Norman Island: A Family Tale of Piracy and Buried BVI Treasure
By Claudia Colli
Tales of buried treasure on Norman Island have been part of the lore of the British Virgin Islands for centuries. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel of 18th century piracy and skullduggery, may have used Norman Island as the backdrop for his rousing tale. But as intriguing as the notion is, most viewed that connection as fiction.
Or is it? When I first came to live in the BVI, I heard that treasure had been found on Norman Island by a local man – one who suddenly became very rich. How much truth was in this story, I never knew. At least until now.
In her book, Vintage Norman Island: True Treasure Tales, Valerie Sims has taken a deep dive into a family story of pirates, Spanish doubloons and her treasure hunting great-great grandfather Henry O. Creque. With family roots in the Virgin Islands extending back ten generations, she has conducted extensive research on the origins of these tales, interviewing family members and delving into historical archives.
A Magnificent Necklace
The creator of a popular Virgin Islands history and culture website – vintagevirginislands.com – Valerie never knew her great uncle, Henry O. Creque, who died in 1958, but she was close to his wife, her Aunt Peggy. Valerie was eager to find out if on her wedding day, Peggy had received a magnificent necklace comprised of “Pillar” – or Spanish silver dollars – as a wedding gift. The answer would serve as a valuable clue to this family mystery.
My husband and I first met Valerie and her husband, David, on Tortola in 1992. David ran a financial services business and the couple eventually opened Billy Bones, a beach bar and restaurant on Norman Island named after one of the characters in Treasure Island.
Valerie told us that her great-great grandfather Henry O. Creque had once owned Norman Island. Born on Anegada in 1858, he bought the island in 1896. As she relates in her book: “in 1905 Henry O. Creque was said to have found his wealth in one of the caves.” The caves, a series of semi-submerged caverns located near the Norman Island Bight, are now a popular snorkeling spot but had long been rumored to conceal treasure.
In 1999 the island was sold to a developer, who opened his own restaurant on the island. Although the couple left Tortola, Valerie never lost her interest in these islands. She began researching her family roots as well as the culture and history of the VI both British and US. Looking into family stories of treasure on Norman Island was a natural next step.
“I’ve been researching my family history since I was a young girl,” says Valerie. “I think I wanted to verify the stories my grandma told me, so I went to the library to find everyone’s birth and baptismal certificates and discovered so much more! Family history and genealogy was fascinating to me and still is. I’ve never stopped researching since.
Tales of BVI Piracy
Tales of piracy have long peppered Virgin Islands lore. Edward Teach, more commonly known as Black Beard, was reputed to have used the Virgin Islands’ many sheltered coves as a launching pad for his raids. The island of Little Thatch still bears his name. The Island of Jost Van Dyke which lies just north or Tortola was also named after a well-known scallywag. This Dutch privateer was one of the earliest European settlers in the British Virgin Islands. Peter Island and Bellamy Cay are also named after the dashing raiders that once roamed the Caribbean.
But it was the tale of Norman Island that most intrigued Valerie. And she set out to discover if there was truth to the story that her ancestor, Henry O. Creque, had unearthed treasure in one of Norman Island’s famed Norman Island “treasure caves”.
It all began, says Valerie, “in 1989 when I read the forward written by Jill Tattersall in a Mapes Monde reprint of Treasure Island. She wrote an intriguing story about my aunt receiving a necklace of doubloons on her wedding day and I wanted to research that story too.
La Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
The story of treasure on Norman Island extends back to 1750 when the Spanish galleon, La Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe captained by Don Juan Manuel Bonilla set sail from Havana, Cuba. The galleon, part of a flotilla of ships, was heavily laden with a cargo of silver, cochineal, used for a valued red dye, and other precious goods.
All was going well until the ship ran into a storm off the coast of Florida. Through perilous seas, the vessel sailed northwards to Ocracoke in North Carolina. It was here that Bonilla made the fateful decision to transfer his precious cargo from the damaged Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and hire as Valerie explains in her book, “two available sloops to transport the most valuable portion of the cargo to Virginia. From there it would be easy to find passage to Spain.” Or, so he thought.
But his crew was not to be trusted. They failed to secure the loaded sloops in his absence, allowing the ships’ captains to steal the treasure. They brazenly commandeered both vessels, with one of them escaping and sailing to the Caribbean with the treasure. Eventually they ditched 44 chests of silver on a remote and uninhabited island in the Virgin Islands: Norman Island.
Valerie’s book is filled with colorful historical anecdotes and stories of piracy and derring-do, chance luck and bad luck. Another smaller and more modest cache was discovered by a group of Americans in 1965. Not enough to make their fortune, but it did add to the lore about the Norman Island Treasure Caves.
It took over a century and a half for Norman Islands’ secrets to finally be uncovered. Valerie Sims has now revealed the story behind the treasure’s discovery.
Learn more about Valerie’s book Vintage Norman Islands: True Treasure Tales at
Here you will also find a diverse and fascinating collection of news reports and notices about the British and US Virgin Islands – which through family ties are much more closely aligned than many realize. Among the site’s many tantalizing tidbits on the British Virgin Islands are a 1971 video of the BVI; an advertisement for the sale of Mosquito Island in 1903; a news item about the loss of a Virgin Gorda sloop in 1912 and an eBay notice for the sale of the 1807 last will and testament of a BVI planter, James Thornton.
Vintage Norman Island: True Treasure Tales and other historical treasures can be found at:
For additional information on Norman Island and the BVI’s 60 or so islands, islets and cays, go to:
