GENERAL GRANT GOLD

Evening Star, Issue 16050, 29 February 1916, Page 6

GENERAL GRANT GOLD

ANOTHER SEARCH EXPEDITION LEFT’ DUNEDIN TO-DAY. Off Kitchener street wharf this morning the cutter Enterprise* 1 rode to an'anchor whilst her crew busied themselves with th© final preparations for a> run to iho Auckland Islands to make .another effort to recover tho gold that sank ,iu the General Grant half a century ago. This is a verjy modest venture, quietly undertaken, on information supplied, by a small Dunedin syndicate. Nobody about tho wharves manifested any special interest in the cutter and her men. A shareholder who has passed the stage of excitement was there to wave farewell and shout “Good luck to you all"; a casual photographer “snapped" the scene;'half a dozen wharf workers, waiting to turn to, exchanged observations as to tne prospects of the affair: and a reporter happened to bo near. That was all the sendf-ofl that Captain Catling and his plucky crew got. It was all and more than they asked for. They were not posing. Merely going to do something, or to have a hearty try. Yet there is in its small way much to appeal to the. imagination in this voyage of tho Enterprise. It is a plucky adventure. The vessel herself is as unpretentious as one of the caravels in Columbus's expedition. She used to l>e aa oyster cutter working in Fovenux Strait. ' Her gross measurement is 25 tons. She got stranded. Captain Catling, an .Englishman who came to New Zealand two years ago, bought her as she lay, got her made seaworthy, and, acting upon the knowledge he had acquired about the General Grant wreck, ho went down to the Aucklands with two other men and made a thorough inspection of the coasts. His inquiries and tests encouraged him to undertake another try for the lost gold, so he came hack to Otago, got into touch with men who easily financed the scheme, and had the cutter refitted and supplied with a now 16 h.p. oil engine, and 'by tho time this is in print she is no doubt speeding south before the steady breeze that set in this morning, for she was timed to sail from Dunedin shortly after midday, using the ebb tide for a start. The intention is to make for tho Bluff, take in there tho last of the stores, then go to Port Pegasus, and either lay there or mu for Carnloy Harbor, according to the weather, thereafter choosing the first favorable opportunity for starting her search on the exposed west coast of the Aucklands. Captain Catling is au experienced navigator, also a yachtsman, and he is his own diver. He is provided with modem divine gear and submarine lights. His plant also includes a serviceable oil boat. lire second hand on the Enterprise is a Norwegian, and the other hands are three young New Zealanders. If there is nothing picturesque about the turn-out, it nevertheless commands respect from the practised eye. This little cutter is apparently one of the staunch sort that can ride out a gale, and her appointments are all for work instead of show. The same characteristic marks her men. Such, at any rate, was tho impression left after seeing them put the boats inboard and go about other deck work. Maybe there will be more to do if when she returns it is learned that she has got some of the £IBO,OOO worth of gold that she is after.