FanStory.com - The Mystery of Tucker's Cross by BermyBye50
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An unsolved veritable whodunit
The Mystery of Tucker's Cross by BermyBye50
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In the year '75, an audacious theft did occur,

A heist so daring, it's still talked of for sure,

A cross of gold and emerald, priceless and rare,

Was stolen from the Maritime Museum with care.

 

The Tucker's Cross, a symbol of the island's past,

A treasure with history, that was meant to last,

But thieves had other plans, to secret it away,

And leave a replica in its place, that same day.

 

The people were stunned, how could it be done?

The cross was secured, with guards and a gun,

But the thief or thieves, had devised  a grand plan,

And took the cross from right under their hand.

 

A search ensued, but the cross was never found,

There was no trace of the culprit who did abscond,

The people were angry, the museum distraught,

Their precious treasure remains stolen and lost.

 

The news spread fast, all around the world it went,

The Tucker's Cross, a true tale of dismay and lament,

The island's pride that so easily was conveyed away,

By those who connived to steal, without any delay.

 

The hunt for the thief went on for several years,

With no sign of the cross, only tears and fears,

But the people of Bermuda were decidedly duped,

Continued to search, hoping it would be recouped.

 

Decades have passed, and it remains missing,

But the story lived on in an ode of reminiscing,

The legend of the thief, who stole in the night,

And vanished without even a trace, out of sight.

 

To this day, not a single clue has been spoken,

A lead that could break this case wide open,

No suspect was caught, with the cross in hand,

Who absconded from the island to a foreign land.

 

The Tucker's Cross is not back where it belongs,

The story of its theft is recalled in sing-a-longs,

The island's pride has not returned to its place,

A symbol of its cherished history, and its grace.

 

The cross was replaced with a poor imitation,

Its former glory, an imperfect representation  

The famed Tucker's Cross once lost in the tide,

A story no longer a symbol of Bermudian pride.


Author Notes
The story of Tucker's Cross is a veritable whodunit - and better yet, the treasure is still up for grabs.

Originally discovered by explorer Teddy Tucker in 1955, the emerald-adorned 22-karat gold cross is believed to be part of the bounty that went down with the Spanish ship San Pedro in 1594. After selling it to the Bermudan government in 1959, the cross was put on display in a local Maritime Museum.

Teddy Tucker was Bermuda's most well-known maritime explorer, discovering more than 100 shipwrecks in the waters surrounding Bermuda, an accomplishment that led Bermudan Premier Michael Dunkley to memorialize him as one of the of the great Bermudians of our time after Tucker's 2014 death.

While Tucker fit a lot of treasure-hunting into his 89 years, his most famous find was one of his earliest - the 1955 discovery of a gold cross bearing seven large emeralds.

Tucker spotted the gleaming crucifix, which came to be known as Tucker's Cross and whose discovery made headlines around the world, amid debris from the Spanish wreck San Pedro. Wanting to keep the discovery in Bermuda, Tucker sold it to the government in 1959, and the cross was placed in a museum, where it was a popular attraction for locals and tourists.

In 1975, just before Queen Elizabeth II was due to view the piece during a state visit, it was discovered that Tucker's Cross had been stolen, and replaced by a replica.

While the sophisticated nature of the crime suggests that professional thieves were involved, an extensive international investigation failed to turn up any evidence that would pinpoint the identity of the culprit(s) or the location of Tucker's Cross. The fate of this valuable shipwreck find remains unknown.

     

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