A gold and emerald cross recovered from a 16th-century Spanish shipwreck off Bermuda, once valued at roughly $3 million, has been missing for decades after it was stolen from a museum and replaced with a plastic copy, according to Popular Mechanics.
The relic, known as the Tucker Cross, measures 7.62 centimeters long and 3.81 centimeters wide and is set with emeralds. It is believed to have come from the Spanish ship San Pedro, which sank off Bermuda in the late 16th century.
Freddy Tucker, a former British Navy diver, found the cross in 1955 near Bermuda's coast. The find gave the relic its name, and it stayed with the Tucker family for years before becoming the center of a decades-old mystery.
Tucker's search for shipwrecks
Tucker, who had served as a diver during World War II, moved back to Bermuda, where he was born, and spent years diving in search of 15th- and 16th-century shipwrecks. According to Popular Mechanics, he located more than a hundred wrecks around the islands, but none matched the value of what he eventually found from the San Pedro, which sank in 1592.
In 1951, Tucker spotted several Spanish cannons during one of his dives, according to his daughter, Wendy Tucker, who runs a website documenting his work as a diver and marine archaeologist. Four years later, he returned to the same site to examine the seabed more closely, in an expedition that would overshadow everything he had done before.
Wendy Tucker quoted her father as saying that expedition changed how he saw treasure hunting, turning what had felt like a dream or a fantasy that no one believed would come true into something real.
Gold, emeralds and a seventh-day discovery
What had been a hobby became Tucker's main pursuit, and the search paid off over several days of diving. In the first six days, he recovered gold bars and more than two hundred gold coins. On the seventh day, at a depth of nearly 10 meters, he found the cross.
The carving style was rough, likely originating somewhere in the Americas, but its value was clear given it was made of 22-karat gold set with emeralds. Mendel Peterson, an expert from the Smithsonian Institution, traveled to Bermuda and appraised the cross at a value that would equal about $3 million today.
Sale, museum display and the theft
It is not known how much Freddy Tucker was paid for the items he recovered from the San Pedro, but the buyer was the government of Bermuda. The objects were first displayed at the Bermuda Aquarium before being moved to the Bermuda Maritime Museum in 1975.
The cross was believed to be safe and intact until a royal visit to Bermuda that same year changed everything. Local authorities asked Freddy Tucker to serve as host and guide for Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the museum.
The cross he had discovered was a required stop on the tour, but when Tucker reached it, he noticed something was off: the shine was not the same as he remembered. When he picked it up, he found paint residue on his hands, confirming that someone had swapped the original for a hand-painted plastic replica.
Still missing today
The Tucker Cross has not been found since. Neither the FBI nor Interpol has managed to solve the case.
Freddy Tucker died in 2014 at the age of 89, never learning what happened to the cross that bears his name.
