James Jagroop spent five hours casting his line into the waters off the Mosquito Creek, La Romaine, hoping to hook a big one for a fish broth to go with the rum lime.

He snared not one fish.

But took home the catch of a lifetime-a sword, still in its wooden scabbard, encrusted in barnacles hiding the secret of its maker.

The Chaguaramas Military History and AeroSpace Museum investigated the the origin of the treasure (see side story). But just as mysterious is how the sword came to rest on the shallow seabed not 50 feet from the coastal road at the creek.

One suggestion is that the sword may have been part of a deep sea shipwreck, but was snared by a net dragged by a trawler and deposited closer to shore, where shrimping boats also trawling waters brought it to within reach of Jagroop’s hook.

That the sword ended up being caught is also an apparent one-in-a-million chance event.

But all Jagroop, a building contractor from Princes Town, wants to know, is how much his treasure is worth.

He said the catch was made February 27, a Friday.

’I went there with three friends, hoping to catch fish, any fish, big or small, them ugly catfish even, but not a sword...fish!’.

For anyone interested, Jagroop’s cast his line midway along the Mosquito Creek stretch, into water no more than six feet high.

Said Jagroop:

’I was ready to pack up. But decided to throw one last time. I felt a fish, a big one. So I pulled on my line and thought I had a very big one.

I slowly dragged him in. When it came out of the water I knew immediately what it was.

I shouted ’pirate sword’. We packed up and headed home’.

Since Jagroop’s find, people in his hometown of Princes Town have speculated-some possibilities as wild as the children in the freight container rumour.

Maybe famed English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh dropped his sword on his way to the La Brea pitch lake to caulk his leaking ships back in 1595.

Or a thief off-loaded the sword taken from some rich person’s mansion at Gulf View or Palmiste.

How about a trawler dragging its net along the seabed and snagging the sword off a deep seawreck, and bringing it closer to shore.

Jagroop however isn’t very interested in its history. He just wants to know it’s worth something.