Found at last: Clive's chest of gold

Found in Davy Jones's Locker... A chest of gold coins belonging to Robert Clive which was lost more than two hundred years ago.

Clive, the man who established the East India Company in this country, lost the chest near the Cape of Good Hope following a ship wreck 242 years ago.

A report inThe Times, London, says a team of international divers recently found 1,400 gold coins. The type and year of minting of the coins were similar to those withdrawn by Clive from the Bank of England, shortly before he set sail for India on April 22, 1755.

The chest contained coins worth 3,000 pounds, an enormous sum of money in the 18th century. It was stashed away in the Doddington which accompanied Clive's ship the Stretham. The manifest had recorded: 'One chest of gold, marked RC No.1 QT weighing just over 653 ounces (18.512 kg).'

While rounding the Cape of Good Hope early on July 17, 1755, the Doddington hit a reef and sank within 20 minutes. Two hundred and forty seven lives were lost in the disaster.

Clive sailed on to Bombay, unaware of the tragedy. However, 23 survivors of the shipwreck, including the chief mate, managed to escape on a raft. After spending spending nearly six months on Bird island off Port Elizabeth in South Africa they informed Clive about his loss.

The recovered treasure weighs 620 ounces (17.577 kg), five per cent short of the original consignment. It is expected to fetch 5,00,000 pounds at an auction in London next month.

Bird Island remained the focus of the search for the treasure for the next two centuries. Many adventurers and pirates dreamt of recovering Clive's gold.

The first wreckage of the Doddington was found in 1977 by an international team of divers, but they were unsuccessful in finding any gold. The team returned 20 years later and stumbled on it while exploring the wreckage of a heavily armed smaller vessel, resembling a pirate craft.

Historians are as yet unable to unravel how the money was transferred to the pirate ship -- or if it was stolen from the Doddington.

Richard Bishop, a coin specialist at Spink's Auctioneers, feels, "From the expert's point of view, it is 99.9 per cent certain that this is Clive's gold because the dates are so conclusive.''

Bishop, who will conduct next month's sale, says "None of the survivors appeared to know what happened to it and there was no sudden surge of spending by anyone back in England. It is really an extraordinary riddle --one we will presumably never solve.''

Clive, who became governor of Bengal and was responsible for laying the foundation of the British empire through his victory in the Battle of Plassey, left Calcutta in 1767.

In 1773 he came under attack in the House of Commons for charges of corruption. Though cleared of all charges, Clive committed suicide two years later. He was only 49.