• There was no need for Jean to make his mark on a letter since both Jean and his
older brother Pierre (my g-g-g-g-g-grandfather) were literate. Furthermore, in
documented examples of their signatures both brothers consistently spelled their
surname Laffite, not Lafitte.
• The brothers primarily spoke and wrote in French which was their native tongue,
although they were both conversant in Spanish and English.
• The distance from Boot Key Harbor (Marathon, FL) to Elbow Cay, near Acoba
Island, Bahamas is considerably more than 56 nautical miles – closer to 250 nautical
miles.
• The first lighthouse to mark the Elbow Cay Reef was not erected until 1839, some 13
years after Jean's death from wounds suffered in a battle off the coast of Honduras. It
was the Cay Sal Bank lighthouse. It is located between 23º27 N - 24º10 N and 079º25
W – 080º35 W.
• 197 years ago tonight, Uncle Jean and his Barataria crew were delivering flints to
Andrew Jackson in advance of General Packenham's British Forces.
www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/lafitte/1.html
www.lhdigest.com/Digest/StoryPage.cfm?StoryKey=1921
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cay_Sal_Bank
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Lafitte
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Lafitte
www.thelaffitesociety.com/index.html
If anyone finds buried treasure that they would like to
attribute to the Laffites, I've got lots of cousins who
would like to file a claim to it!
Diane Burkett
older brother Pierre (my g-g-g-g-g-grandfather) were literate. Furthermore, in
documented examples of their signatures both brothers consistently spelled their
surname Laffite, not Lafitte.
• The brothers primarily spoke and wrote in French which was their native tongue,
although they were both conversant in Spanish and English.
• The distance from Boot Key Harbor (Marathon, FL) to Elbow Cay, near Acoba
Island, Bahamas is considerably more than 56 nautical miles – closer to 250 nautical
miles.
• The first lighthouse to mark the Elbow Cay Reef was not erected until 1839, some 13
years after Jean's death from wounds suffered in a battle off the coast of Honduras. It
was the Cay Sal Bank lighthouse. It is located between 23º27 N - 24º10 N and 079º25
W – 080º35 W.
• 197 years ago tonight, Uncle Jean and his Barataria crew were delivering flints to
Andrew Jackson in advance of General Packenham's British Forces.
www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/lafitte/1.html
www.lhdigest.com/Digest/StoryPage.cfm?StoryKey=1921
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cay_Sal_Bank
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Lafitte
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Lafitte
www.thelaffitesociety.com/index.html
If anyone finds buried treasure that they would like to
attribute to the Laffites, I've got lots of cousins who
would like to file a claim to it!
Diane Burkett
Interesting little puzzle -- but wrong on so many counts.
"Sail from Boot Key Harbor 56 nautical miles across the Florida
Straits to Elbow Cay. The treasure is buried under the ruined
lighthouse."
One would presume that this is supposed to have been dictated
by my great-great-great-great-great-uncle, the famous
pirate/privateer Jean Laffite, who roamed the Gulf of Mexico and
the Caribbean in search of ships with booty, but...
"Sail from Boot Key Harbor 56 nautical miles across the Florida
Straits to Elbow Cay. The treasure is buried under the ruined
lighthouse."
One would presume that this is supposed to have been dictated
by my great-great-great-great-great-uncle, the famous
pirate/privateer Jean Laffite, who roamed the Gulf of Mexico and
the Caribbean in search of ships with booty, but...
| XXX |
| XXX |
| XXX |
| XXX |
| XXX |
| XXX |
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| If you have a picture you'd like us to feature a picture in a future quiz, please email it to us at CFitzp@aol.com. If we use it, you will receive a free analysis of your picture. You will also receive a free Forensic Genealogy CD or a 10% discount towards the purchase of the Forensic Genealogy book. |
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| ********** |
| If you enjoy our quizzes, don't forget to order our books! Click here. |
| Quiz #337 Results |
| Answer to Quiz #337 January 1, 2012 |
What are the GPS coordinates of the treasure's location? You may contact me at colleen@forensicgenealogy.info if you need a hint. |
| ********** |
| Click on thumbnails for larger images. |
| Congratulations to Our Winners! Diane Burkett (gr gr gr gr gr gr grand niece of Jean Lafitte) Rachel Joy Marty Guidry Mike Dalton Jerry Vergeront Shirley Hamblin Robert E. Steinmann Jr. Daniel E. Jolley Beth Tafel Shuster Peter Norton Collier Smith Margaret Paxton Sally Garrison Daniel E. Jolley Stephen Jolley Jim Kiser Arthur Hartwell |
| Comments from Our Readers |
I was able to make the treasure was buried under the Lighthouse at Elbow Cay and then
used Google to find where Elbow Cay Lighthouse was. It seemed to me that the early
information in the note was not needed to solve the puzzle. Marty Guidry
N.B. I just checked your coordinates and realized there are two Elbow Cays, and two
lighthouses. The one you were looking at is on the east side of Cay Sal - and you
can't cross the Florida Straits to get to it. You have to sail from Port St. Lucia
around to the east side of Cay Sal to Great Abaco Island. There is a lighthouse there,
but it is not ruined.
You did need the first part of the quiz to discover you have to sail across the Florida
Straits to get to the second Elbow Cay. There is a ruined lighthouse there, built in
1839.
We'll give you e for effort, however as long as you promise to have a look at the
answer page. Just watch it next time.... -Q. Gen.
*****
Think I also saw a reference to the Chance Brothers of Birmingham which I am going
to have to go back and check. If I'm not getting confused it with a different lighthouse
that came up on searches it was built in the 1830's when one of my great (?)
grandfathers may have been working for Chance Brothers. It would be amazing to
think he may have been involved in making the glass for it. Rachel Joy
Looks like it was the candy stripe one that they built and after 1900. Shame would have
been a good story. :-( Rachel Joy
*****
Well, if I have time I'll try to pin it down, but at the moment I'll go on the assumption
that the lighthouse is on the highest point of the island. The highest I've found is 34 ft.
at 23.954809 N 80.442227 W. Should be worth at least a doubloon! Peter Norton
*****
Sail from Boat Key Harbor.
56 nautical miles across the
Florida Strait to Elbow Cay.
The treasure is buried under the
striped? lighthouse
(I am accustomed to deciphering messed up handwriting, thanks to my genealogy
hobby.)
Entering the term 'elbow cay' into Google Maps leads to the Bahamas or Belize, but
Belize is much more than 56 n.m. from Florida. So looking on the Bahama Elbow Cay
for a lighthouse quickly turns up the iconic red-and-white one in Hope Town (called the
Elbow Reef Lightstation).
Its coordinates, according to Google Maps, are 26.53960 N, -76.96191 W.
It is one of the last 3 manually powered lighthouses in the world, they say. Uses
kerosene for the light.
However, I could find no historical reference to Jean Lafitte in connection with this
lighthouse (which was built in 1863-64, much later than his lifetime), or even with
Elbow Cay. Or was that just a fiction you invented for your note? Collier Smith
N.B. Oops. It's not a "striped" lighthouse. If it were, you would see the ascenders
from the t and the d sticking out from the blackened areas, along with the descender
from the p.
You fell into the trap. You can't get to the "striped" lighthouse on Great Abaco
Island by sailing across the Florida Strait. To get to this Elbow Cay, you have to sail
from Port St. Lucie around to the east side of Cal Sal. - Q. Gen.
*****
This looks like a fraud. Too many details do not seem right. The syntax is not that of
the early 19th century English. Did Lafitte speak English or did he speak French? The
letter seems to indicate Elbow Cay, The Bahamas (GPS N 26 31.617 W 76 58.083).
However, there was no lighthouse there until 1863, about 40 years after Lafitte died.
The distance from Boat Key Harbor to Elbow Key is about 120 nautical miles, not 56,
though the definition of a nautical mile may not have been the same in Lafitte's time (if,
indeed, he used that measure). Why would Lafitte make his mark when he was able to
sign his name? Margaret Paxton
N.B. You make a lot of good points. I actually made the puzzle up. >>>BLUSH<<<
You caught me!
However, as off track as the historical information is, the geographical info is
correct. The treasure is not buried under the striped lighthouse on Great Abaco
Island. If you follow the instructions on the treasure map, you will find it. - Q. Gen.
*****
The ruined lighthouse is on what is called North Elbow Cay and, as close as I can
figure, is located at approximately 23.956 degrees North and 80.441 degrees West. I
feel fairly certain the letter from Jean Lafitte is a forgery, though, since the lighthouse
was built in 1839 and Jean supposedly died circa 1823 (LOL). Nonetheless, great
quiz! Daniel E. Jolley
N.B. Well I have to admit I was a little lax on the historical research I did for the
quiz....-Q. Gen.
*****
It was not that difficult once you zero in of LaFitte and his legend. Jim Kiser
N.B. Actually, Lafitte had nothing to do with it. I made the puzzle up. But this did
not prevent several readers from asking me whey it wasn't written in French. -Q. Gen.
*****
N.B. Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum! - Q. Gen.
Thanks, but it's my wife who likes rum, and then only Bacardi with a couple of gallons
of Coke in it. I'll just have a (locally-brewed) beer, okay? : { )> (Me, with mustache
and beard, smiling). Peter Norton
used Google to find where Elbow Cay Lighthouse was. It seemed to me that the early
information in the note was not needed to solve the puzzle. Marty Guidry
N.B. I just checked your coordinates and realized there are two Elbow Cays, and two
lighthouses. The one you were looking at is on the east side of Cay Sal - and you
can't cross the Florida Straits to get to it. You have to sail from Port St. Lucia
around to the east side of Cay Sal to Great Abaco Island. There is a lighthouse there,
but it is not ruined.
You did need the first part of the quiz to discover you have to sail across the Florida
Straits to get to the second Elbow Cay. There is a ruined lighthouse there, built in
1839.
We'll give you e for effort, however as long as you promise to have a look at the
answer page. Just watch it next time.... -Q. Gen.
*****
Think I also saw a reference to the Chance Brothers of Birmingham which I am going
to have to go back and check. If I'm not getting confused it with a different lighthouse
that came up on searches it was built in the 1830's when one of my great (?)
grandfathers may have been working for Chance Brothers. It would be amazing to
think he may have been involved in making the glass for it. Rachel Joy
Looks like it was the candy stripe one that they built and after 1900. Shame would have
been a good story. :-( Rachel Joy
*****
Well, if I have time I'll try to pin it down, but at the moment I'll go on the assumption
that the lighthouse is on the highest point of the island. The highest I've found is 34 ft.
at 23.954809 N 80.442227 W. Should be worth at least a doubloon! Peter Norton
*****
Sail from Boat Key Harbor.
56 nautical miles across the
Florida Strait to Elbow Cay.
The treasure is buried under the
striped? lighthouse
(I am accustomed to deciphering messed up handwriting, thanks to my genealogy
hobby.)
Entering the term 'elbow cay' into Google Maps leads to the Bahamas or Belize, but
Belize is much more than 56 n.m. from Florida. So looking on the Bahama Elbow Cay
for a lighthouse quickly turns up the iconic red-and-white one in Hope Town (called the
Elbow Reef Lightstation).
Its coordinates, according to Google Maps, are 26.53960 N, -76.96191 W.
It is one of the last 3 manually powered lighthouses in the world, they say. Uses
kerosene for the light.
However, I could find no historical reference to Jean Lafitte in connection with this
lighthouse (which was built in 1863-64, much later than his lifetime), or even with
Elbow Cay. Or was that just a fiction you invented for your note? Collier Smith
N.B. Oops. It's not a "striped" lighthouse. If it were, you would see the ascenders
from the t and the d sticking out from the blackened areas, along with the descender
from the p.
You fell into the trap. You can't get to the "striped" lighthouse on Great Abaco
Island by sailing across the Florida Strait. To get to this Elbow Cay, you have to sail
from Port St. Lucie around to the east side of Cal Sal. - Q. Gen.
*****
This looks like a fraud. Too many details do not seem right. The syntax is not that of
the early 19th century English. Did Lafitte speak English or did he speak French? The
letter seems to indicate Elbow Cay, The Bahamas (GPS N 26 31.617 W 76 58.083).
However, there was no lighthouse there until 1863, about 40 years after Lafitte died.
The distance from Boat Key Harbor to Elbow Key is about 120 nautical miles, not 56,
though the definition of a nautical mile may not have been the same in Lafitte's time (if,
indeed, he used that measure). Why would Lafitte make his mark when he was able to
sign his name? Margaret Paxton
N.B. You make a lot of good points. I actually made the puzzle up. >>>BLUSH<<<
You caught me!
However, as off track as the historical information is, the geographical info is
correct. The treasure is not buried under the striped lighthouse on Great Abaco
Island. If you follow the instructions on the treasure map, you will find it. - Q. Gen.
*****
The ruined lighthouse is on what is called North Elbow Cay and, as close as I can
figure, is located at approximately 23.956 degrees North and 80.441 degrees West. I
feel fairly certain the letter from Jean Lafitte is a forgery, though, since the lighthouse
was built in 1839 and Jean supposedly died circa 1823 (LOL). Nonetheless, great
quiz! Daniel E. Jolley
N.B. Well I have to admit I was a little lax on the historical research I did for the
quiz....-Q. Gen.
*****
It was not that difficult once you zero in of LaFitte and his legend. Jim Kiser
N.B. Actually, Lafitte had nothing to do with it. I made the puzzle up. But this did
not prevent several readers from asking me whey it wasn't written in French. -Q. Gen.
*****
N.B. Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum! - Q. Gen.
Thanks, but it's my wife who likes rum, and then only Bacardi with a couple of gallons
of Coke in it. I'll just have a (locally-brewed) beer, okay? : { )> (Me, with mustache
and beard, smiling). Peter Norton
Elbow Cay is the only island in
Cay Cal Bank that was EVER
inhabited. Many years ago the
Bahamanians set up a lighthouse
and a small settlement to warn
passing ships of the low lying
rocks. The lighthouse is quite
deteriorated and impossible to
climb. The only inhabitants of
the island now are several
species of birds, crickets and
some Fuzzy Chiton.
www.gagme.com/greg/vacation/2001/bahamas/shore.php
Cay Cal Bank that was EVER
inhabited. Many years ago the
Bahamanians set up a lighthouse
and a small settlement to warn
passing ships of the low lying
rocks. The lighthouse is quite
deteriorated and impossible to
climb. The only inhabitants of
the island now are several
species of birds, crickets and
some Fuzzy Chiton.
www.gagme.com/greg/vacation/2001/bahamas/shore.php
| Great Solution Submitted by Robert E. Steinmann Jr. |
| Oh Boy!, nothing like a good old fashioned treasure hunt! Although at the beginning of all this I was hoping to break into the Library of Congress and find a treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence, cooler heads prevailed and I didn't think that that would be necessary . . .and quite frankly I don't have the time, and my Nicholas Gage impression is poor at best! This what I came up with, I don't know if I'm right but I came up with the following: First I "decoded" the instructions as "Sail from Boot Key Harbor. 56 nautical miles across the Florida Straits to Elbow Cay. The treasure is buried under the ruined lighthouse". |
| First, I found myself at Elbow Cay in the Northeastern Bahamas at the Abaco Islands near Hopetown, which does have a beautiful red & white lighthouse, but is sadly too far. After all, the straight line distance between the Florida mainland (Miami) & Nassau is over 178 miles [286 km] away. There are also the place names of Elbow Bay Beach in AZ, KY, and AK, TOO FAR!. |
| There is also an Elbow Key, in Paget Parish, Bermuda (AKA Middleton Bay), TOO FAR! I know that Boot Key is in the Florida Keys, near Marathon. Then I found another lesser known, less land mass, and more controversial Elbow Cay in the Western Bahamas. It is part of Cay Sal Bank, a triangular atoll. Administratively, part of the Bimini District, in a geographical sense it is much closer to Cuba, than to the Bahamas proper. Cay Sal Bank (In Spanish: Placer de los Roques) is the third largest (after Great |
The striped lighthouse on Elbow Cay,
Great Abaco Island, Bahamas.
www.erabahamas.com/hope-town-real-estate
Great Abaco Island, Bahamas.
www.erabahamas.com/hope-town-real-estate
| Bahama Bank and Little Bahama Bank) and the westernmost of the Bahama Banks. It is located between 23º27'N-24º10'N & 079º25'W–080º35'W from which it is separated by Nicholas Channel, at a distance of 50 km) than to the next closest Bahamanian island. It is separated by Santaren Channel from the Great Bahama Bank, the western rim of which is 50 km to the east. The westernmost tip of Andros, the next closest islands of the Bahamas, is 145 km east of Cay Sal Bank. The Straits of Florida separate it from the United States mainland & the Florida Keys (Key Largo is 100 km to the north). In the northeast region of the atoll, north of a place called Rompidas Ledge, is an Elbow Cay, (more specifically, North Elbow Key). According to Wikipedia, "The Elbow Cays are the westernmost group, running |
| southeast to northwest. North Elbow Cay, the largest and highest of the cays, is marked by a 'DISUSED CONICAL STONE LIGHTHOUSE', which is 17.7 m high. South Elbow cay is the westernmost named cay of Cay Sal Bank. Further southwest are a few unnamed cays and rocks." I am going with this! It is one of the best dive destinations in the Bahamas with 150' visibility, it features huge wall dives. This whole area has serious connections to The 'Bermuda Triangle", Atlantis (including possible quarry sites for both Old & New World pyramids), Edgar Cayce, Freemasonry, Knights Templar, The "Skull & Bones Society", etc., etc.. Right up our alley !!!! I will meet you next week at Key West International Airport with a shovel, dive equipment, & of course, a bottle of rum. I have to stop and pick up a key in the Sub-sub basement of Trinity Church in NYC, |
Ruined lighthouse on Elbow
Cay across the Florida Straits
from Boot Key Harbor.
www.gagme.com/greg/...
Cay across the Florida Straits
from Boot Key Harbor.
www.gagme.com/greg/...
| and I'll take a look around the city for Nicholas Cage, we'll bring him for some "street. . uhh, I mean sand cred". So anyway - - What are the GPS coordinates of the treasure's location? Cay Sal Bank(Elbow Cay)-> Approx. - 23° 46′ 0″ N, 80° 27′ 0″ W WGS84 Lat -23.766667 Long -80.45 UTM 17 (N)Q 556042 2628502 GPS Lat N 23 46.000 Long W 80 27.000 FINAL ANSWER !!!!! Source(s): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Lafitte; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cay_Sal_Bank www.scribd.com/doc/45359385/Secret-Societies-of-America-s- Have a great week, Bob |
| Relative location of two lighthouses. |
| To get to the first one, you must sail southwest of Port St. Lucie, FL, then around Great Abaco Island to get to Elbow Cay and the striped lighthouse. |
| To get to the right one, you must sail 56 nautical miles across the Florida Straits to Elbow Cay (West Bahamas). |
| ********** |
| The Ruined Lighthouse at Cay Cal Bank www.gagme.com/greg/vacation/2001/bahamas/shore.php |
| Lighthouse stairs are in bad disrepair. |
Visitors in front of lighthouse keeper's
house.
house.
| Ruined lighthouse. |
Colleen, in each and every quiz, you have hoped that we, the readers, would take the time to do a little bit of actual investigation regarding the quizzes you have submitted. In this spirit, here is what I have deduced. Short answer: 26.319444,-77.008333 (Sorry Jerry, wrong lighthouse! - Q. Gen.) Long answer: First and foremost, let's take a look at the letters. First, the full text of the edited version: "Sail from Boot Key Harbor[,] 56 nautical miles across the Florida Straights to Elbow Cay. The treasure is buried under the ruined lighthouse." This and the introductory letters are obviously not from the pirate/smuggler Jean Lafitte. Evidence is as follows: 1. The script was in English. Jean Lafitte was of French |
| Jerry Vergeront's questions the note's authenticity. (There's one in every crowd.) |
| For further reading, see Lighthouse Digest www.lhdigest.com/Digest/StoryPage.cfm?StoryKey=1921 |
| ********** |
| Read about Jean Lafitte on Wikipedia. |
| descent (Lafitte claimed to be |
| XXX |
| born in Bordeaux, disputed). Jean's stong ties to France extended to his language of choide. His journals (still being authenticated) were in French. 2. While ruled paper has been around since the early middle ages, the lines in this document are obviously of modern age. The rules are too uniform to be manual put on paper. As the rules have absolutely no smudges on them, this also rules out lead plummet ruling. This leads us up to 1770, when a patent was applied for ruling paper. This has also been ruled out as there is a vertical rule on the right hand side of the introductory letter. More than likely, we are looking at modern paper. |
| 3. The pen used was ball-point. The entry points of letters show the outline of the ball very clearly (see the B and K in "Boot Key"). Additionally, when looking closely at the letter with instruction, you can see the imprint of another letter writter prior. This type of imprint, while common with ball point pens, is not common of either quill or fountin pens. The first patent of ball-point pens came out in 1888, 65 years after Lafitte's death. The letter is obviously not from the |
| smuggler Lafitte. However, one may make an initial assumption that this is a translation of another document. Unfortunately, the content does not lend credibility to this assumption: The reason for such scrutiny around the time-frame these notes were written directly ties into discovering the location of the treasure. If the time-frames were to parallel Jean Lafitte's life, then this note (or translation of a note) would have been written between 1820 and 1823. It was during this time frame that Lafitte spend most of his time in the area around Elbow Cay. Prior to that, he spent the majority of his time in the New Orleans and (Galveston) Texas areas. The note states that one is to find the treasure under the "ruined |
| Map of Cay Sal Bank |
| Read about the history of the ballpoint pen. |
| lighthouse."If the letter were |
| written in the early 1820's by Lafitte, it would be hard pressed to find a ruined lighthouse. One of the oldest lighthouses in the area was built in Nassau in 1817, and would have been anything but ruins just 5 years later. The scrutiny can lead us away from the Lafitte reference to the heart of the hunt: We need to find current ruins in the area around Elbow Cay. By concluding that the letter was written in modern times, coupled with the fact that the points of geographic reference are also of modern times, this leads us to a very specific location: The Old Lighthouse at Little Harbour in the Abaco |
| Islands (which includes Elbow Cay). While one might think the author is referring to the Hole in the Wall lighthouse, as this is theoldest lighthouse actually in Elbow Cay (established in 1836), this is hardly in ruins (in fact, it is still in use...one of the few active manual lighthouses in the world). Remember, the note does not |
| Paradise Lighthouse Nassau, Bahamas 1817 |
| specifically state that the lighthouse is located in Elbow Cay. One is simply to sail to Elbow Cay from Boot Key Harbor, which puts the traveller in the the Abaco Islands. Even though the The Old Lighthouse at Little harbour was established in the late 1800's (1889), long after Lafitte's death, it fits the note best by actually being in ruins. Therefore, our treasure is located under these ruins, located at Lat: 26° 19" 10', Long: -77° 0" 30'. Happy Treasure hunting. ============ Colleen, this was great fun. I needed the break, and the fun in using logic to the conclusions above. OK...so maybe I overanalyzed it a bit...but, it was still great fun! I want you to know that although I haven't been responding to the quizzes, I certainly appreciate all of your efforts in creating and publishing them. If you ever find yourself in the Seattle area again, it would be privilege to be able to meet you. Thanks again! Jerry Vergeront |
| ********** |
| ********** |
| Comments from Diane Burkett Jean Lafitte's gr gr gr gr gr gr Grandniece |
| ********** |
| Jean Lafitte |
