Captain Dane’s Treasure

Captain Dane was Master of the Ship “Nightingale” which plied between the Gulf ports of Central and South America during the early 19th Century. On what proved to be his last trip, he took on board at Montevideo a rich, elderly Portuguese and his young Spanish bride, who was wealthy in her own right.

Captain Dane obtained the young brides promise to desert her elderly groom upon arriving in the United States. When the husband became suspicious of his bride and the Captain, Dane knifed him to death. The bride then suffered remorse and threatened to reveal the murder.

When the “Nightingale” dropped anchor near Pass Christian Captain Dane loaded all the money and jewels on board into a chest, selected four sailors and abandoned the ship after locking the passengers and remaining crew members below deck. Before leaving he set fire to the vessel and everyone on the “Nightingale,” including the young Spanish bride, perished. Dane afterward bought a plantation and settled down with his treasure, but as yellow fever swept the coast, the last of his four men to die told the story of the “Nightingale.”

Learning that officers were arriving to question him, the Captain hanged himself from an oak tree. He left no clues as to where he had buried his treasure of about $200,000 in money and jewels.