Romance of Treasure-Hunting.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 225, 20 September 1905, Page 9

Romance of Treasure-Hunting.

As already reported, gold and silver j bullion, buried under the sea for more j than 350 years, is being brought to the ! surface of the Bay of Mull by divers em- j pW-d by the Duke of Argyll. The search for this fortune, the size of which can only be guessed at, but which report says runs up into millions, has been intermittently constant ever since the days when the great Spanish galleon went to the bottom in that secluded bay on the west coast of Scotland, but only . now is it meeting with any real success. : James Gush, a famous diver, in the em- '. ploy of the Duke cf Argyll, is at work j with a tug and the most improved div-1 insr apparatus raising the treasure from j the sunken Spanish galleon. I About two years ago the place where j the vessel lay was definitely discovered j V>y divers working from a steam lighter. 1 Many beautifully chased cannon, parts of 1 ship's timbers, bits of iron, and a few , coins bearing the stamp of Philip 11. of ' Spain, were then brought to the surface, j The story of the loss of the vessel, is • made indefinite by legend; even her name ' is uncertain. HOW THE GALLEON WAS LOST.' , When in 158S Drake and Howard I smashed the great Spanish fleet which ' . had been sent to conquer England, sink- i 1 in<r or scatt -ring many of its vpsfels and j putting the rest to flight, a small rem- , ; nant tied up the North Sea. rounded ; 'Scotland, and determined to make their, way back to Spain. One of these vas the j Admiral of Florence, which had been ; ' equipped by the O-rand Duke of Tuscany, j and carried the greater prfrt of the money | with which the sailors and soldiers of the j fleet were to have been paid for conquer- I ing England. And it is believed that this j is the ship sunk off the island of Mull. j The story of h<?r sinking is told in two ' different ways. Both agree that *he put ' ; into the bay between Tobermory and j I Oban in anything but a seaworthy conI dition. seeking refuge in the almost landI locked harbour from the storm that | j raged at ?ea. According to one legend i : her captain went ashore and made i friends with the Scottish chieftain who ! ruled over the island of Mull, and in return for food and water lent his soldier* ■to the chief for use in a feud with a rival , clan. This alliance proved successful, but the Spaniard appears to have failed to keep some important part of the com--1 pact, so the Highlander —it was the Mc- | I Lame of Duart Castle —sent a trusted ! member of his clan, Donald Glos McI Lame. to demand satisfaction. The proud Spaniard sent the kilted Scot below, and ] prepared to sail away. But the canny Highlander was not to be 1 rapped in this way; he contrived to LAY A FUSE TO THE MAGAZINE. How he managed to do it. is one of the point 3in this story that has never been explained. , The legend goes on to say that just as the crew were weighing anchor it occurred to the captain that the Scot might like to have a last look at the shores of his home, so he had Donald brought on deck, where he was received with the laughing taunts of the Spaniards. Just ! then the explosion took place, and the. ; stately galleon split in two and sank. Of ' the 86 men on board oujy three escaped. j The variant of this story is that when j the Admiral of Florence put into the Bay iof Mull the McLaine of Duart boarded j her. demanded her surrender, and claim--lcd her and her contents in the name of ' King James of Scotland. The Spanish [ captain answered his demand by touchj ing a match to the magazine. At any ! rate, the McLaine was blown up on the ' vessel. EFFORTS AT SALVING. The first Marquis of Argyll obtained from Charles L, King of England and Scotland, a patent giving him the right to the wreck and everything on board, subject to a payment to the Duke of Len--1 nox and Richmond of a one-hundredth I part of whatever might be recovered. He began the search, but it proved fruitless. Diving apparatus was then in a crude and clumsy state of development. Later, the Lords of Argyll resumed their search for the galleon. A few fine bronze can non and f gold doubloons were

DUKE OF ARGYLL'S SUBMARINE QUF""!

I brought up by the use of the diving bell. j But the work was difficult, and the sa- ! perstitious islanders, taking it into their j neads that misfortune would follow the disturbance of the accursed treasure, j drove away the searchers, and the work | was abandoned for several centuries. There are records bearing date 1667 j which state that the wreck was then | falling to pieces, and that it was diffi- I cult to get anj-thing but the guns, hut ! , that there was the equivalent of i £6,000,000 IN BLL.U.OX OX BOARD. ,On -what authority this statement was i based it is impossible to discover. In j 1730. working under a diving bell, some : j tine guns and more gold and silver were j I recovered. 1 The late Duke of Argyll carried on j the search in a desultory manner, but j with sufficient assurance to interest J his son and heir, who had maried Pnn- ' oes* Louisr. daughter of Quern Vicj toria. The Duke, then Marquis of Lome. a 'scholarly man. took a deeper interest jin the sunken jralleon his aged ; father. The l J nncess Louise, too. be- : came enthusiastic over the possibility lof adding to their wealth by the re- , eovpry of such treasure. When the old Duke died, the young I one employed an experienced diver, Cap- ; tain Burns, oi: Glasgow, and he with ' a steam lighter has been workinir over :the spot for several years. He has 1 brought up at intervals, skulls, warped I ironwork, crumbling timber, and cannon j balls of iron and stone.but little in the 1 way of bullion. The reason for this lis that the sreat framework of the ( o!d galleon has fallen to pieces under jthe influence of the tides, the storms. ;and submarine creatures: the whole has ( been tos.-ed about for 3.50 years, and that which is heaviest, the and silver, has sunk, little by little, to the bottom of the hugp heap, while sand , has drifted over it anil buried it. ProI bably tbe treasure will not te found !in any great quantity until the great j bulk of other material has been removed, and even then it may be necessary to dredge or dig in the s.md which '! anyone \vho knows the West Coast of I Scotland will realise is no easy matter, for the bottom of the sea is jaeged ' rock, with reefs ami fissures, in and lout of which th? tides and whirlpools ] rusli and rear. The ?o!d is probably J sunk deep under the shifting sands that i lie in the depths of the rocky fissures. j But patience and systematic work are [bringing to the surface little by little the contents of that pralleon. for James Oush. the diver who is now in charge, last month brought up a lot of sword blades. He is clearly working on the ; right spot, and the result of his fur--1 ther operations is eagerly looked forLATEST >.EWS OF THE SEARCH. Thp divers engaged upon the quest for the sunken treasure in Tobermory ! Bay lately rame upon a group of five I gold coins of the denomination known las "pieces of eisht." in an excellent state of preservation. Just two years j ago. in the very same spot, within the : forehold of the sunken vessel, fifty silver coinii of different values wit? recovered, and the divert are quite familiar with that part of the wreck. One of them visited the scene of their labours in l!) 0:? and found sticking in Mie excavation the boring apparatus J left there ro mark the forehold, where they obtained the coins, cannon balls, :ind a Spanish cannon loaded with stone shot ready for tiring; and much is now expected from the elaborate and powerful apparatus on board the diving ship Beamer. The salvors intend to continue the search for fully three months, and it is hoped that the gold already found i< s only a specimen of the treasure amassed under the bouder clay and silt of the Bay of Tobermory. Of course, it may be matter of time '"■efore ithe consummarion is arrived at, as great care and vigilance has to be exercised, and the process employed, even with a steam suction pump, though most thorough, will not dig throush many cubic yards of stiff boulder clay , and mud in a day. {