Talk:Plant You Now, Dig You Later/@comment-141.193.16.151-20191007140659

The chest was obviously not a pirate's treasure chest since pirate's tended to hang around places that had treasure available to steal. This would be the Caribbean and the eastern seaboard of America. You could also find them along the shores of Europe, but always near some kind of civilization.

About the only person who would have had a chest like that that was wandering around in the middle of the Pacific ocean a couple of hundred years before Gilligan and Co. was Captain James Cook. So, he probably left it behind. Why it was filled with cannon balls, I don't know. It would have made more sense if it were filled with carpenter's tools since Captain Cook would often stop at an island to re-supply with water, food, and to make repairs to his ship.