TREASURES OF THE SEA.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 205, 5 September 1910, Page 2

TREASURES OF THE SEA.

' THE STORIES OF ANCIENT fc WRECKS. The treasure which, has been, swal- J lowed up by the sea in the course of ages is enormous beyond all concep- j tion. As Sir Charles Lyell has remarked, millions of silver dollars and other coins have sometimes gone to ~ the bottom in a single ship. The wrecks, even, in a short period, are far more numerous than most of us ever conceive them to be. A glance at a wreck chart of the British Isles shows us the coast studded with a great number of dots, each representing a partial .or a complete wreck, and if -.we cared to .count them up, we should find' the total run into hundreds in a single year. , It began thousands of years ago, when man first took to the sea in his dug-out, his coracle of skins, or perchance on his floating Jog; .and it is going on still day t by day and hour by hour—a grim, inexorable tithing, of the wealth which),is begotten by international trade. In 1793 the waters of the River La Plata, in South America, were driven back and forced into the neighboring plains. The bed of the^ river was ! i laid bare, and several ships which j had been lost more than 30 years before were exposed to the gaze of the inhabitants of the country. One of these ships was an English vessel which had been wrecked in 1762; Several persons, braving the risk that the pent-up water, might return, walked out to the water-beaten hulks, ransacked their -cabins, and returned laden with silver and other treasures, which had long been covered by the waters. After three ciavs the water returned violently to its natural channel. LEFT HIGH AND" DRY: Exceptional tides have often disclosed the treasures and stores of an ancient wreck. About 40 years ago a patch of peat was exposed on the beach between West Hartlepool and Seaton Carew, and. a number of Spanish silver dollars, gold coins, rings, and other valuable objects ' were found in it. The discovery caused great excitement in the district, and there was a rush of apprentices and other "prospectors" to ( the peat-bed, which became for the 1 moment > local gold country. The coins bore dates ranging from 1720 ,to 1804. History recorded that a ship . of London named the Duck, haa been wrecked at this spot in 1829, and at that time . a number of dollars, v amounting in all to the value of about £300, had been taken from her. It sometimes happens that the lighter spoil of a wreck, even though, it will not float, is in time washed up along the coast, and deposited with the sand and pebbles on the beach. Such, appears to have been the case with certain coins which were found on the coast of South Africa about 25 years ago, near the spot < where 100 years earlier an East Indiaman, the Grosvenor, had been wrecked. One of the coins was a piece of native Indian money, coined, before the , British, conquest of _ the country; another was a gold coin of the Venetian Republic, > both probably the peri sonal possessions of some passenger ! by the ill-fated Indiaman.. jln the reign of Charles-the Second, William Phipps, the son af a blacksmith, aided by expert swimmers and divers ,and perhaps also by an early ! type of diving-bell, succeeded after. ; many attempts in recovering treasure 1 to the value of somethink like £200,----000 from the wreck'of a Spanish ship, j which had sunk off the island of His- t \ paniola, in the West Indies. FIRST STEAMER WRECKED. In January, 1812, the first commercially successful passenger steamboat, Henry Bell's Comet, began to '.ply upon the Clyde between Port ; Glasgow and Helensburgh. In the | course of time the trips were extended, and Bell built other boats, and i thus thoroughly established the sue- ■ cess«of steam navigation. The engine of the Comet was built by John Robertson, of Glasgow, and was of j four-horse-power. The vessel was eventually wrecked in the Clyde, and j the engine lay for many years at the ! bottom of the sea. It was recovered, \ however, about the year 184U, and has since been carefully preserved. j A curious history is attached to the ' east window of a church in Quernmore, near Lancaster. It was made in England for a church at Cannes, . and was shipped off to its destinaI tion. But the vessel went down j near Marseilles, and the window was

given us as hopelessly lost along witii the rest of the cargo. A Greek merchant bought the wreck, and commenced salvage operations, and the window was recovered. It was sold along with other salvage effects, and, a new window having in the meantime been ordered from England for the church at Cannes, it was bought by the owner of Quernmore Park, and brought back to England. DRAGGED FROM THE DEPTHS. Many interesting objects dating, from remote times are drawn up* from the shallow waters of the Dogger Bank during the fishing operations of the fleets on our eastern! coasts, and a proportion of these find! their way into public collections. _AfeHull there are several Bellarminejars, or "greybeards," which havebeen dredged up in this way. Thesejars obtain their names from a grotesque bearded face which is im- . printed, or scratched on the neck of the vessel, and which is supposed to represent Cardinal Bellarmine. _ They were very commonly used in the western parts of Europe about 300 years ago. In one of the squares at Scarborough there is a gigantic anchor of an old-fashioned' type, which wa»fished up near Filey Brier some yearsago. It is thought to be the anchor? lof the Serapis, a ship of 40 tons, 1 which was attacked by Paul Jones in. 11779, ,and captured after a splendid*, resistance. The Serapis and a smaller ship, the Countess of Scarborough, were" convoying a fleet in! the North Sea, when three or fotur ships under the command of Paul' 1 Jones fell upon them. The merchantJfleet escaped intact, but the two warships were taken and conveyed t* 1 the Texel.