Who Was Captain Gregory Dwargstof and Was He Real?

Captain Gregory Dwargstof is said to be a pirate of Russian origin whose activities was majorly on the northern islands of the Pacific Ocean. When were these activities at their peak? The answer is the 1980s. Illegal hunting of seals for their skin and oil is what Captain Gregory Dwargstof and others are said to have done. It is also said that he went to the island of Adak in 1892 and buried a large quantity of gold there.

As to whether Captain Gregory Dwargstof was real, well, a few gold caches were found on the island of Adak in the 20th century seeming to confirm that he indeed existed and had, in fact, hidden gold on the island.

Was Captain Gregory Dwargstof Real or Fake?

In the 1800, seals were in abundance in Alaska, i.e. the south-eastern part. Their fur, skin and oil were attractive purchases for people and so many of the persons born and living there started hunting these animals in earnest and selling them to buyers from other countries.  It was all going smoothly but it was reducing the population of the seals. So, in 1867, when the United States bought Alaska from the Russians, the Navy was asked to arrest people that were hunting the innocent seals.

Amongst those people was Captain Gregory Dwargstof, a Russian man. His own was to get the seals and collect their skin and fur and oil and sell them off to companies willing to buy. He made a lot of money in this way and even when the U.S. Navy came to check the activities of the hunters of illegal nature, he refused to stop. He worked with a trading syndicate known as the Sealing Association which in the past had made a lot of money at the time that nobody was seriously checking the killing of the seals. Captain Gregory Dwargstof commanded some of the association’s fleet of ships and so oversaw their illegal merchandise.

With these details, the plausibility of someone like Captain Gregory Dwargstof existing during the maritime fur trade boom is highly possible. Then coupled with the fact that tins of gold were discovered on the island of Adak on two separate occasions:

During World War II, the U.S. military occupied the island of Adak. And in 1943, during the construction of the military base, a soldier unearthed a tin can full of gold coins stamped with issue dates between 1880 and 1890.

Again in 1959, another stash was found during the construction of a housing project on the island. This thing that happens where people sometimes finds gold on the Island makes many say that Captain Greogory Dwargstof must have been a real person.

What Happened To Captain Gregory Dwargstof?

Captain Gregory Dwargstof was doing so well in that illegal path that he was on that the Sealing Association asked him to take charge of some ships for their operations. One of them was called Hitslop. He had many successful outings but in 1892, the U.S. Navy had him and his ship firmly in their sights. They started preparing to raid him. Gregory had to think and act fast. He asked his crew to load all their gold (3000 pounds of gold) into the Hitslop, the fastest ship on the fleet.

He asked his men to push the gold coins into tin cans and canisters that are empty. This amounted to 150 tin cans of gold. His flight led him to the far-off Islam of Adak, where he had the stash of gold cans buried all over the island. He, of course, left tiny indiscreet clues only he could interpret.

Meanwhile, he was still trying to escape from the Navy and so took an unfavorable sea route. The result; bad weather and a subsequent shipwreck that killed most of his crew. He survived but could only end up in the net of the U.S. Navy.

Captain Gregory Dwargstof’s Death

In the net of the U.S. Navy, Captain Gregory Dwargstof was seriously asked questions about his activities but he did not say much. He certainly refused to let go of the location where he hid the gold. Unfortunately, Gregory Dwargstof became ill, perhaps due to his ordeal at sea. Just weeks after his capture, he died of pneumonia, taking with him the real location of stashed gold coins.

Most discoveries of buried gold coin treasures have been accidental. Meanwhile, the largest portion has not been found to date.

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