It's not every day that we get a call from a TV producer in LA asking whether H-R would be willing to use our geophysical methods to search for the treasure of the infamous pirate Blackbeard.  But the call did come, thanks to a referral from a friend in the academic world, and suddenly some of us were on a boat to Lunging Island, one of the nine privately owned Isles of Shoals located about six miles off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine.

Lunging Island, the spot where the pirate Blackbeard is rumored to have buried his treasure in 1715.

What fun we had! Dorothy Richter and three H-R geophysicists spent a beautiful September day with a professional camera crew, jovial professional actors in full pirate and ghost regalia, the elderly owner of the island who specified the spot where she believes Blackbeard hid the treasure in about 1715, two local historians, and a producer-director who actually shouted "Action!" and "Cut!"

It's too bad the producer could not schedule his shoot based on the tide table, since the small "survey area" was under water for much of the day. He quipped that the rapidly rising tide added an element of drama to our work.

An H-R staff member establishes the survey grid under the watchful eyes of the History Channel camera crew.

 

What methods did we use? Magnetics (G-858G cesium vapor magnetometer), electromagnetic induction (EM61 and EM31), and ground penetrating radar (SIR-2).

Left: An H-R geophysicist combs the area using our state of the art cesium vapor magnetometer equipped with two sensors to measure the total magnetic field and vertical magnetic gradient.

What did we find? You'll find out in an episode of "History's Mysteries" about lost treasures on the History Channel first broadcast 2001 and re-run periodically. There's a funny photo story by one of the local historians about the whole adventure on the web at www.seacoastnh.com/dct/blackbeard1.html. Look for shots of our crew, the pirates, and the ghost. Also see www.seacoastnh.com/arts/please100700.html for some historical perspective, if you are interested...
 

Members of H-R with the production staff of the History Channel's "History's Mysteries".

The geophysical team and the ghost of Blackbeard's wife.