Since the advent of navigation, people have traveled the seas in search of new lands, fortunes and hope. However, since then the seas have also been filled with people for the sole purpose of plundering and destroying. These people are commonly known as pirates. Pirates are notorious for having no mercy and doing almost anything to get a reward. The main era for pirate activity was the period between the 17th century and the early 18th century. They only lost strength when the naval forces became too strong to be fought. Although there are still several pirates nowadays, the last large pirate crews have died hundreds of years ago, carrying innumerable mysteries with them into the turbulent depths of the oceans.
10 The Phantom Ship of Topsail Island
One famous strategy used by many pirate crews centered around Topsail Island in the United States was to wait for a ship to pass on the horizon, to chase it and make a loot. This method proved to be extremely successful as a large ship traffic passed through the island in the early 17th century. The most infamous pirate to use this method was Edward Teach, alternatively known as Blackbeard, a man of 1.83m known as Master of both physical and psychological combat. The stories say that the Blackbeard sometimes tied wicks or matches of sulfur in his beard while struggling to unnerve his opponents and show he was not afraid.
Although there is a rumor of treasure buried on the island, the most disturbing mystery is the report that the Blackbeard's ship strangely appears from time to time. Some say that if you are navigating with a radar, as you pass through the cove of the island, you can sometimes notice a signal on the screen, pointing into the cove. When the area is scanned, there is nothing, but as you cross, the signal slowly moves toward the location of your ship, gaining speed quickly, just as the Blackbeard's ship did hundreds of years ago.
9 The Treasure of Carvalho Island
A small island is located on the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. This place is known as Carvalho Island, and is home to a pirate mystery. In 1795, Daniel McGinnis discovered a great artificial depression in the ground while crossing the island. When the area was excavated, a layer of oak planks were found every 3 meters below the surface. Below a number of layers, a stone with carved symbols. These sculptures, they say, speak of a great treasure buried deep in the ground. The planks buried more deeply fell when reached, leading to a well filled with water. This discovery has led generations of diggers to try to access what is at the bottom of the well, but almost all attempts have ended in disaster. So far, seven people have died as they struggled to discover the mystery, prompting some to believe the area is cursed.
What is at the bottom of this treacherous pit is still unknown and possibly will always be. However, a large number of people believe that it is the treasure of Captain Kidd, a pirate known to have operated in the area at the time, who declared that his fortune was buried "where no one but Satan and I can find." It's still a mystery how anyone could have managed to hide anything so well, even leaving the 21st century diggers with no ideas on how to figure out what's down there.
8 Murder in the sea
This is a modern pirate mystery. In 2014, a video was released of four unidentified men - believed to be pirates and other fishermen - clinging to the sinking of a boat. They seem to be raising their arms in surrender, but the ship's crew is shooting at them while a voice on a loudspeaker shouts, "Shoot! Shoot it! Shoot! " The crew seems to be laughing as they shoot the men one by one, and after the death of the final victim, they pose for photos on the deck.
The identity of these men is still unknown, but what makes this even stranger is how filming was found: on a cell phone left in a taxi. Although there are a large number of witnesses, no one has appeared and the murder of these men remains a mystery. However, the case shows how easy it is for sea killings to go unnoticed.
7 The Kraken
For most of us, the prospect of a giant squid capable of destroying ships and living in incredible depths seems pointless. However, there may be more truth in the pirate legend than we think.
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Paleontologist Mark McMenamin believes he has found signs of a large squid-like creature investigating the bones of a 14-meter ichthyosaur. It is said that the bones were organized in the same way that the bones of octopus species are usually organized. The creature also seemed to have lived under high pressure, indicating that it dwelt in an extremely deep part of the ocean. McMenamin also uncovered more convincing evidence, a fossilized segment of a giant octopus.
Although the kraken legend is very amusing and almost certainly based on some form of encounter with a great sea creature, there is no real evidence that the animal actually existed. Whether it be a figment of a drunken sailor's imagination or a tale gone for generations and distorted to something completely different from the original, the origin of the mystic giant remains a mystery.
6 The cryptogram of Olivier Levasseur
In the late 18th century, pirate captain Olivier Levasseur, also known as La Buse, was one of the last great pirates to roam the Indian Ocean. He was known to have stolen many valuable items and it was believed that he had a huge amount of treasures. However, he was captured and sentenced to death. Lebda says that his last words were, "Find my treasure, the one who understands this," and threw a cryptogram into the crowd.
To this day, people are still trying to decipher the instructions, and many have given up for a long time, believing that the cryptic message was just a joke to drive people to endless pursuit. However, in the mid-20th century, an advance was made by an Englishman named Reginald Herbert Cruise-Wilkins. He had been actively seeking the treasure for years, certain that he had been buried on the small island of Mahe and was worth about 100 million pounds. A few years earlier, Cruise-Wilkins had discovered a series of pirate statues that were buried in the ground, but he inflexibly believed that they were not just statues but a map to where the real treasure was located.
Reginald finally found the exact location he thought was the treasure cave and began exploring, although it required a very complex engineering work to ensure that the cave was not flooded by ocean water just above. While in the cave, he was nearly killed by a rock slide, but he managed to escape with a flintlock, carved figures, a 17th century wine jar and a few coins. This was sufficient evidence to suggest that this was, in fact, the right location. However, no one was willing to further fund their project, leaving the existence of the treasure as a mystery
5 Pirate Utopia
The legend tells the story of a pirate utopia called Libertalia, which would be located on a small island off Madagascar. This refuge would be a pirate republic / anarchist colony founded in the late 17th century by pirate captain James Misson. Other founders would include the famous pirates Henry Avery and Thomas Tew, being this the admiral of the fleet of ships of Libertalia.
The policy of the refuge was generally socialist, with all food and resources being shared, as well as all points of view being heard and laws created by the people. The pirates started with the motto "for God and for freedom" they would erect a white flag in protest against the Jolly Roger, the black flag with the ogre and the crossed bones, which generally supports the violence. They would also be strongly against slavery and freed the slaves they encountered, treating them as equals and allowing them to join the group.
The pirate territory would have a fort, a market and housing covering the island. The community would have prospered on land, building a full range of buildings, including large halls, places of worship and taverns. The General History of the Pirates, book of Charles Johnson, states that the pirates, renouncing their nationalities, called themselves "Liberi" and created a new language. Johnson also says that Avery decided on the settlement area as soon as he saw the bay as it was an area with fertile soil, freshwater and friendly natives.
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It is believed that the utopia fell when Tew was stranded, leaving the refuge without defense, which led to an attack. They say that Misson and 45 other men would have escaped, but they never returned to Libertalia.
4 The Green Flash
For hundreds of years, sea men, most notably pirates, have repeatedly reported a strange phenomenon that came to be known as the green flash. They say that when the sky and the horizon are both completely clear, a sudden wave of emerald green light may blink in the sky as the sun goes down.
The reports of the flash follow until the end of the 1600s, with the pirates being the most reported, because they would have traveled the sea for a longer time. Although this phenomenon probably has a completely rational explanation, the pirates claimed that anyone who saw the flash would gain the ability to read the souls of others.
3 The ghost in the cave
Enquanto estava de férias em Cornwall, na Inglaterra, em 2015, o empresário John Dyer capturou acidentalmente algo peculiar em sua câmera. O homem estava tirando fotos de cavernas escuras, e quando ele revisou as imagens, ele viu uma figura sombria de pé em uma imagem. O suposto “fantasma” seria o famoso pirata William Wilcox, que operou em torno dessa área. Pensa-se que Wilcox estava fugindo e decidiu se esconder em uma das cavernas próximas, mas ele ficou preso pela maré crescente e, consequentemente, se afogou.
Enquanto a maioria acredita que a imagem contém nada mais do que uma formação rochosa estranhamente estabelecida ligeiramente semelhante a um homem, vários habitantes locais confiam que é de fato o fantasma de Wilcox, assunto de muitas histórias contadas para eles quando eram crianças.
- Pirate Tunnels
Under the city of Savannah, Georgia, there is a network of underground tunnels believed to have been used by pirates to transport stolen loot and captured sailors. It is said that there is a secret tunnel somewhere in the labyrinth, leading directly to where the ships would be waiting.
Allegedly, there is a passage from a building in the town, known as the House of the Pirates, which leads straight to the river where the small paddle boats would have waited, but now it is inaccessible by the house due to the collapse of the rocks. There are also theories that the Sons of Liberty used to find in a secret underground waterfall that can be reached through the tunnels. If these tunnels were used by secret societies or smuggled pirates and stolen goods, there is no denying that they are quite strange.
1 Bones Lake
Lake Ronkonkoma, on Long Island, USA, is well known for the mysteries and legends that surround it. One of the most famous mysteries is that of the pirate victims. Some say the lake has already been connected to the sea through an entrance, allowing pirates to enter the area, hide their treasures and execute prisoners. The stories say that the bottom of the lake has many caves that hold a lot of hidden treasures that the pirates have left there long ago.
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It is also said that the lake contains many skeletons of the victims of the pirates, some of which were supposedly found and taken from the water, although there is no proof to support these claims. If the lake actually contains the skeletons of hundreds of pirate prisoners, however, it may be an indication for the location of the hidden treasures there.