History Main / PirateBooty

->'''Sissy Pirate:''' "Uh, captain? Captain? I know we usually bury the treasure, but what if, this time, we use it to buy things? You know... eh... things we like."

-->--''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', on why there is treasure buried ''everywhere''.

* The ''Literature/JamesBond'' novel ''Literature/LiveAndLetDie'' deals with pirate treasure discovered in Jamaica, which is being smuggled piece by piece into the States by Mr. Big.
* ''The Deep'' by PeterBenchley (made into a film in 1977) has divers discovering a WW2 ship containing a cargo of morphine, which has sunk on top of a Spanish treasure ship that went down in the 18th century holding a priceless royal dowry. When a local drug kingpin takes an interest, the protagonists have to buy him off by salvaging the morphine while concealing what their real area of interest is.

* Played straight twice in Literature/SwallowsAndAmazons:

* The Creator/BigFinish audio adventure ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho043DoctorWhoAndThePirates Doctor Who and the Pirates]]'' features just about every pirate trope, including buried treasure.

* An episode of ''TransformersHeadmasters'' revolved around the Autobots and Decepticons trying to get a massive stockpile of energy hidden on a SpacePirate [[PlanetOfHats Planet]].

* The JamesBond novel ''Literature/LiveAndLetDie'' deals with pirate treasure discovered in Jamaica.

** The sky island arc is driven by the search for treasure as well, and after saving the entire island from civil war and evil overlords with god complexes, the Strawhats decide to steal a whole bunch of treasure from those people they just saved and make off in the night. Made hilarious by the fact that as they made their escape, they were pursued by the sky islanders who they thought were trying to stop them, but were instead attempting to give them a huge golden pillar worth many times that of the loot they'd stolen. To show their appreciation. The islanders eventually gave up and let the Strawhats think they were being all evil and piratey, much to Robin's amusement ([[OnlySaneMan she was the only one who knew]])
*** Note that this was [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything the first time the Strawhats committed anything resembling a real act of piracy]].

* On the rare occasions where a pirate ''did'' manage to get their hands on massive piles of gold and silver, they generally wound up becoming quite famous. For example, Francis Drake earned a knighthood and status as one of the founding heroes of the British Empire, largely by stealing Spanish treasure. Tons of it. Of course, he didn't bury it; he took it back to England. Where, predictably, most of his crew spent their shares of the treasure on drinking and whoring, also known as "the fun way" of putting said treasure into your sponsor nation's economy.

* The BigFinish audio adventure ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho043DoctorWhoAndThePirates Doctor Who and the Pirates]]'' features just about every pirate trope, including buried treasure.

* The missing man in ''MysteryCaseFiles: 13th Skull'' has been searching for pirate treasure. If you're playing the Collector's Edition, the Master Detective actually finds it still stashed in a locked cabin on one of Captain Crown's ships.

* Played straight in [[Literature/SwallowsAndAmazons Peter Duck]], where the treasure turns out to be a small chest containing a collection of pearls. Valuable enough for a couple of seamen to want to steal and hide, but not an improbable amount of wealth.

* Just [[RippedFromTheHeadlines fresh from the headlines]]: [[AdventurerArchaeologist certain US company]] lifted from the seafloor the load of [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen early XIX-Century Spanish frigate sank by English privateers]], worth about half a billion USD. The Spanish government went to courts, arguing that it's their gold (for added fun, one of the other claimants -- who were quick to jump in for the cash -- was Peru, apparently as the source of Spanish colonial gold). It seems this is not the first time something like this happens; Spaniards, as it seems, won this time, so, before finding an old treasure, best make sure nobody can track their lineage to original owners.
** Salvage laws can be so incomprehensibly torturous that there are several very valuable wrecks whose locations are known today that have not been recovered because the value of the booty would be offset by legal fees.

* On the rare occasions where a pirate ''did'' manage to get their hands on massive piles of gold and silver, they generally wound up becoming quite famous. For example, Francis Drake earned a knighthood and status as one of the founding heroes of the British Empire, largely by stealing Spanish treasure. Tons of it.
** Of course, he didn't bury it; he took it back to England. Where, predictably, most of his crew spent their shares of the treasure on drinking and whoring, also known as "the fun way" of putting said treasure into your sponsor nation's economy.

* A brief sight gag on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' shows that the Sea Captain pays his income tax in gold and jewels from a treasure chest. "Yarr, sometimes I wonder why I bother plunderin' at all."

* After becoming obsessed with finding the buried treasure of the FlyingDutchman in a board game, Mr. Krabs has WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants and Patrick go looking for the real thing. They do, and the Flying Dutchman is pleased because he had forgotten where he had buried it, and they saved him the trouble of finding it and digging it up. So he rewards them with two gold doubloons. When Mr. Krabs protests that he's TheCaptain and therefore deserves a reward (even though he didn't do anything), F.D. gives him a plastic treasure chest.

* The only pirate known to have actually buried his treasure was Captain William Kidd, who buried a portion of his wealth on, of all places, Long Island, in an attempt to use it as a bargaining chip to avoid punishment for his piracy. It didn't work.
** Hey, Long Island is a very nice place to live!

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The only pirate known to have actually buried his treasure was Captain William Kidd, who buried a portion of his wealth on, of all places, Long Island, in an attempt to use it as a bargaining chip to avoid punishment for his piracy. It didn't work.
** Hey, Long Island is a very nice place to live!
* On the rare occasions where a pirate ''did'' manage to get their hands on massive piles of gold and silver, they generally wound up becoming quite famous. For example, Francis Drake earned a knighthood and status as one of the founding heroes of the British Empire, largely by stealing Spanish treasure. Tons of it.
** Of course, he didn't bury it; he took it back to England. Where, predictably, most of his crew spent their shares of the treasure on drinking and whoring, also known as "the fun way" of putting said treasure into your sponsor nation's economy.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Pieterszoon_Hein Piet Hein]] became a Dutch folk hero for capturing a Spanish treasure fleet during the EightyYearsWar. A popular song about him notes that 'his name is small, but his deeds are great!'
* Just [[RippedFromTheHeadlines fresh from the headlines]]: [[AdventurerArchaeologist certain US company]] lifted from the seafloor the load of [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen early XIX-Century Spanish frigate sank by English privateers]], worth about half a billion USD. The Spanish government went to courts, arguing that it's their gold (for added fun, one of the other claimants -- who were quick to jump in for the cash -- was Peru, apparently as the source of Spanish colonial gold). It seems this is not the first time something like this happens; Spaniards, as it seems, won this time, so, before finding an old treasure, best make sure nobody can track their lineage to original owners.
** Salvage laws can be so incomprehensibly torturous that there are several very valuable wrecks whose locations are known today that have not been recovered because the value of the booty would be offset by legal fees.
* A Letter of Marque is basically a government license to plunder and act like a pirate - so long as you only do it to the enemies of the nation that gave it to you. It's even explicitly authorized in the US Constitution! Though, spoil-sports in the 19th century agreed not to authorize them any more, and it is considered a war crime today.
[[/folder]]

* Averted in ''SidMeiersPirates'', where you mainly raid for cargo, especially sugar, for later resale in ports.
** However, the other "Top 10 Pirates" all have buried treasures hidden throughout the Caribbean. The manual [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] and discusses this: an excerpt from "Captain Sydney"'s memoirs points out the problems with burying treasure ("Seems to me that every time they buried their treasure, along'd come some blasted thief to dig it up and steal it."), while another sidebar discusses the historical accuracy, or lack thereof, of buried treasure.
*** The latter sidebar is even titled "Robert Louis Stevenson Has a Lot to Answer For".

** The BigFinish audio adventure ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho043DoctorWhoAndThePirates Doctor Who and the Pirates]]'' features just about every pirate trope, including buried treasure.

* We probably ought to mention the reality game show ''Pirate Master''. There wasn't any plundering involved, but all they really did was look for treasure.

* Parodied in [[WesternAnimation/ThePiratesInAnAdventureWithScientists The Pirates: Band of Misfits]], with a montage in which [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep the Pirate Captain]] ''tries'' to plunder ships for their gold, only to discover that the ship in question is not worth stealing from (among them he runs into a plague boat and ghost ship).

* Justified in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'', as the pirates are waiting to spend the treasure until they are uncursed.
** Heck, averting this trope is the very reason they have a problem to begin with, because they spent all of the treasure immediately after finding it, and thus have to go around recollecting all of the coins that comprised it to lift the curse.

->'''[[OnlySaneMan Sissy Pirate:]]''' ''"Uh, captain? Captain? I know we usually bury the treasure, but what if, this time, we use it to buy things? You know... eh... things we like."''
->'''Captain:''' [shoots him, then looks at his other men, who furiously begin digging a hole] ''"[[TalkLikeAPirate Ahhr!]] We'll dig up the treasure in seven yarr. I've drawn a [[TreasureMap map]] on this cracker, which [[PirateParrot Polly]] will [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong hold for safe keepin']]."''

* Subverted plenty of times in the ''MonkeyIsland'' series. In the first game the treasure of Melee island turned out to be a t-shirt that said that you found it, and in the second game the McGuffin the Big Whoop turned out to be a worthless ticket for an amusement park. [[spoiler: Though actually, it was later revealed that the Big Whoop was the entrance to hell, where [=LeChuck=] became an immortal Ghost/Zombie/Demon]].

See also InexplicableTreasureChests what be buried on a DesertIsland in TheSpanishMain.

* Like every other piratical trope, this one is used (and parodied) in GeorgeMacDonaldFraser's comedy novel ''ThePyrates''.