By Erin Delmore
Correspondent
Ask Away: Who was Captain William Kidd and where is his treasure buried in Bradley Beach?
Have you heard anything about buried treasure?
“Yeah, but I don’t know where,” said Jerry Grodeska, a resident of Bradley Beach.
A hunt for buried treasure? Sign me up thanks to Bradley Beach business owner Nicole Kienlen’s Ask Away question.
“I want to know who Captain William Kidd, the pirate, was, and where he buried his treasure in Bradley Beach,” said the owner of Paws & Anchor.
Nicole entered her question on Ask Away and it won a voting round, so we’re here to find out the answer.
We started digging for clues — not in the ground, but in the history books.
“Captain William Kidd considered himself a privateer. He thought he was doing this for the benefit of the crown, with the authority of the British Crown, but the British Crown and the Royal Navy at the time saw things from the other side and considered him a pirate,” said Mike DiPaolo of the Lewes Historical Society.
Ronnie DeGhetto is an experienced treasure hunter.
What does he know about Captain Kidd?
“Well Captain Kidd was born, I believe, 1645 in Scotland. He was a privateer, which was, you know a legal name for a pirate. And he ran up and down the Jersey coast all the way from Sandy Hook down through Toms River, married a woman in South Jersey and unfortunately he got caught by the English and brought back to England and he was hanged in 1701,” said DeGhetto, owner of Gold Digger Metal Detectors.
But legend has it, Kidd buried his treasure before he was apprehended. People have been looking for the lot — suspected to be worth millions — along his route up the Jersey coast.
“You don’t see as many guys as years ago, you know, but 20 years ago, there used to be 10, 15 guys out here right now looking for coins,” said Bradley Beach Department of Public Works Operation Supervisor Richard Bianchi Jr.
Bianchi found a centerpiece from an old ship. But he hasn’t tried his luck on the treasure.
Why not?
“I just don’t have the gear to do it,” he said.
What does somebody need to go out on one of these expeditions, one of these treasure hunts?
“Well you need a metal detector, but even more so than a metal detector, you need to know where to hunt,” DeGhetto said.
And, where not to hunt, like national historic lands, including Sandy Hook. Just as important is when to look.
“There’s areas in Jersey, where you go one weekend, and there’s really nothing. It’s sanded in. The next week, there could be a storm that cuts the beach up and exposed targets. And they may stay exposed for a week or two, and then get buried again. So, really after a storm is a good time to go,” said Gold Digger Innovative Products Partner Carter Pennington.
And yet, “Through all the storms we’ve had and hurricanes, it’s never appeared,” said Bradley Beach Historical Museum Curator Donald Lewis.
But of course, this is all conjecture. So, could he have landed here, at Bradley Beach? Historians tell me absolutely, why not.
“I think that’s really cool,” Kienlen said.
Do you have a question about New Jersey? You can ask it on our Ask Away page.