The Treasure of Daufuskie Island

By Lawrence Barker

12 yr old Charlotte Pace and Jack Thomas find a letter from the 1700’s that tells of a treasure chest of gold buried by the pirate Blackbeard while evading the British on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina. They seek to search for the gold along with 14 yr old Moses LeConte using Moses’ sailboat. The letter is in fact a treasure map detailing the location of the chest. The three kids embark on a quest to find the treasure while battling drug smugglers and a severe tropical storm in a sailboat. It is a tale reminiscent of the exploits of the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and the Goonies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665535885

Lawrence Barker

Lawrence Barker (Larry Barker) is a former officer in the US Army. He retired from the Multi Line Property Casualty insurance business after forming his own company. He and his beautiful wife, Linda, married 49 years, love to travel and go to exotic locations all over the world. This is his 4th novel. He lives in Savannah Ga. And has 2 sons Jason and Brian, and 2 grandchildren, Jack and Charlotte Barker.

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© 2021 Lawrence Barker. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/23/2021

ISBN: 978-1-6655-3587-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-3589-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-3588-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021917225

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1 July 29, 2013

Ft. Jackson, South Carolina

Chapter 2 Aug 5, 2013

Jack Thomas, Daufuskie Island, South Carolina

Chapter 3 August 15, 2013

Daufuskie Island SC

Chapter 4 August 21,2013

Moses LeConte Sail Boat, Daufuskie Island, S.C.

Chapter 5 August 22, 2013

Hamption Plantation, Daufuskie Island, SC

Chapter 6 August 23,2013

Hamption Plantation

Chapter 7 September 5, 2013

Labor Day, First Union African Baptist Church

Daufuskie Island, SC

Chapter 8 Sept 6,2013

Daufuskie Island Public School

Chapter 9 September 30,2013

Daufuskie Island

Chapter 10 October 1, 2013

Coopers Landing Docks 3 PM

Chapter 11 October 31, 2013

Halloween Evening, Daufuskie Island

Chapter 12 October 31, 2013 9 PM

Calibogue Sound, Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Chapter 13 October 31

Mungee Creek, Midnite

Daufuskie Island

Chapter 14 November 1, 2013

Mungee Creek, Daufuskie Island South Carolina, 7 AM

Chapter 15 November 1, 2013

Mungee Creek, Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, 9 AM

Chapter 16 November 2, 2013

Daufuskie Island SC

Epilogue

Prologue

If you go by boat approximately 8 miles due north of Tybee Island, Georgia you will see a shoreline of sandy cream colored beaches and large green Naval Oak trees with hanging moss.

The water depth varies there with some parts of the sand bottom being as deep as 8 feet at high tide to as shallow as 1 foot at low tide. Navigation, without running aground is quite difficult and has been since the days of the buccaneers that prowled the coastlines of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

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The famous pirate Wiliam Teach, also known as Blackbeard, used this area frequently to escape the British Man of War ships by ducking into the many creeks around these islands. His ships were more of a sloop rig with lateen sails that could sail into the wind and only drew 5 feet at the water line. This enabled him to escape the British ships as they could only sail with the wind and drew a depth of 12 feet of water. The average length of his pirate ships was only 75 feet and they carried 40 cannons or less. They were fast with hull speeds of 11 or 12 knots and considered cutting edge in the year 1716. Speed and shock attacks gave him the edge in being a successful pirate. The British Man of War ships could only average 8 or 9 knots so the pirates easily out ran them during a chase.

The shoreline of this island has a history that goes back to those buccaneer days and it is reported that Blackbeard buried some of his treasure there while being chased by the British.

The island is known as Daufuskie and the name comes from the Muscogee Indian language and means sharp feather in that language. Indians populated this island long before white settlers and explorers came to this area. The area has been home to Indian tribes, Plantation owners planting Sea Island cotton, shrimpers, fishermen, soldiers during the civil war and black slaves. Hurricanes and storms have devastated the island and the oak trees continue to survive the ravages of nature. All in all the island has remained pristine and not succumbed to developers from the mainland. The people that live there are usually laborers and fishermen. . They don’t have much and live in shacks and old homes. They are good people, salt of the earth types and survivors.

The ocean waves from the Atlantic ocean crash on shore and the tidal creeks teem with fish, shrimp, oysters, crabs and exotic birds. It is an island filled with life.

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1

July 29, 2013

Ft. Jackson, South Carolina

Sergeant Brian Thomas was at the Finance Office on post getting his final pay after finishing his last deployment to Afghanistan. He was getting out. He had enough of war. Brian was now 35 yrs old, married to his high school sweetheart, Jan, and they had one son, Jack, now 12 yrs old. Brian had served for 16 yrs in the Army as an infantry NCO and was an E7. He had been sent overseas to Germany, Okinawa, Iraq and Afghanistan. Okinawa was an accompanied tour and they had stayed in the NCO housing quarters on post.

During his last tour in Afghanistan, Brian’s humvee had run over an IED and he had been blown up and spent 3 months at Ramstein hospital in Germany and one month at the VA hospital in Charleston, South Carolina. The Captain and the other NCO in the humvee had been killed. Brian had sustained spinal cord issues