A British warship sank in New York City waters possibly carrying millions in payroll gold in 1780. Despite tantalizing clues, including a canon from the ship held by the city the treasure, if it exists, has never been found.

1. Sunken Treasure of Hell Gate
November 23, 1780
Sir Charles Pole ignores his
pilot, a local slave named Bill and
sails east through Hell Gate
Hussar was swept
onto Pot Rock and
began sinking. Pole
was unable to run
her aground and
she sank in 90 feet
of water.
Monday, January 14, 2013

2. Last Voyage...
HMS Hussar reportedly carries $2-4 million in
gold to pay British troops during the Revolution
Heading to safety at Gardiners Bay
Hunts
Point
The British immediately denied
there was any gold aboard the ship
Monday, January 14, 2013

3. Salvaging the H.M.S. Hussar
In 1780 a British ship sank near
Hunt’s Point loaded with gold..
King George III
on a golden
Guinea used to
pay soldiers.
Area where the Hussar
apparently went down
Monday, January 14, 2013

4. Gunpowder in a cannon
from HMS Hussar
discovered in 2013
“We silenced British
cannon fire in 1776 and
we donʼt want to hear it
again in Central Park,”
the New York Police
Department said in a
statement
Monday, January 14, 2013

5. Fatal route of the Hussar
Black Jacks guided ships
through New York harbor.
“A tall, intelligent Negro, belonging to
the Hunt family of the Bronx.”
Trying to save the Hussar.
Monday, January 14, 2013

6. Deceptively serene
the waters of Hell
Gate were
treacherous. On
Wards Island Negro
Point and Negro Point
Bluff may hearken
back to the days
when local slaves
piloted ships safely
past submerged
hazards.
1885 demolition of Pot Rock in Hell Gate
Monday, January 14, 2013

7. Black Jacks are slaves and freemen trained
as sailors, pilots and at times captains
As the slave of a naval captain, Olaudah Equiano was
trained in seamanship and traveled extensively with his
master. He was sold to Robert King, a Quaker merchant
from Philadelphia who traded in the Caribbean. King
enabled Equiano to buy his freedom, which he achieved
by his early twenties. Equiano travelled to London and
became involved in the abolitionist movement, which
had been particularly strong amongst Quakers.
Many royal naval vessels were piloted by
blacks -- some of them runaways, other
enslaved to loyalist masters, and still others
pressed into service.
Although Black seamen
performed a range of duties,
usually the most menial ones,
(c. 1745 – 31 March 1797) they were particularly valued
as pilots.
The Newport Historical Society
Monday, January 14, 2013

8. The Hunts are among the earliest English
settlers in the Bronx
Hunt mansion Relics found in the ruins of the Hunt Mansion.
A cannonball, cutlass and other Revolutionary
war items.
British and American forces
in action around NYC
during the revolution
Monday, January 14, 2013

9. Hunt-Leggett slave cemetery -Hunts Point
Slavery was legal in New York until 1827.
1790 slave census shows the Hunt’s and other
local families are major owners.
Monday, January 14, 2013