Pirate Booty



"Sissy Pirate: "Uh, captain? Captain? I know we usually bury the treasure, but what if, this time, we use it to buy things? You know... eh... things we like." Captain: [shoots him, then looks at his other men, who furiously begin digging a hole] "Ahhr! We'll dig up the treasure in seven yarr. I've drawn a map on this cracker, which Polly will hold for safe keepin'.""

- The Simpsons, on why there is treasure buried everywhere.

In media the goal of every Pirate is to Plunder shipping for the large wooden chests overflowing with gold, jewels and other valuable trinkets invariably carried by every vessel on the high seas. Mundane cargoes carried in the ships' holds are completely ignored as cackling buccaneers make off with their ill-gotten riches, which they then buried or hid in a cave on a remote island, with only a Treasure Map to remind them of the location.

The reality of piracy was a lot more pragmatic. Food, fresh water, weapons and ammunition, timber and sails were all of more immediate value to the corsair than a chest full of gold (which, if they ever got any, would promptly be spent on food, fresh water, weapons and ammunition, timber and sails, with what was left going to drinking and whoring). These things kept their ships and crews operating outside the reach of the law. In addition, very few cargo vessels carried that kind of wealth. Those that did were warships sailing in groups with enhanced security to fend off any pirates that might attempt an attack.

Furthermore, pirate ships probably didn't have space for huge chests: real pirate ships were often very small and fast, although a few of the more successful and grandiose pirate captains got quite big ships.

Pirates sustained themselves and their vessels by using supplies and cargoes plundered from their victims and selling what they had no use for. This provided the coin for obtaining things they couldn't steal, paying their crews and spending a raucous night enjoying the pleasures of a seedy port.

But as they say, behind every story is a grain of truth. The idea of pirate gold most likely arose from the "Treasure Fleets" used by Spain to transport large amounts of gold and silver, among other goods, plundered from Mexico and South America. Even today, sunken treasure ships are highly sought after by modern treasure hunters. Additionally, the passengers on ships typically carried money in the form of gold or silver, in small quantities.

The greatest amount of pirate treasure is said to be on the Swedish island Gotland in the Baltic Sea. Though obviously not the Caribbean type of pirates, generations of vikings Buried Treasure from their raids to eastern Europe and the Black Sea there.

See also Inexplicable Treasure Chests what be buried on a Desert Island in The Spanish Main.

And naar, this be nothin' to do with tryin' to get yer hooks on a Pirate Girl's "hidden treasure", ye parrrrvarrrrt.

Arrrrrrrh!

Anime and Manga

 * The title of One Piece actually refers to the fortune of legendary Pirate Gold Roger.
 * Though the exact nature of this "fortune" is arguably the greatest mystery in the series. It's merely the prestige of having been the only one since Roger to make it to the end of the world that will make whoever finds it the pirate king. In all likelihood, the actual treasure as in silver and gold aspect of the One Piece is probably rather meagre. Speculations on what it could be range from a single piece of eight (It is ONE piece, after all) to a one piece bathing suit that Roger was fond of.
 * "Arguably", nothing. Oda has gone on record saying that the real meaning behind the name "One Piece" is his best-kept secret. The only real hints we get about what it actually is come from Whitebeard, who seems to imply that it does have genuine importance (ruling out the sillier or purely symbolic theories), but it is probably not the "silver and gold" kind of treasure either (at least not completely). Oda has, however, gone on the record saying that One Piece is indeed a physical reward to be gained by whoever finds it and not some sort of spiritual or allegorical concept, such as "the journey is its own reward."
 * The closest the protagonists ever truly came to finding out what it was came in the Sabaody Archipelago Arc when Usopp tried to ask Silvers Rayleigh about it. Luffy angrily interrupted, indicating that he did not under any circumstances want to simply be told about it, stating that such knowledge would defeat their purpose. It seems likely that someone will eventually find out what One Piece is, but it won't be that easy.
 * There are however other instances of Pirate booty that more fit into the cliche. Nami spent ten years collecting booty stolen from pirates to try and buy back her village from the pirates who had occupied it, only to have it taken by corrupt marines when she almost had enough.
 * The sky island arc is driven by the search for treasure as well, and after saving the entire island from civil war and evil overlords with god complexes, the Strawhats decide to steal a whole bunch of treasure from those people they just saved and make off in the night. Made hilarious by the fact that as they made their escape, they were pursued by the sky islanders who they thought were trying to stop them, but were instead attempting to give them a huge golden pillar worth many times that of the loot they'd stolen. To show their appreciation. The islanders eventually gave up and let the Strawhats think they were being all evil and piratey, much to Robin's amusement (she was the only one who knew)
 * Note that this was the first time the Strawhats committed anything resembling a real act of piracy.
 * In general, this trope is mostly averted as, while pirates do focus on treasure a lot, they're equally keen on spending it. The only two who really value treasure for its own sake are Nami (who has an obvious Money Fetish) and Buggy (and it's implied that that tendency is a big part of why he's so weak compared to his former Heterosexual Life Partner Shanks).
 * An episode of Transformers Headmasters revolved around the Autobots and Decepticons trying to get a massive stockpile of energy hidden on a Space Pirate Planet.

Comics

 * Tintin in The Secret of the Unicorn (a ship) and Red Rackham's Treasure combines this with a Pirate treasure island and a Dismantled MacGuffin Treasure Map.

Film

 * Justified in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, as the pirates are waiting to spend the treasure until they are uncursed.
 * Heck, averting this trope is the very reason they have a problem to begin with, because they spent all of the treasure immediately after finding it, and thus have to go around recollecting all of the coins that comprised it to lift the curse.
 * In The Goonies, Mikey finds a Treasure Map leading to the "rich stuff" of legendary pirate One-Eyed Willy.
 * In Treasure of Swamp Castle, the MacGuffin of the film is the treasure.

Literature

 * One of the first stories to feature buried Pirate Booty was The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allen Poe, in which the treasure in question is actually Kidd's. Naturally, being a Poe story, madness is involved somewhere. Poe also uses the story to discuss how to crack a substitution cypher.
 * The most famous story of Pirate Booty, and indeed Pirates in general, is of course Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.
 * The James Bond novel Live and Let Die deals with pirate treasure discovered in Jamaica.
 * The Deep by Peter Benchley (made into a film in 1977) has divers discovering a WW 2 ship containing a cargo of morphine, which has sunk on top of a Spanish treasure ship that went down in the 18th century holding a priceless royal dowry. When a local drug kingpin takes an interest, the protagonists have to buy him off by salvaging the morphine while concealing what their real area of interest is.
 * Like every other piratical trope, this one is used (and parodied) in George Macdonald Fraser's comedy novel The Pyrates.
 * Possibly averted in Redwall; the corsairs seem to do it For the Evulz, spending less time on treasure than on capturing slaves and randomly slaughtering everything in sight. Used in Pearls of Lutra because Emperor Ublaz is specifically telling them to bring back loot for him.
 * Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea depicts Captain Nemo as salvaging sunken treasure. He justified it by saying that the treasure's former owners had been dead for centuries.

Live Action Television

 * We probably ought to mention the reality game show Pirate Master. There wasn't any plundering involved, but all they really did was look for treasure.
 * Justified in the Doctor Who episode The Curse of the Black Spot—the pirate in question was Henry Every, one of the very few pirates to actually get his hands on a cargo of gold and jewels (and the episode even specified that it was the Mughal's treasure).
 * The Big Finish audio adventure Doctor Who and the Pirates features just about every pirate trope, including buried treasure.
 * The Bones episode "The Man with the Bone" was based on the Oak Island Money Pit, rumoured to be a burial place of some of Captain Kidd's treasure (or maybe Blackbeard's.)

Music

 * The song "Pirates" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, which squeezes just about every pirate movie cliche ever into 13 minutes.
 * NB The remix version on the Return of the Manticore box set has better sound quality than the original.
 * Scottish pirate-metal band Alestorm.

Video Games

 * Subverted plenty of times in the Monkey Island series. In the first game the treasure of Melee island turned out to be a t-shirt that said that you found it, and in the second game the McGuffin the Big Whoop turned out to be a worthless ticket for an amusement park..
 * In Skies of Arcadia, some can be seen in Pirate's Isle.
 * Later subverted. Ironically, you can sell   for quite a bit of money.
 * Averted in Sid Meier's Pirates!, where you mainly raid for cargo, especially sugar, for later resale in ports.
 * However, the other "Top 10 Pirates" all have buried treasures hidden throughout the Caribbean. The manual lampshades and discusses this: an excerpt from "Captain Sydney"'s memoirs points out the problems with burying treasure ("Seems to me that every time they buried their treasure, along'd come some blasted thief to dig it up and steal it."), while another sidebar discusses the historical accuracy, or lack thereof, of buried treasure.
 * The latter sidebar is even titled "Robert Louis Stevenson Has a Lot to Answer For".
 * The Age of Pirates series averts the trope in the same way. While you can certainly find treasure hordes and ships with substantial sums of gold and silver aboard, the majority of your income will be from the regular cargo aboard your targets—as well as from selling the ships themselves if you're able to take them as prizes in combat. Also, this will likewise be a good source for obtaining vital supplies like food, repair materials, and rum. Especially rum.
 * Similarly, the online game Puzzle Pirates has pieces of eight as the main currency, which is also dispensed as treasure following pillage. On the other hand, winning shipboard fights also entitles you to cannonballs, rum, and even pineapples and other produce. A little bit of trope, a little bit of truth.
 * In Monster Hunter Tri one of the items found in the best treasure location is literally Pirate Booty, it sells for as much as a golden egg though.
 * The PC game Crimson Skies has the first few missions centering around Sky Pirate Nathan Zachary attempting to retrieve the lost treasure of Sir Francis Drake. He and his crew end up having to battle a rival pirate gang, the Medusas, and the British Royal Navy who also want the treasure for themselves.
 * Most of treasure in Dubloon can be found by digging, with varying levels of invisibility.
 * The missing man in Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull has been searching for pirate treasure. If you're playing the Collector's Edition, the Master Detective actually finds it still stashed in a locked cabin on one of Captain Crown's ships.

Web Comics

 * Servants of the Imperium: The initial plot arc follows the party as they race to find the hoard of a crew of legendary Space Pirates.

Western Animation

 * A brief sight gag on The Simpsons shows that the Sea Captain pays his income tax in gold and jewels from a treasure chest. "Yarr, sometimes I wonder why I bother plunderin' at all."
 * Parodied when Bart imagines that a pirate who inquires why the treasure should be buried instead of used is shot—see quote above.
 * One episode of the Donkey Kong Country cartoon brought Scurvy and his crew into the plot by having them trying to find some treasure they buried on Kongo Bongo's beaches. It turns out burying treasure is part of The Code, article and section and everything.
 * Shows up on Jimmy Two-Shoes, when Lucius accidently digs it up.

Real Life

 * The only pirate known to have actually buried his treasure was Captain Kidd, who buried a portion of his wealth on, of all places, Long Island, in an attempt to use it as a bargaining chip to avoid punishment for his piracy. It didn't work.
 * Hey, Long Island is a very nice place to live!
 * On the rare occasions where a pirate did manage to get their hands on massive piles of gold and silver, they generally wound up becoming quite famous. For example, Francis Drake earned a knighthood and status as one of the founding heroes of the British Empire, largely by stealing Spanish treasure. Tons of it.
 * Of course, he didn't bury it; he took it back to England. Where, predictably, most of his crew spent their shares of the treasure on drinking and whoring, also known as "the fun way" of putting said treasure into your sponsor nation's economy.
 * Just fresh from the headlines: certain US company lifted from the seafloor the load of early XIX-Century Spanish frigate sank by English privateers, worth about half a billion USD. The Spanish government went to courts, arguing that it's their gold (for added fun, one of the other claimants—who were quick to jump in for the cash—was Peru, apparently as the source of Spanish colonial gold). It seems this is not the first time something like this happens; Spaniards, as it seems, won this time, so, before finding an old treasure, best make sure nobody can track their lineage to original owners.
 * Salvage laws can be so incomprehensibly torturous that there are several very valuable wrecks whose locations are known today that have not been recovered because the value of the booty would be offset by legal fees.
 * A Letter of Marque is basically a government license to plunder and act like a pirate. It's even explicitly authorized in the US Constitution! Though, spoil-sports in the 19th century agreed not to authorize them any more, and it is considered a war crime today.
 * For which advancement they substituted by using submariners on naval pay which were to small to carry prisoners, to fragile to stay on the surface long enough to collect a prize, and satisfied to fight for destruction rather then plunder.
 * Real treasure of course often has a bunch of tough dudes guarding it, naturally enough. Which makes it a good idea to stay away from it. That is why the optimal pirate booty is simply slaves. It is fairly easy to gut a small coastal village and get away before the local chief, Sheriff or Feudal Overlord comes down with a posse,even assuming he exists and cares about the matter and has enough muscle to interfere. And slaves will sell well. Gold and jewels while glamorous are more important things then the freedom of strangers and hence will have a lot of attention paid to it.