In the summer of 1964, Jack Slack, who ran a diving operation at the Lucayan Beach Hotel, took a group on a diving charter off Lucayan Beach. Among them was Gary Simmons, who spotted an old anchor while snorkeling over a reef. The next day, Gary, Jack and two other friends, Bissell Shaver and Dick Tindall returned to the site to take a closer look. What they found astonished them: two anchors, two cannons, a quarry of ballast rock and thousands of Spanish silver coins!

“The silver of pirate stories and treasure hunter’s fantasies” Life Magazine

It became clear from the unusual anchor and the two cannon that this had indeed been a very old vessel. The treasure, mostly pieces of eight, lay in only 10 feet of water — but where had it come from?

The dates on the coins led to speculation that the wreck might have been connected with the Spanish treasure fleets of the early 17th century. One theory linked it to the extraordinary capture of the Spanish Treasure Fleet at Matanzas Bay, Cuba, in 1628 by the Dutch privateer Piet Heyn, who reportedly lost two vessels on the return journey to Europe. The true identity of the wreck, however, has never been conclusively established.

Much of the recovered silver eventually found its way to Spink & Son, the famous London dealers and medallists, where individual coins were sold as collectors’ pieces or mounted as pendants, rings and cufflinks.

TREASURE FEVER

For a while the four men had managed to keep their extraordinary discovery quiet. But a treasure of this size was never going to remain secret for long. Once news of the Lucayan Beach find became known, the story attracted international attention — and with it came treasure hunters, competing claims and plenty of controversy.

The peaceful waters off Lucayan Beach suddenly became the focus of intense interest. Protecting the wreck site and controlling who could dive there became a very real problem.

Hartley Pinder Sr. with Superintendent of Police Leslie Cate who was put in charge of overseeing the recovery of the treasure.

Keeping others away from the wreck was not always easy. Rival treasure hunters soon appeared, hoping for a share of what might still lie beneath the water, and on at least one occasion the confrontation became decidedly lively.

Gary Simmons later recalled one particular encounter when a boatload of men — whom he cheerfully referred to as “the pirates” — arrived at the site. Two of them slipped into the water and headed for the wreck, only to find Gary waiting for them. He intercepted the pair underwater, pulled off their masks and held on until, thoroughly alarmed, they surfaced shouting that he was trying to drown them. At that point the police apparently decided that enough treasure hunting had been done for one day and ordered everyone out of the water. Pirate treasure, it seems, was still capable of producing a little piracy more than 300 years later.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TREASURE?

Eventually the treasure was destined for London. Freeport resident Bryan Carter recalled playing a small but memorable part in its journey:

“The chests containing the treasure were kept in the vault of Barclays Bank DCO, who had loaned money to finance their recovery. In 1969 or 1970 I sat on those chests for a couple of hours at the cargo section of Freeport airport while waiting for them to be handed over to the BOAC captain who flew them to London to Spinks and Co for sale.”
— Bryan Carter

From a reef off Lucayan Beach to a bank vault in Freeport, and finally aboard a BOAC flight to London — the pieces of eight were beginning another journey.

Coins from the Lucayan Beach Treasure, with their original Spink & Son cases and certificates of authenticity.

The coins didn’t simply disappear into collectors’ cabinets. Some were sold individually, some became jewellery, and quite a few eventually found their way back into the hands of people connected with Freeport. The young page boy at my own wedding was given one of these coins as a special memento of the day. They could even be bought in the International Bazaar, where Joan and Colin Hardy sold them from their shop, Bahama Stamp and Coin.

FINDERS LOSERS

Finding a treasure worth a fortune sounds like the happiest of endings. For the four men who discovered the Lucayan Beach treasure, however, it proved to be anything but simple.

Jack Slack later told the story in his book Finders Losers – The Lucayan Treasure Find. What began as the adventure of a lifetime became a complicated tale of money, contracts, competing interests and disagreements. As the value of the treasure grew, so apparently did the pressures surrounding it, and friendships that had begun the adventure together did not emerge unchanged.

Slack described how the finders were suddenly surrounded by people wanting a share of the treasure — potential buyers, advisers, investors and what he called “percentage seekers.” In time, the men gradually lost control of the very treasure they had discovered. In Jack’s memorable phrase, they became “minority holders in their own treasure.”

“The price of a dream differs with each individual dream.”

Jack Slack.

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS

“I actually have 2 Spanish pieces of eight from the Lucayan treasure find. I met Jack and others through my father.”
— Bishop Cate

“I had a piece of eight, from that treasure haul, given to me by the Lucayan Treasure boys. Gave it to my grandson when he turned 20.”
— Glenda Dupuis

“For a while, a large clump of the silver was held in safekeeping at the Royal Bank. I believe someone dropped it at one stage and it became two clumps.”
— Brian Hay

Whatever fortunes were made or lost, the Lucayan Beach Treasure became part of Freeport folklore. More than sixty years later, its pieces of eight are still tucked away in jewelry boxes and family collections around the world — given as wedding gifts, made into necklaces, passed from grandparents to grandchildren and treasured as reminders of an extraordinary day in 1964 when four friends went diving off Lucayan Beach and found something no one expected.