Captain Kidd’s Treasure in the Annapolis Basin

Inside a sea cave on the Bay of Fundy, photograph taken by Isabel Luce in May 2021

Up and down the shore of the Bay of Fundy, you can find sea caves carved out from the highest tides in the world. Legends have it that these caves were popular spots for pirates to hide their loot, or rum runners to hide contraband, with Gulliver’s Cove by Digby Neck and Black Hole Falls at Baxter’s Harbour being popular locations.

When Helen Creighton travelled Nova Scotia in the first half of the 20th century recording legends for her book “Bluenose Ghosts”, she spoke to Horace Johnston, a farmer and fisherman at Port Wade. He used to say “sometimes I tell the truth, and sometimes I don’t”, so it may be worth taking this story with a grain of salt (I also share his philosophy though!).

Years ago, a Scotchman came to the area saying his father had sailed with the notorious Captain Kidd. He had a chart showing where his treasure was buried, a place called Hudson’s Point in the Annapolis Basin. Back in Kidd’s time, treasure should be buried with a body so that the ghost would remain to stand guard, and to avoid the ghost you should search for treasure only at night.

At 10pm young Horace, the man from Scotland, and two other brave souls named Corneil and Ike Fleet, began digging where the map told them. Not long after, the four men noticed a fifth man digging alongside them.

Looking into a sea cave, photograph taken by Isabel Luce in May 2021

One of the men took a break from digging for treasure and left the hole to get fresh air. Looking back at his friends, he noticed the extra man, silently digging away. Uneasily, he beckoned for the others to join him outside the cave and asked if anyone knew the extra man - no one recognized him. Suddenly a horrible, devilish noise shook the ground, leaving the four men shaken and ready to flee.

Ike Fleet, however, was the bravest of the lot and reasoned that it was likely only thunder, or maybe the extra man dug out a rock that loudly rolled away causing the horrendous quake. They had come here to find buried treasure and he wasn’t ready to leave yet, so Ike stubbornly went back into the hole and began digging again next to the extra man.

A figure emerging from the Bay, photographed by Isabel Luce on May 2021

The tide was a hundred feet out, far away from where they were digging. But suddenly noises were heard that made the three men still outside the cave to turn around to look at the water. They saw that Ike was no longer in the hole but 120 feet away, up to his neck in the Annapolis Basin! No one knows how he got out there, or if the the extra man had had something to do with it.

Horace says he’d like to know what happened, but he’ll never go back there to find out.

A waterfall just east of Margaretsville, photographed by Isabel Luce in May 2021