The Lost Treasure
There must he very few whose hearts do no quicken at the thought of hidden bount there for the finding. And just near George, in picturesque Ballots Bay, lies a treasure chest bulging with gold coins and precious stones, or at least so the locals believe.
Like any true mystery, this one has various versions. The main points however stay constant, and have been confirmed by so many that. they form a framework which could well be fact. The chief player is one Baron Joseph Wilhelm von Mollendorf, a fun loving, wealthy man who apparantly set off from Cape Town for the East.
Was he the wild son of a Prussian gentleman, sent off with his fortune to sow his wild oats, orwas he a rich German adventurer excited by the lure of foreign lands? The legends differ, but there is no doubt that he existed.
Then we have the setting, a sunken boat with Von Mollendorf and this treasure on a raft, drifting on the merciless sea towards the coast. It is probable from the datingof the story that the ut fated boat was the Maria which foundered near Ptettenberg Bay in 1788.
The next bit, the plot, is constant to all versions. After his boat was wrecked, Von Mollendorf was able to get onto a raft, possibly a bit of the broken ship, together with the special iron chest which contained a fortune in gold and jewels. Washed towards Ballots Bay, he probably thought that the worst of his dreadful ordeal would soon be past, but fate and the currents were against him! His raft was thrown against the reef of dangerous rocks near the mouth, he was flung against them, his arm crushed against the rugged sentinels of the little cove, and his treasure pulled to the sandy sea bed.
He may have had a companion, for his arm was amputated either to free him from the grip of the rocks or once he got to safety. The local people showed him all kindness and for months he daily came to the bay to try to reach his treasure and would pace sadly up and down the little shore looking out to sea.
Sometimes, when the waveswere still, he could see the chest some 5 metres below the water, wedged tightly. Mostly the shifting sands and pounding surf hid it from view. He eventually married and went off to live in Oudtshoorn, but his descendants continued at various times to trace the treasure and one, a Van der Westhuizen, collected family papers and went off to try to lay claim to the rest of the Von Mollen dor fortune apparantly still lodged in Germany. He / .. disappeared without trace during the Anglo Boer War, and the South African family has now died out. Various serious attempts have been made by divers to raise the treasure with no success. There have been several reported sightings, a gold medallion was hooked by an angler, and there is a story that one pair of anglers came into mysterious wealth and disappeared to live in luxury somewhere else.
Laws of Bounty would make it rather difficult to dispose of 18th centry coins, so it would seem that the chest is still there. Maybe, just maybe, one day, a fisherman, nature lover or beachcomber will be there when the tide and waves decide to give up their secret and, with some massive shift, the treasure chest finaibi crumbles and its long dreamt of contents are washed onto the shore.
