TREASURE FROM THE SEA

Evening Star, Issue 18051, 19 August 1922, Page 3

TREASURE FROM THE SEA

' PHILIP'S COLD STILL SOUGHT. TOBERMORY GALLEON NOT A TREASURE SHIP. Hidden treasure is always alluring, and so long as the spirit of adventure and the love of “a gamble” remains in them men will spend time and money and risk their lives in endeavoring to recover it. A cable message received early this week told of tho recovery of guns, swords, and other relics from the Spanish galleon Almiranto do Florenda, described as tho treasure ship of tho Armada, which was sunk in 1588 in Tobermory Bay, Argyllshire. Portions of tho treasure, added the cable, had been recovered, and salvage had 'been joroceeding since 1661. As a matter of fact, long ago established and now recorded in Dr Elder’s book, ‘ Spanish Influences in Scottish History,’ tho ship that wont down in Tobermory Bay was not a treasure ship at all, but a fighting ship. It is styled in Scottish records the “Admiral of Florence,” but there was no ship of that name in Duro’s list of the Armada, tho one most resembling it being that of El Duque d© Florenda, of the Armada, of Portugal. This, however, was not the vessel which reached Tobermory. She has been identified as the San Juan Bautista cie Sicilia, belonging to the Levant squadron, 800 tons, and carrying 26 guns, 279 soldiers, and 63 sailors. This galleon, as we have said, was a fighting vessel, and carried no treasure, although for long years local tradition and legend loved to dwell on tho rich stores of wealth which might yet bo recovered from the wreck. The destruction of the vessel was effected l by one John Sroallett, or Smollett, an ancestor of the novelist, who was in the pay of Walsingham, and who, as a trader, gained access to the vessel. He succeeded in firing tho galleon near the magazine, and she blew up with nearly all her crew after most of tho forepart had been burned to the water’s edge.

The then Earl of Argylo, it seems, tried to recover the reputed treasure, but unsuccessfully. In 1666 his son, with the assistance of the Laird of Melgrim, who studied tho use of the diving hell in Sweden, succeeded in raising two brass cannon and an iron gun. About 1670 the Earl proceeded with the work alone, and raised six cannon. A German contractor thereafter undertook the work, hut recovered only one anchor, and (ae the Marquis of Salisbury tersely puts it in his history) “he soon left, taking his gold with him and leaving some debt behind.” In modern times operations have been conducted on tho wreck at intervals since 1903, notably in 1906 and 1910, by gentlemen adventurers calling themselves “The Pieces of Eight Company,” but in no case have the searchers succeeded, in finding the legendary treasure of Philip. The persistence of the belief that treasure is there is remarkable in the circumstances, for small hop© of success—beyond the recovery of “ guns, swords, and other relics ” —can be held out to the latest trea-sure-seekers. AH this, and more regarding the destruction of the Armadh, is set out in Dr Elder’s book, and makes intensely inter, esting reading.