If Captain Jeff MacKinnon’s hunch is right, he’ll soon be hauling up a billion dollars worth of pirate booty from the depths of Nova Scotia’s Mira River on Cape Breton.
The third-generation Canadian treasure hunter and his crew aboard the Saucy Girl hope to recover 2,000 pounds of Spanish gold and silver coins, emeralds and other jewels from the chests of the Fancy, a sunken ship that belonged to Edward Low, a 17th-century British pirate.
Mr. MacKinnon and his crew aim to start their journey to the Mira Gut, where the Mira River expands out into the Atlantic Ocean, on Aug. 28.
There is reason to believe the search will bear fruit. Last summer, Mr. MacKinnon found wreckage of a ship bearing no markings, which meant it wasn’t from British, Spanish or French naval fleets. Using charts, local lore and complex chemical carbon dating, his research suggests that the vessel is either the Fancy or one that belonged to Black Bart, another infamous pirate of the era.
It was one of four previously unknown shipwrecks uncovered by Mr. MacKinnon and his crew and showcased earlier this year in The Death Coast, a slick History Channel documentary series filmed around Cape Breton.
The discoveries are not only historically significant, but also have the potential to be among the most valuable maritime finds in Canadian waters.
None of the treasure seekers will become rich from any bounty they may find in any of the wreckage, however. After the repeal of the Treasure Trove Act of 2010, everything recovered from Nova Scotia’s archeological sites must be turned over to the province.
Instead, Mr. MacKinnon, a tattooed, chain-smoking, bearded, 48-year-old father of four, has other motivations. First is his crew, which is made up of Canadian and American retired police officers and firefighters, as well as military veterans, many of whom have served in combat and now find purpose through this work. The project, he says, “is a rare collaboration between war heroes from both sides of the border, combining history, adventure and healing.”
He is also driven by the knowledge that, if his team doesn’t rescue them, these relics may be lost forever, since there is no longer a financial incentive for other deep-sea archeologists and explorers.
“I’m the only treasure hunter in history to follow the edict that the artifacts from the sea belong to the people,” Mr. MacKinnon said. “I’m doing it for the love.”
Value beyond money
Mr. MacKinnon grew up surrounded by seafaring lore.
When he was a child, his family would warn him about Low, the bogeyman of the sea, each night before bed. The pirate, who operated along the coasts of New England, the Caribbean and Nova Scotia, was infamous for his brutality and cannibalistic ferocity. “If you don’t brush your teeth, you’ll be paid a visit by Ed Low,” he remembers hearing his grandmother warn.
His father, Robert, is a local legend, author and conservationist who discovered thousands of Spanish dollars and hundreds of gold coins in 1977 on the Auguste, a French merchant ship that sank in Cape Breton’s Aspy Bay in the 18th century, back in the days when treasure hunters could keep their recovered lucre. (The payday was split between the crew, investors and Parks Canada.)
This pocket watch, now in Parks Canada’s care, went down with the Auguste in 1751. McKinnon’s father helped to find that ship.Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail
But it was a chance encounter with an American veteran of the Iraq war that intensified Mr. MacKinnon’s love of the sea and would ultimately give him a deeper appreciation for what treasure hunting can provide him and his crew – something well beyond money.
In 2009, Mr. MacKinnon met Dan Griego, a former Bravo Company marine gunnery sergeant and onetime combat diver involved in the 2003 invasion of Fallujah. Mr. Griego, whose platoon was the basis of the book and HBO miniseries Generation Kill, had fallen on hard times and had begun treasure hunting after being turned on to the vocation by a fellow veteran. Making his way north from the Florida Keys, he ended up in Cape Breton, a hotbed of nautical discoveries.
“I had a lot of bad years – too much drinking, too much nothing to do, too much avoidance – and had to find something to get me out of that,” said Mr. Griego, who used treasure hunting as a form of meditation, a lifeline to counteract severe PTSD after years of service and two prison terms. “There were years where I just blacked out drunk all the time, and there isn’t a good day that exists in there, but the dives we did, it was never about money. It’s about waking up and wanting to be alive that day.”
Dan Griego, a veteran of the Iraq war, found it therapeutic to help MacKinnon on his quest for treasure.Brendan George-Ko/The History Channel
Mr. Griego’s thirst for adventure led him to Mr. MacKinnon when, in Cape Breton, he was looking for a local expert to help him navigate the sea. The two men formed a relationship they both say was built on respect, trust and toughness, and they began rounding out their crew with Mr. Griego’s military contacts.
Given his notoriety, Mr. Griego has a large following in the expat military community; after he teamed up with Mr. MacKinnon, other veterans followed. They would work all day and tell stories all night, and bond on the sea with the kind of military shorthand that so many veterans miss after they’re discharged.
Mr. Griego says he’s excited to be joining Mr. MacKinnon again on the August expedition. “Being able to hang out together and have an adventure is like you’re hunting treasure and getting your therapy at the same time.”
Mr. MacKinnon doesn’t take his role as captain and team leader of such a decorated crew lightly. He knows that the people on his ship are as important as whatever it is he may find on the riverbed down below. “This will be my legacy,” he said. “I intend to turn Nova Scotia into a centre for excellence as it pertains to dealing with the mental-health issues of police, first responders and veterans from our military.”
Michelle Burke, a military veteran from Cape Breton and another member of Mr. MacKinnon’s crew who will once again be sailing this week, says the work provides dual essential services that are otherwise being ignored.
“If we don’t look after our maritime history, it will be gone, and if you’re not looking after our veterans, they’ll have no future,” said Ms. Burke, who first learned about treasure hunting 30 years ago from Robert MacKinnon. “Our work is about preserving the lives of veterans and other service members and, just as importantly, preserving our history.”
Mr. MacKinnon and Ms. Burke see their work as vital to the preservation of maritime history, though without a new season of The Death Coast, the crew will have to find other ways to finance their endeavours.Steve Wadden/The Globe and Mail
A race against time
Treasure hunting is a dwindling tradition in Cape Breton.
Mr. MacKinnon’s work with archeologist James Sinclair has granted him Nova Scotia’s only licence to remove artifacts from the sea – meaning his team comprises the only legal treasure hunters in the province.
But the History Channel hasn’t renewed The Death Coast, so he’ll need a new revenue stream if he wants to keep bringing his crew back out onto the water.
And if Mr. MacKinnon can’t pull discarded ship hulls – let alone treasures – up from the sea, Nova Scotia’s buried history could be gone for good, warns Stephanie MacQuarrie, dean of science and technology at Cape Breton University.
“As the ocean warms up and continues to erode discarded material and the kelp – growing faster now than ever before because of climate change – buries these sites, we’re going to lose all that information,” she said.
The warmer the water gets, the higher the salinity level, which means the oldest, most prized artifacts along the ocean floor – some of which could predate Columbus – are the most fragile, explains the expert in organic chemistry, who has carbon-dated some of Mr. MacKinnon’s samples.
“The longer these artifacts sit at the bottom of the ocean unfound, the more damage is being done to them,” she said, “until, one day, the relics are all gone.”
A bit of a relic himself, Mr. MacKinnon isn’t ready to abandon his mission. You have to be a dreamer to be a treasure hunter, he says. He might try selling artifact NFTs on blockchain. He might appeal to the province and federal government for funds. Whatever happens, he’s not yet ready to quit uncovering history from the bottom of the sea.
“There are thousands of shallow-water wrecks every day being destroyed in the North Atlantic,” he said. “There’s no mermaids or treasure chests, but what remains is history, Cape Breton history – a history the world should know.”
