My friend and I also had a situation couple of days ago where we had s!?*loads of treasure chests and skulls and we got sunk by another sloop.
We managed to sink that sloop after getting back (to the spot where we got sunk) to pick the treasures, but some of them kept floating between the surface and the ground of depths, hence leaving us unable to pick them up and take them.

I guess the best option would be to open a ticket about this "bug"?

P.S.: Also the chests and skulls were sinking to depths extremely slow and we had to wait couple of minutes before we could pick them up from the ground.

@willy-pete-77 Whaaat? That sounds really strange O.o Maybe the one who sank you felt sorry for you brought them to safety? haha.. I've had the feeling that animal cages stay afloat for longer though.. But i've never seen them move, maybe it's a thing i've just never noticed :O

@campclutchhh

I know this thread is months old, but had a situation tonight where I had a load of golden chickens, and someone sank my sloop. I went to the area to search for the cargo, and (although I sank a bit out to sea) my chickens were found on a nearby island - on shore in cages.

I wonder how much other treasure floats (or is moved) to nearby islands?

@musicmee said in Treasure chest despawn:

@campclutchhh They usually stay on the water for 5 minutes before they sink to the depths for a further 5 minutes before completely despawning...

Thank you! @Musicmee Do you know if chests that I hide somewhere on land de-spawn after an amount of time as well?

@campclutchhh They usually stay on the water for 5 minutes before they sink to the depths for a further 5 minutes before completely despawning...

I guess no one knows this yet?