A SILVER bar believed to be the first piece of the long-lost treasure haul of Scottish pirate William Kidd has been found in shallow waters off Madagascar.

    The 50-kg ingot, engraved with the initials TS and dated 1695 — just three years before Captain Kidd’s ship sank — was discovered in a hidden chamber of a wreck by an American diver who has been exploring the bay for 15 years.

    If the wreck is confirmed to be Kidd’s, it will bring an end to a global search for the privateer’s booty that began almost the moment he was hanged for piracy and murder in London 300 years ago.

    The bar was guarded by soldiers as it was handed over to the Malagasy president in a ceremony attended by the British and American ambassadors on the Ile Sainte-Marie.

    Barry Clifford, the American diver authorized by the government to explore the area, believes his discovery is just the tip of the iceberg and that hundreds of silver bars may be lying in the chamber he unearthed. “I don’t get excited that often but I was very excited,” he said. “Everybody is just in shock.”

    His team has discovered a total of 13 wrecks in the area known as the Bay of Pirates, because of its popularity with buccaneers in the 17th century.

    They claimed to have found Kidd’s Adventure Galley, which he ordered to be burned and scuttled in shallow water just 10 meters from shore after most of his crew mutinied — although the shore of which country or island has always been debated.

    Clifford said he discovered the silver bar just days before the end of his latest expedition as he tried to locate Kidd’s cabin buried under the heavy stones used as ballast in old galleons.

    “As I started to remove some of the stone and mud it opened up into a chamber,” he said. “It was pitch black but the bottom was covered in metal — I could feel it, and the detector I had with me was screaming. As I tried to move it I couldn’t, it was too heavy.” He made out a piece of “odd-shaped” metal in the ceiling, which then collapsed. Returning when the mud had settled, he said, he discovered the stone was half of a silver bar.

    John de Bry, a Florida-based archaeologist who works with Clifford, identified the bar as originating from an area that was once in Peruvian territory.

    (SD-Agencies)