GOLD IN THE OCEAN.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 205, 1 September 1886, Page 3

GOLD IN THE OCEAN.

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day on behalf k. C Callings against J. J Boyle and tho Vigo B*iy Treasure Company. Thobillia brought merely to compel Boyleto deliver 20,000 shares of tho stock of tho Treasure Company, under an agreement by which ho agreed to make such delivery. Tho company's business is of a decidedly romantic character. During the war of the Spaniih suceesaion, at the end of the seventeenth century, when France and Spain wero contending with England, Austria and Hollaud over the question of whether Louis XIV or King Charles of Austria should name the successor to the Spanish throne, memorable naval engagoment took place in Vigo bay, a little land-locked harbour on the northern coast of Spain. For several years the English fleets and privateers had deterred the shipment aa the usual annual carrgoe3 of precious colonial produce trom the Spanish colonios to the mother country. Finally ill 1702 the necejsiliea of tho Spanish exchequer demanded relief iv some way, and the protection of a French fleet was secured to escort thirty heavily laden galleons from Havana to Cadiz, Before tho fleet and convoy reached the Spmish coast, Sir Clour'e*ley Shovel, the English Admiral, learned of their approach and S3t his sharpest watches. The Spaniards observed the movement, and succeeded in convoying a warning to the approaching licet. The destination was accordingly changed from Cadiz to Vigo. The Englishman, however, was not to ba so easily thwarted. The fleet goS by him, but ho went after it. They beat him into tho harbour, and the French fleet was stationed at theentrance, while the galleons proceeded to unload. Beforo much of the cargoos had been landed the Englishmen arrived, and a battle bewail nt once between the two fleets, Tho French ships were rapidly sunk or disabled. When the English Meet finally forced its way into the harbour, the Spaniards determined that if they could not themselves enjoy the riches of the galleons, at least ihoy should not fall into tho clutches of the Enplish. Seven had boen unloaded, tho English captured six, but the remaining seventeen were sunk in forty-five feet of wator. Hiving bells boinj"; unknown to the mariners of those days, Sir Cloudesloy sailed off content with the lot he had secured, afterwards discovering that the treasure takon from a single one of tho galleona was worth S.OOO.OOOJol; all of this waa mado into coins on which the word "Vigo" was stamped below the head of good Queen Anne. Historians and antiquarians occasionally referred to ptinkcn treasure, but it is mained undisturbed savo once in tho present century, when the Englishman who raised tho ships sunk in the harbour of Sobastopol sent divers down undei tho waters of Vigo bay, and afterward reported th it tho treasure there could not be lees than 23,000,000d01. Finally tho Spanish Government gave a concession to a Connecticut concern to recover tho treasure upon tho condition that it should pay a royalty of _5 per cent. Tho concession was transferred to the Vigo Bay Treasure Company, and the Spanish Government ratified tho transfer. The ollicera of tho Company estimate tho amount of tbe treasure at ;)7,<>oo,ooodols. Thoy find that the galleons havo sunk very little in the hard bottom on which they rest, but they are all covered over with mud and fine sand about nine feet tleop, which havo come down from the neighbouring mountains. They havo ox actly heated twelve of the Kalleone, and brought up thirty cords of magnificent mahogany, besides a lot of brass cannon

Thoy are not discouraged at having failed to reach tho treasure yot, because old reports proaorvod in the Government library at Madrid thow that the treasure was always carriod in chests built just over tho keel on, with tho cargo piled above. The futurs of the enterprise is deci'iellv specuaud Counsellor Carson aska the interference of the Court to compel the delivery of the stock itsflf ii «-cad of mouey damages for its' nondelivery on the ground that "it may bo of groat value, depending entirely upon tho amount and character of tho tr.aauie recovered "—Philadelphia despatch in " New York Sun."