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HOW
IT STARTED
My quest started
with a book I read called "Treasure" written by Richard
Knight and it turned out that during a period of approx 20
years of his life he had been researching the life of Captain
William Kidd, a notorious pirate of the mid to latter part
of the 17th century. According to Knight another writer had
a lawyer friend who collected artifacts, furniture, chests
etc. of the era and when possible anything that was supposed
to have belonged to Kidd.
His story is that
the lawyer disclosed to the writer that he had accidentally
or purposefully broken a piece or pieces of furniture and
or chests accredited as being the personal belongings of Kidd.
These events took place during the very early thirties as
Knight took a lot of his info from the book, which was printed
about 1932/5.
Knight then
described how he was intrigued by certain charts which were
found hidden in the furniture saying that his research of
the charts which according to him had been verified by the British
Museum which had taken photographs of the Kidd Palmer
charts as they had become known, but could not now find any
record of them. Obviously inferring that they were either
lost or stolen, still Knight reproduced one of these charts
in his book and it was this chart that he had been trying
to research. He also goes on to say that many expeditions
had, at great expense to themselves and their backers travelled
to various islands throughout the world in search of the treasure
that Kidd had, on pain of death or rather to avoid hanging,
said to one of the war lords that he had during his seafaring
activities lodged or secreted goods or treasure on some such
island and that if indeed he was reprieved from his death
sentence he would gladly lead whomsoever to the cache.
The letter that
Kidd wrote is in fact genuine, copies of which can be found
in various books etc. dedicated to his life and subsequent
death by hanging. Incidentally Kidd had to be hung twice as
the rope broke and Kidd was subsequently put back on the scaffold
for his second and successful death, from the hangman's point
of view. Much later in this story I will deal with Kidd in
greater detail but this story of Kidd's treasure has intrigued
many since the charts came to light not least Mr. Knight,
who with his years of research had , so he says, pinpointed
an island off the coast of Vietnam which, as most knew at
that time since Knight's book was published about 1972, was
not the best place for a western imperialist to be. But Knight
was determined to see his theory through. No doubt as any
person who had put in that much time would, and so with the
help of a mysterious backer, whom Knight said came from Australia,
he set about planning his journey, and possible excavation
of Kidd's treasure
 
Click on the pictures for a
close up view.
Knight was using
the China Sea chart, which I have featured above. His research
of his chart was based on the assumption that the latitude
which reads 9* 16**N was true. Subsequently he rested his
hopes on an island named Hon Tre Lon in the Gulf of Siam,
Where he says he found and retrieved part of Kidd's
treasure. He goes on to describe how he reburied this find
on another island to go back and retrieve the other caches
which he believed the island contained. It was at this time
that Knight says he was arrested by the Vietnamese authorities
and imprisoned. To this day I have never seen a photograph
or heard of any of Knights Treasure which he recovered , being
sold or displayed. Where is it?
This question, prompted
my own research of the China Sea Chart, which resulted in
my finding anomalies within the chart which Knight had failed
to notice or mention. Briefly, if you look at the words reef
bottom left and right of the chart, you will notice that the
words differ greatly, the left side reef conceals the words
piece of 8 or similar. Whilst the lagoon conceals a picture
of a river delta, with an island group off it. With a ship
also concealed behind one of the islands in the group?
Following my research
I narrowed the possibilities down to two island groups. One
group off Burma (Myanmar). The other group off the Philippines.
However to this day I have been unable to gain permission
from these governments.
Following two years
of frustrated waiting I turned my attentions to another supposed
Kidd chart. Kidd's Skeleton Island, with some incredible results,
as you will no doubt see
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