WEIRD SPIRITS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 206, 1 September 1938, Page 6

WEIRD SPIRITS.

GUARD SUNKEN GOLD. FOR -TREASURE.: BXTIXION ; IN THE LUTINE. Air . Mail.} ; ' '.' .. .•' '■ , LONDON, August 12. I liave been /watolling' the world's hugest tin dredger-biting it way through die bed of the sea towards a shipwrecked treasure of £2,000,000 in English gold. When they clime ashore at the end of their shift the wooden-shoed dredger men told weird talcs of guardian spirits that lurk about the Lutine's treasure chest to safeguard its contents, wrote a "Sunday Express"'reporter recently. The treasure lies among-, the rotting timbers of the English frigate Lutine, Which went down. 138 years ago at English Corner,: most treacherous:; spot' on Holland's coast. Three/hundred men perished with the ship.,' • . " ■ ■ l''ifty men work aboiird the gaunt and iigiy "tiiimin" day- and-'night in three eight-hour shifts. . ' : ,:■ Ua])tiliil 80l is the skipper. His is a Jinme famous..for' two centuries'because borno by dariiig.scd.captaiiis. He knows everything about dredging,, for iio. has] dredged East Indian seas and channels Tor..years. . . . ,*. / ' ■ '":. •The Kariinata's 130 scoops, each weighing two tons, can dig dowii 100 foot. The Lutino lies about 70 feet below the bed of'tlio sea. So Captain 80l will dig a treiicli 100 feet deep, 500 Xeet wide and 3000 feet long. Must Flee.. This 'work will take, perhaps 80 days of absolutely calm weather. The Karimata must llee tlie moment the sea gets rough along these ill-fated shoals.. On 'October I), 1799, the Lutine went down while laden with gold and silver intended for English troops then garrisoned on the island of Tcxel. The bullion was the property of London merchants and goldsmiths. ij Now and then the sea line given up email amounts in return for the 300 lives lost. Not more than £100,000 lias been recovered. Perhaps £2,000,000 is still down there under the clay. The sailors say that ie the least there can be. These drcdgeiinen are queer people. They hail' mostly from Sliedricht village, where all good dredger men come from. They have dredged Shanghai's harbour, sweltered in the heat of Bio de Janeiro dredging oannla, and worked in many remote places. When It's Over. They are silent, brown-faced and distrustful. They dig for gold without excitement or a thrill. The mystery of the search leaves them cold. Their job 3s dredging. When the- job is nnished and their money is isafely stored away—for they will get a percentage and a bonus— they wiil go back to their homes, or to Japan, or Australia, or wherever they are sent by their employers. The villagers are as excited as the dredgennen are stolid. They talk animatedly, and .ire fascinated at the thought of gold snatched from the sea. Tho tugboat meii also will talk. They told mo how fishermen at times have brought up big loads of gold in their note, only to have them snatched away at the last moment as if by an unseen hand at the sea bottom. They are old and wizened men, these tug-boat sailora. They have worked a lifetime on thofie flait, sand beaches and fclnmle that are slowly eaten awny by tlie sc,ii; i! day by day and piece by piece. They havo reason" to fear the sea. The dredger men are afraid of sabotage. When my boat approached they waved mo away and shouted: "Go back, no admittance at all." i, - They nro afraid, fearful of both, man and Nature.