The mission to complete Kelly Tarlton's final quest
Hamish Williams has made a podcast about the astonishing story of Kelly Tarlton, and what he hopes to find at the bottom of Northland's Doubtless Bay.
Kelly Tarlton never made his fortune from the expensive business of treasure hunting, so when his famous aquarium in Auckland was a roaring success, he was a happy man.
On 16 March, 1985 he personally shook the hand of Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium’s 100,000th visitor, journalist Hamish Williams says.
“He'd never been so happy. He was very celebratory with the rest of his crew there at the aquarium. He went home, had a nice meal with his wife, Rosemary, and kept saying, ‘we've done it, we've made it’. And he went to bed, and he never woke up.”
At the time of his sudden death, Kelly Tarlton was on the brink of a brand-new adventure.
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On St Patrick's Day 1985 Tarlton died aged 47 leaving behind his wife and two teenage daughters.
Tarlton was New Zealand's most successful treasure hunter, he recovered millions in sunken gold, silver and jewels, and invented new methods of underwater excavation.
At the time of his sudden death, he was on the brink of a brand-new adventure, one final unfinished quest, which is the focus of Williams’ new RNZ podcast Kelly Tarlton's Final Treasure Hunt.
The mission: to find a lost anchor dropped 250 years ago by one of the first European ships to reach Aotearoa.
Tarlton was a “collector of people” as well as sunken treasure, Williams says.
“Everyone remembers him as a very warm character, someone who elevated others.
“He was incredibly motivating for people, and many of the people who are featured on the podcast have all gone on to have the most incredible, successful careers in their own right.”
Tarlton was a meticulous planner of his expedition and his voice features prominently in the podcast.
“He would often make the statement to friends and family that a good treasure hunt is 90 percent preparation and 10 percent action.”
The Tarlton family gave Williams access to their personal archive, and there he found a treasure trove of audio cassettes.
“It was just completely unexpected, in excess of about 40 cassette tapes that Kelly himself had recorded on a personal tape recorder.”
He started recording the tapes in the late 1970s, he says.
“We've actually learned a lot directly from Kelly himself.
“And the lovely thing about this is that because it's audio, and this is a podcast, Kelly himself is actually in the podcast, talking to us about his treasure hunts, talking to us about his negotiations, talking to us about getting the aquarium ready, he's very much a part of the entire production.”
The missing anchor from the St Jean Baptiste lies is in Doubtless Bay, Tarlton found two of them back in 1976, Williams says.
“The area that it's in is not particularly big, Doubtless Bay itself is huge, but based on the ship's logs of the St Jean Baptiste, we've got very good detail as to where it was.
“Then we've got Kelly's notes over his initial searches for the anchors in ‘76 which is when he found the first two anchors.”
Williams is understandably coy about whether his mission was a success.
“What I will tell you is that, without giving any spoilers away, really the overarching part of the story is about what's possible when you take that spark of inspiration to get off your ass and go and have an adventure.”
