At the confluence of the Harlem and East Rivers is a narrow tidal channel – the Hell Gate.  On the map, this looks like an ideal waterway between the Long Island Sound and Manhattan but Its fast currents change multiple times a day and it used to be riddled with rocks just beneath the surface making the waters swirl and churn violently.  It’s a great shortcut to New England but a costly one.  Traversing the Hells gate can save sailors navigating between New York Harbor and Southern New England days of travel around Long Island but hundreds of ships have failed to make the transit.

Most of these ships are forgotten but one holds a captivating promise.  The HMS Hussar was dashed apart on the rocks of the Hell’s Gate and went down with its treasure of gold and around 60 American prisoners of war who were shackled below deck.  The ship was a frigate of the Royal Navy that arrived in British-occupied New York during the Revolutionary War.  In November 1780 it was carrying the payroll of British troops in gold coins. Shortly after arriving in the city, Hussar set sail for Gardiner’s Bay on the eastern end of Long Island. While traversing Hell Gate it hit a submerged outcropping known as Pot Rock and began taking on water. The ship drifted down the East River until it sank to a depth of 60 to 80 feet, somewhere off the coast of the Bronx.

Several attempts have been made to salvage the ship.  Thomas Jefferson had a go.  In 1811, a salvage company partially funded by Thomas Jefferson managed to bring up iron nails and copper, which amounted to a “considerable sum,” according to an article in the New York Evening Post from that year. They also raised a barrel of butter, value unknown, but alas, no gold.  Samuel Davis, of Baltimore, tried to fund the raising of the entire vessel. He began publishing ads in newspapers throughout the Northeast in 1819, seeking funds to build a machine capable of the feat. Davis claimed his father had witnessed gold being loaded into Hussar and quoted the widow of Hussar’s pilot, who claimed she knew there was a “large quantity of money aboard the ship when she sunk.”  Davis raised enough capital to build a massive claw, with each side supported by an adjacent ship. There is no account from the time of how Davis’s invention fared, or how satisfied his investors were with the results but there is no evidence any gold was recovered.  Subsequent treasure hunters have salvaged numerous artifacts from Hussar. Cannons and cannonballs, bottles of wine and swords, human bones still in shackles, and a very few 18th-century gold guineas have come to the surface but not chest of treasure. 

The Hell Gate changed significantly over the course of the 19th century. Its rocks have been blown to bits to facilitate boat traffic.  Bridges now traverse the strait and storm barriers have been proposed to slow the tidal exchange between the East River, Long Island Sound, and New York Harbor. All these changes weaken the Hell Gate’s infamous currents.  After two centuries of salt corrosion, violent tides, salvage attempts and massive explosions, it’s a safe to say that whatever remains of HMS Hussar is probably scattered.  But there might still be a fortune in gold at the bottom of the East River. 

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