THE ROMANCE OF BURIED TREASURE

by T. C. Bridges

The story of the ship frozen in the Antarctic, the “Starry Crown”, was not an original W. E. Johns idea.

He got the idea from a book called “The Romance of Buried Treasure” by T. C. Bridges – published in 1931.

I know he owned the book as the above book is Johns very own copy. It still has W. E. Johns own bookplate in it.

The very first chapter of the book is all about the “Starry Crown” which Bridges says is a true story – but it is in fact fictional.

It would appear that Johns thought it was true as on page 5 of BIGGLES BREAKS THE SILENCE we get this:-

“The story of the Starry Crown is one of the unsolved mysteries of the sea. This adventure is based on facts, so far as they are known, though the re-discovery of the wreck and treasure, and the characters of Biggles, his friends and enemies, are purely fictitious”.

W. E. Johns also used the book for reference for his BIGGLES BOOK OF TREASURE HUNTING published in 1962

as he refers to it in the Bibliography on page 144 at the back of that book.

I suspect he also got the idea for a ship washed ashore and overgrown with foliage for BIGGLES FLIES WEST as well, as in Chapter 17 of ‘The Romance of Buried Treasure’ there is reference to a story about the Everglades of Florida. “The commonest story is that of a Spanish galleon caught in a cyclone and swept inland on the crest of a tremendous tidal wave. The tale told is that she was driven deep into the swamp and grounded there upside-down, and there she lay until creepers had covered her and trees grown through her rotting timbers”.

The tale says that she was found by two fishermen called Cato and Scipio Edwards. They got inside the ship and discovered blackened bullion but Cato is bitten by a cotton-mouth mocassin water-viper. Scipio takes his brother away for help, but Cato dies

When Scipio tries to return to find the wreck, he is unable to locate it. “So perhaps this particular treasure story is mere moonshine” writes Bridges.

W. E. Johns took the idea of an inland wreck, overgrown and unrecognisable, and turned it into a classic Biggles book – BIGGLES FLIES WEST.

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