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Pirates have sailed the Florida coast for centuries and plagued vessels sailing to and from Miami. The history of nefarious sea adventurers is glamorized by the recent movie series "Pirates of the Caribbean", but not much is written or told of the modern pirates that cruise the shores of Miami. Once in awhile a TV show like "Miami Vice" or "CSI" has a theme which deals with modern pirates, although not often. Yet, pirates have been and still are a common hazard when sailing or yachting on the ocean waters around Miami.

The history of pirates and Miami is colorful and full of bawdy legends about daring raids and attacks on British and Spanish vessels throughout the "Golden Age of Piracy" in the Caribbean (1600's -1740). The tales tell about plundered booty and treasure supposedly buried in coves and islands around the Miami coast line that has still not been found. It is claimed that Florida has more hidden gold and sunken treasure than any other state in the U.S. (treasurelore.com Jeffrey Kramer)

The records show that Florida, especially Miami, was a haven for famous pirates like Blackbeard, Lafitte, Gasparilla, Kidd, Bowlegs and Bonnett, during the late 1600's. They pillaged many Spanish galleons and either sunk the ships with the treasures they held or took the bounty and buried it somewhere along the coastline parallel to where sunken ships rested deep under the sea (as a marker to find their treasure later due to shifting sands).

Many secret caches of gold, silver and other treasure have been uncovered as the Miami and western Florida coast have been developed over the past 50 years.

Jeffrey Kramer cites the following:
"A chest containing $25,000 in Mexican gold was found on Grassy Key. Miami has yielded some buried treasure. A road crew while building a new road near Cocoa found thirteen chests of treasure. $70,000 in silver coins were discovered on Lower Matecumbe Key, plus another 61 gold pieces were found by fishermen there."

The pirate, Gasparilla was one of the most notorious pirates of the area, who is said to have accumulated millions,during his rowdy days of pirating. Legends abound the he supposedly buried much of his booty around the inland coves and cays near modern day Miami. Gasparilla (his real name was Jose Gaspar) was a ruthless but highly intelligent pirate that brought havoc and fear to many seafarers at the close of the 1700's and beginning of the 1800's. He and the pirate known as Black Caesar pillaged 100's of ships off the Miami coast over

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