Winner of a Gold Remi award
at the Houston Worldfest 2005   

Martin Frobisher and the Baffin Fraud

"A rare documentary film that shows how recent scientific research in archeology and metallurgy has helped solve a 400-year old mystery surrounding a gold mining scandal in the Canadian Arctic"

A documentary film (51:54 min.)
about the English explorer and a 16th-century mining fraud

A new tale of fraud is emerging from recent research into the Frobisher voyages of the late sixteenth century. An international team of archeologists on Kodlunarn Island in the Canadian Arctic have unravelled the threads of what might have been the first mining scam in North America. Frobisher's three voyages to the New World represent a tragicomedy of missed opportunity. The famous mariner mistook a bay on the Southeastern tip of Baffin Island for a strait, the fabled Northwest Passage to China. He discovered gold-bearing rocks that turned out to be worthless hornblende mineral deposits and led two very costly mining expeditions that ended in total failure.

Our documentary tells a story of lost sailors, Italian alchemists, metallurgists busy salting mineral samples with gold coins, secret Spanish codes and spies, and court manipulation within Queen Elizabeth=s own inner circle.  A tale of deceit and incredible folly off the inhospitable coast of Baffin Island.

This is one of the great science stories of 2004 (archeology & history) that debunks myths and demystifies the past. The Toronto Globe & Mail wrote: AProfs untangle mystery of Frobisher gold scam@. Le Soleil wrote: ABre-X, version 16th century@. The Dallas Morning News wrote: ABritish explorer possibly duped=. A German scientific publication wrote: AFrobisher, a swindler?@