Kings County Vignettes
Treasure Hunter Finds Doubloons on Fundy Isle
ADVOCATE, NS - Eight Spanish doubloons and parts of a skeleton have been found by a treasure hunter on tiny Isle Haute, 13 miles from here in the Bay of Fundy.
Edward Rowe Snow of Marshfield Mass., a historian whose hobby is treasure hunting, made the find in a brief visit to the island Thursday night. He found the gold with the aid of a metal detector and old charts.
The charts belonged to the late Dougal Carmichael of Vancouver who recovered some $20,000 in buried treasure from the island from 1923 to 1936.
Snow found parts of a skeleton near the gold. It appeared that some of the coins had been clutched in the bones of the hand.
One of the doubloons was dated 1710 and all bore the cross of the Holy Roman Empire. Snow said it is unlikely that there is any sizeable cache left on the island.
Legend has it that the money was buried by the notorious pirate Edward Lowe, who cut out the tongues of his captives and served them, fried, to his crew.
Legend and charts also indicate that the Isle Haute treasure came from the Spanish galleon Senora de Victoria, captured in 1725.
In Marshfield, Snow said the treasure is in a Canadian bank, impounded by the Canadian government. "Under the Canadian export laws," he explained, "American citizens cannot take gold out of Canada. The only way I can get it home is through an American bank, that is, by having the bank apply for me."
When Snow finally gets the treasure it will be only 90 per cent intact. Canada can claim the remainder under the law of treasure trove.