GENERAL GRANT’S GOLD

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27443, 1 September 1954, Page 10

GENERAL GRANT’S GOLD

PLANS FOR RECOVERY

LITTLE HOPE HELD BY HASTINGS MAN (New Zealand Press Association) HASTINGS, August 31. Little hope is held by a Hastings • man for the success of the two ex-: peditions that propose to attempt to' recover gold from the General urant a sailing ship wrecked at the Auckland Islands in 1886. The man is Mr W, H. Parker, of Glenhope road, Hastings, who was associated with an expedition with similar plans before the First World War. It was not generally known that a diver had unsuccessfully explored' the sea bed at the scene' of the General Grant wreck, said Mr Parker. However, he had spoken to the diver in Dunedin shortly, after the Great War. v The diver, a Mr Mennan, had told him that he had found only a few heavy timbers, probably part of the keel of the wrecked vessel. The remainder had obviously broken up, and had been scattered by turbulent currents, so that recovery of the main bulliontwo small cases of gold—would be extremely difficult. Furthermore, said Mr Parker, there was an unconfirmed report that one longboat had located part of the gold, but the small boat was lost with it» crew when returning to the salvage expedition’s base. If the report were correct, the gold might have foundered a second time, in which case its recovery would be almost impossible. Formerly a seaman, Mr Parker was to have accompanied an expedition to the Auckland Islands in an old Auck- . land tug, the Wairoa. After a series of accidents, however, the expedition’s plans were abandoned when the Wai•roa reached Dunedin. There tha Marine Department refused to certity the ship as seaworthy unless certain repairs were done, and these the sponsor could not pay for.