# How were original treasure chests constructed?



## Adam_D (Mar 4, 2012)

I grew up on cartoons/movies, many of which highlighted treasure chests overflowing with gold and silver:










I'd imagine most cartoons are inspired by some degree of truth, and I started thinking about that today-did those chests actually exist? Some more googling suggests that a chest as large as they appear on cartoons/movies would literally weigh a ton!

So my question is, if they existed in some fashion which inspired the big chest in the cartoons, how were they constructed?

What type of wood did they use?
How thick was the wood?
What kind of joinery would survive that kind of force? They used metal reinforcing, right?
How would they permit transportation somehow, or was it built into the ship? Handles? How many? How were THEY constructed to support such loads?

I'm not asking how to make one so much as how were they made originally.

Thanks!


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## Porcupine (Mar 4, 2013)

I've thought about that too. If you loaded one of those chests down with gold it would be a heck of a burden to hoist that out of the pirate ship to bury it! check out this beautiful book. I would think they were similar to the wood chests covered with iron straps I saw at the Jamestown museum. I believe the woods were European oak, or mahogany if they were made in South America.
http://www.amazon.com/Treasure-Chests-Legacy-Extraordinary-Boxes/dp/156158651X/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372699099&sr=1-3&keywords=Treasure+chests


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## Manitario (Jul 4, 2010)

I believe the construction somehow involved gunpowder mixed with rum and frequent trips to Davey Jones locker.


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## Finn (May 26, 2010)

I would think they were a lot smaller than those shown in movies etc. Kinda like the "strong box" from old westerns.


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## ScaleShipWright (Mar 28, 2013)

found this one in the site of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich UK:

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/3304.html

but do not know its purpose (unfortunately no caption for the images)

I am going to check my maritime books, I have a couple about pirates…


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## Adam_D (Mar 4, 2012)

That one's IRON! That would make more sense, though I think that would make it heavier, further reducing its portability…


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

- Probably oak, ash, chestnut… that sort of thing, later mahogany.
- probably varied depending on the craftsman and the size
of the chest. 5/8" minimum. 
- dovetails.
- the main issue would be the bottom falling out from the weight,
so the bottom would tend to be captured in a groove.


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

My guess would be; it would follow barrel construction with iron bands to reinforce the wood. They may have even been made by coopers. I think some chests were made as barrels and cut in half. Later, the bottom half would be made more squarish.


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## B0b (Jan 13, 2011)

I picked up a chest at a garage sale, full of heavy steel tools. This thing is built like a tank. I never really looked closely at how they built it, but when I got it, it was halfway full of steel tools, and took entirely all my strength to lift. Rough 1'x1'x30". I'll take a look when I get home, since I've never had any fear of the bottom falling out.


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

In regards to a chest weighing too much;

When it is full of Gold, and Silver, there was always PLENTY of help around. Sometimes, too much. The bigger ones were moved around with Block & Tackle, afterall, it IS a sailing ship…

iron bands all around. Coopered top? Be sure to look under the lid, as it was a good place for a false lid. Diamonds are much easier to hide in the lid, that way..


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

Handles: Iron hoops, not just on the ends, either. The Bigger ones would have handles like a casket….


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## Narthoniel (Mar 22, 2013)

I did some digging on this topic not long ago and came across one website that had a good lookin old chest. Chests containing coins were smaller. On the 1715 fleet, the chests were said to contain 3,000 coins each. If each coin were on average half an ounce, that would be about 100 pounds. I did some digging around, and found that 1500 ounces of silver would fill 271 cubic inches. The box in questions has about 500 cubic inches of space by my estimates of interior space. It seems very likely that this chest could have been used for just such a purpose. I plan to make a chest similar to this at some point if I can find the metal hardware.

Hope this helps, 
Anthony

http://www.kaboodle.com/churchwomanantiques/church-woman-antiques/antique-18th-century-spanish-arcon-chest-spain

Double checking the website, I cannot get the info link to work. I copied the info there months ago when I first found the info. I will type it out from my notes below:

"This is the finest example we have ever gotten of an origional Spanish Colonial ships treasure chest. These were the chests that traveled from the "The New World" carrying the King and Queens share of Spanish silver and gold! They are usually only found underwater as part of a shipwreck, but this one was kept in a private collection, and in the same family for the last 200 years! They have had it in Key Biscayne, Florida since the 1980's and before the ban on the exportation of National Treasures from Peru. These pieces can no longer be taken out of Peru and as such it is extremely rare, desirable and a great investment! The dimensions of this small chest are as follows; 14.5 inches long by 7.5 inches tall and it is 8 inches wide. The weight is 6 lbs. The wood we are told is "nogal" in Spanish; translated that's walnut. The pedestal of the chest we suspect was a later addition, added to keep it up and away from wet floors. Overall this is a superb example of a Spanish Colonial Treasure Chest."


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

I'm sure big chests were made, but not filled full with gold ;-) My wife wanted a false bottom in this one so it wouldn't take so much treasure to fill it.


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