A TREASURE HUNT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 216, 11 September 1908, Page 2

A TREASURE HUNT.

- .■■■.,.. ..._... -o-- —.—... • ■ SEARCH FOR 20,000,000 DOLLARS

WRECK OF THE GENERAL

GRANT

A recent issue of the New York American contains the interesting announcement- that Captain Neils Peter Sorensen ha 3 organised an expedition to search for 20,000,000 dollars in bullion, which were lost when the ship General Grant was wrecked 42 years ago. Captain Sorensen claims to know where 20,000,000 dollars in gold bullion lies buried at the bottom of the oceaii just where he can get at it, and shows documents to prove the existence of the wreck laden with gold, tallow, and wool, just where it has iam for 42 years. The captain has organised an expedition to go after the buried gold, and has given himself just 18 months to return a rich man. Pie has devised a clever scheme to circumvent old ocean, to defy swirling tides and smashing waves, and he has made capitalists believe in the feasibility ot his scheme.

The captain is sqtiare-set, hardy, and florid, a Dane by birth. He arrived in America from his latest wanderings abou+- 20 months ago. For 30 years he has been planning an- J other assault upon the treasure that lies 14 fathoms deep in the bowels of the hulk. Twice ho has met defeat in the project. Briefly told, the captain's story of the hidden treasure, as related in the American office, luns like this : — WRECKED IN 1866. "On 13th May, 1866, the American clipper ship General Grant was wrecked ,on the west coast of the is- I land of Auckland, an inhospitable bluff 20 miles long, 160 miles from the southermost land of New Zealand. The General Grant was one of four clippers owned in Boston which were chartered by a London firm of shipping merchants to put on a packet, line between Melbourne J and Londoji.- I " The first vessel .to sail with troasuro was the General Grant. Her sister ship, the General Scott, followed her. The General Grant had aboard £3,000,000 in gold bullion, shipped by the banks, md another million pounds in value cf gold bars, in boxes, which 150 returning miners were taking back home with them. It took fifteen clays to load the gold aboard the vessel at Melbourne, and the treasure was locked into a strong compartment under iho captain's cabin. "The General Grant sailed from Melbourne on 3rd May, 1866, and was next reported missing 'by tho

Victoria papers. In 1868 newspaper accounts of the wreck were publioiicd in America, .including,:this- statomont.— :

" 'On 21st November last tho ten survivors, "after eighteen, months' hardship and privation on the island., were' picked up by tho whaling brig Amhcrst, Captain Gilroy, and taken to Bluff Harbour, New Zealand..' The-cave into which the General Grant '.was thrown is 25 fathoms deep and 250 yard 3 long, and the masts just reached to the top. The captain and 168 others perished/ ■ ■■■■•■■ ■■■ .■ .-■--'■ •■■' .■ .„• ' :

" Several of the passengers did escape," continued Captain Sorea?en. One of theni, Fritz William Albert, a Gorman, worked for me in my oyster dredger in New Zealand in 1878 or 1879. He also told me the story of the "wreck- For 42 years .nil that gold has lain there. I have ttipti seen the wreck for 30 years about. But she still lies there, as sound as the day she went down. \ "Now we are going to get that gold. The New5 Zealand Government makes no claim to it. I have arranged for a concession permitting! me to land a crew on the island, Ii shall doubtless find the hulk sound and strong. I shall have, to blow out the side. To do this I will prepare a canvas hose, six inches in diametel\ with loops along the side, and will fill this with dynamite." WILL START IN A FEW DAYS. "When I go down after the flash I will find a hole knocked in the side' of the hulk just under the captain's cabin, and 20,000,000d0l in gold bullion will be awaiting me. The gold is; all packed in cases, each case valued at 5000dol. The treasure can't sink into the mud, for it is hard sand and rock bottom, I have ; 'but to fasten the boxes to cables arid have them hauled up. ■ - <? ■ "I shall start in a few days. .The expedition will start from San Francisco, in one of the Speckels vessels, for New Zealand. We shall outfit tho expedition in Dunedin, in the south'of New Zealand, and sail for the Aucklands in a chartered schoon■er.'■'■:, ;:, ' • :.;■■ :. • '

Captain Sorensen has served in the United States Navy. It was he who dived to the wreck of the ill-fated Pacific mail steamer Rio Janeiro, which sank in tho Golden Gate, costing the lives of many passengers, including United States Consul Wildman, his wife and daughter.