Explorers have found an underwater "yellow brick road" off the coast of Cape Cod that may not lead to Oz but they are hopeful that it will lead to a sunken pirate treasure that has been resting on the ocean floor for almost 300 years, according to the Associated Press.
Undersea explorer Barry Clifford has discovered a trail running along the ocean floor that is sprinkled with gold dust. The "yellow brick road" connects two sections of a shipwreck that Clifford discovered in 1984 to a destination not yet known where Clifford hopes he can recover the 400,000 gold coins that are unaccounted for from the wreck, according to the Associated Press.
"We think we're very, very close," Clifford said.
Captain "Black Sam" Bellamy wreaked havoc along the Massachusetts coast in his ship the Whydah in the early 18th century. After plundering nearly 50 ships the Whydah was trapped in a storm in that it could not escape in 1717; the ship split in two and sunk to the ocean floor, according to the Las Vegas Guardian.
Since discovering the wreck in 1984 Clifford has recovered nearly 200,000 artifacts from the pirate vessel including over 10,000 coins, sixty cannons and even an artificial leg. Clifford also recovered a document saying that there were 400,000 coins on the ship that have yet to be found, according to the Associated Press.
Recovering anything from the shipwreck is incredibly difficult. The weather only allows dives to happen in a short window every year. The area where the ship sank provides a much greater difficulty; it lies in an area with near zero visibility that is covered with a seaweed called mung, according to the Denver Post.
"You're going by your feel, your touch, your hands, and the ping of a metal detector," diver Jon Matel told the Associated Press. "When that thing goes off, it's a great feeling."
Two things that were discovered this summer have Clifford believing that there is greater treasure still to be found. Divers found a cannonball with 11 coins piled near it as well as a piece of iron with 50 coins stacked near it, the Associated Press reports.
"Did all of those coins just happen to fall on this one little piece of iron?" Clifford asks. "Or were there thousands of coins there, and this is just an example of what's left?"
Clifford will have to wait until next summer to find out that answer as diving conditions are no longer favorable for this year.
"I'll wake up in the middle of the night this winter and go, 'Oh my God, I know what that means,' when I'm reviewing something from the Whydah," Clifford said. "And then I can hardly wait to get back there in the spring."
