Lost Treasure Anthology - New England Treasure Stories Volume-I (digital downloadable book) This digital book contains 25 different stories -- over 100+ pages -- all dedicated to New England Treasures! Anthology: This Anthology is a collection of published stories, by multiple authors, in a book format. It was compiled from the Archives of one or more of our six publications: Lost Treasure – Treasure Cache – Treasure Facts – Treasure World – True Treasure – Rockhound.

Treasure Tales and Treasure Stories About Rhode Island from the Archives of Lost Treasure Magazine

Charles Harris' chest

In 1722, the pirate captain George Lowther captured the merchant ship Greyhound and forced five of its crew, including first mate Charles Harris, into his band. Harris soon proved himself an able pirate and was given command of a sloop of his own. Harris and Lowther raided for about a year and then Harris dropped out of sight. When Harris reappeared, he was in partnership with the much-feared Edward Low. Together they attacked another ship named the Greyhound, but this one turned out to be a man-of-war, and both pirate vessels were soon in retreat. Edward Low escaped, but Harris and 47 of his crew were captured and taken to Newport for trial.

During the transfer of the prisoners from Harris' ship Ranger to the Greyhound, a group of sailors from the Greyhound discovered Harris' treasure chest, said to hold several thousand gold doubloons, and managed to smuggle it on board the Greyhound without any of the officers taking notice. The treasure chest was kept hidden below decks for over a month until the morning of the mass execution of Charles Harris and 25 of his crew. Just prior to the hanging, the conspirators took the treasure off the Greyhound and buried it four feet deep under the sands on the beach under the overhanging cliffs at Newport. A careful map of the site was made -- and subsequently lost. When the sailors tried to relocate the hidden chest, they found that storms had completely rearranged the beach, and Charles Harris' treasure was never recovered.

In 1949, two girls walking on the same beach during a lull in a storm discovered a partially exposed rusted iron chest which they could neither open nor remove from the sand. Storms forced them off the beach, and when they returned in calmer weather, the chest was nowhere to be seen.

Edward Rowe Snow, who found part of Harris' partner Edward Low's treasure on the Isle of Haute, was certain that the chest had been reburied by the storm, and it still awaits discovery today.