ARMADA GOLD!

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 60, 12 March 1938, Page 21

ARMADA GOLD!

LURE FOR SEARCHERS. THE TOBERMORY GALLEON. DUTCH ENGINEER'S VENTURE. (By J. WATT.) GLASGOW. Early in the present year another attempt is to be made to recover the millions of golden ducats said to be in tlie hold of tlie Spanish galleon Duque Florenca, which has been lying at the bottom of Tobermory Bay, Isle of Mull, for the past 300 years. A Dutch engineer, Van Wiener, inventor of a new type of diving apparatus, ha-s obtained permission from tlie Duke of Argyll to conduct the search for this Spanish gold, which is said to total thirty million ■ducats and to be worth about £3,000,000 sterling in modern money. Unlikely Treasure Stories. Personally, I am sceptical of these old stories of buried and sunken treasure. I have read a good deal about the famous Cocos Island hoard, and it seems to me that the evidence for its existence is flimsy and highly suspicious. It looks so like the tale the sailor tells the landlubber that I should not be surprised if the attempts to And this treasure have failed simply because it isn't there.

The attempts 'made to unearth the hoard or hoards supposed to have been buried by Captain Kidd also incline one to scepticism. One or two expedition® have actually gone to places which Kidd never visited. There is ample and reliable evidence to show that Kidd was a much maligned man, or to put it another way, a much over-rated pirate. His piratical career was. short. He took at most six ships, and some had cargoes of no great value. If. Kidd ever buried any., plunder it probably consisted mainly of silks and spices, which have long since crumbled to dust.

There is this to be said for the Duque Florenca. She was not a pirate ship. She belonged to the Spanish Armada, and was one of the ships that ran beforfe the storm and tried to get home by doubling round the north of Scotland.

But how, may be asked, did a ship of war come to be carrying such a large treasure? The answer is that she was the pay ship of the Armada. To me this does not sound, quite convincing. It is hard to believe that the Spaniards risked such an immense sum by placing it all in one ship. I cannot imagine that cold, calculating, and miserly man, Philip 11. of Spain, -permitting such foolishness. The story of how the Duque Florenca came to sink in Tobermory Bay also raises doubt as to the existence of the treasure. The Duque Florenea was not one of the many ships of the Armada wrecked on the storm-scarred coasts of Scotland. She reached Mull in safety and put into Tobermory Bay for shelter and provisions. The islanders supplied provisions, but, so the story goes, the Spaniards refused to pay for them after they had been put on board. So, in revenge, one of the islanders managed, by some means or other, to set alight to the ship's powder magazine. She went up and then, down.

A Sassenach may at once exclaim, "The story's incredible. No Scot would part with goods before he was paid for them." But even if some Scots are like that, it was not true of the Highlanders in Elizabethan times, and it is not true of many of them to-day. The Highlanders are not naturally a commercial people.

[ What is suspicious about the story is i the statement that the Spaniards re- [ fused to pay for the provisions, assuming they really had 30 million ducats in the hold. Even if I did believe all the Elizabethan atrocity propaganda about the Spaniards, I would still find it-hard to believe that men in the situation in which the Spaniards found themselves, safe in harbour after being storm-tossed and very nearly wrecked, should refuse to pay for sorely-needed supplies, unless, indeed, tliev had no money. Many Attempts at Salvage. However, the fact remains that a Spanish galleon did sink "in Tobermory Bay, and the faet also remains that the tale of its treasure has persisted for hundreds of years, and has inspired many attempts at recovery. It appears that the existence of the treasure was not known till 1665, when a Greenock diver, employed by the Duke of Argyll, brought up a document from the wreck. It was written in Latin and it stated that 30 million ducats had been stored in the hold beneath the gun room. This is the story that has prompted every search. One was made in 1688 and a story got round that much gold was recovered, but this was a mere rumour. Since then many attempts to get the ducats to the surface have been made, but a few odds and ends of no great value except curios, and an old cannon or two have been the only reward for the time and money spent. And now Herr Van Wiener is going to have a try. I am sure everyone will wish liim good hunting, but whether or not he will find what he seeks is a very open question. For they do say that the people of Tobermory have kept alive the legend because a treasure-seek-ing expedition means more visitors to, and, therefore, more business for the town. j