis in my ship I always Scan the island with binoculars if passing it in daylight, from a far and wonder what if?

Mal

 

[South Sea mariner]

Hola

One of 1934 expedition members in 1977 a year before he died in 1978 claimed they searched Pinacki but could not match the land marks per map and went to Tepoto which had an older name very similar to Pinacki. The Polynesians language have a lack of distinction between P AND T.

Here is picture of George Farwell Bellow.







Here a picture of the pass just big enough for along boat to enter....Tepoto. The natives told me a story of an Mysterious Australian allegedly a descendant of Hamiltion one of the 1934 expedition members recovering 134 silver medallions in the lagoon around 1993.



I have unconfirmed suspicions there is some one who once posted on tnet who knows MUCH more than they are letting on....However for me alas I only get bits and pieces of want seems to be an amazing discovery with all the key players are dead quite about......

Thanks Jeff for the interesting post.

Mal

 

[J.A.A.]

I don’t know if it was actually 134 medallions (could’ve been) but several were definitely found and if Crow or Kanacki would ever start posting again, they’d be the ones to tell us more; especially Crow....according to what Kanacki once posted on another Thunting site long ago, Crow is actually the descendant of Hamilton that’s been spoken/written about!

Funny thing is, someone once tried to pawn the entire story off as their own...while speaking directly to Crow!

 

[Blak bart]

The island itself is a treasure. So beautiful !!

 

[South Sea mariner]

The island itself is a treasure. So beautiful !!

Hola blackbart

Those atolls are indeed with the beautiful lagoon are a tease and yet they can also be deadly. The reefs around the atoll are infested with tiger and reef tip sharks. No safe landing by boat , more like an organized crash landing in the surf. Traveling along on the atoll is like traversing a desert. No fresh water and very hot. You wear army books to walk over coral rocks within days they are cut to shreds. Yet people survive there. You cannot eat the fish from the lagoon as they have segera a form of coral poisoning. So you have to fish off the ocean side. Where the fishing is awesome.....

As much if not more than that awesome picture of yours.

Mal

 

[freeman]

Actually, it's all known. Hamilton was attempting to follow the details on a treasure map left by Charles Howe. Howe obtained a copy of a 'treasure map' from an earlier attempt involving the man named 'Captain James Brown' who was in Sydney for a series of failed expeditions from the 1900s. The map was so vague and distorted the only thing that could be determined is that the place to look were three islands in a triangular formation which is the three different island groups searched by different expeditions who were all following the same information. The 'treasure map' (of which I have multiple versions including the original) drove searches to a number of different locations as each were searched and came up dud. The man, James Brown, is actually mentioned in George Hamilton's book (diver on an expedition), 'The Treasure of the Tuamotus' which recounts a lot of details (in between Hamilton's fabrications). If anyone wants to check further, I recommend "The Voyage of the Herman" in which there are photos of Brown and his ship in Sydney Harbour. The 'P and T' mixup was a fabrication by Hamilton who tried to cover over the reason why Howe left one island to search another, both islands are in a group of three islands that seems to conform to the map. What Hamilton and his syndicate didn't know was that Howe was saying the treasure was on one island (there is a French archival record) but telling others it was on another island. George Farwell wrote an article about his experience. His article is easy to find. Despite what he wrote, people keep quoting him as how the treasure and right island was found. I have a copy of his article, his words are "...we found nothing". The image here is one just one of the numerous reports about Brown.