DAVY JONES IS A MISER!

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6946, 27 June 1929, Page 4

DAVY JONES IS A MISER!

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CATTERED over the bed of almost every sea lie the wrecks of ships, in whose holds are gold and gems of incalculable value, which would yield

an immense fortune if they were recovered. With the march of engineering science there is more hope in these days that the ocean will at no distant time be compelled to yield up some of the treasures which it has engulfed.

Syndicates and enterprising individuals are ever contemplating with jealous eyes these Aladdin’s caves fathoms down in the blue waters. In some instances hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent on salvage attempts; but the cargoes of wealth are still on the bottom of the ocean.

Now and again the word, goes round that a fresh attempt is to be made by Lloyd’s to recover the hoard of gold and silver bars sunk in the French frigate La Lutine, when she was wrecked in 1779 off the Dutch coast, between the islands of Terschelling and Scheveningen. It is not known accurately how much La Lutine contained. It is known, however, that 330 bars of gold were shipped; that 35 have been recovered, and that 245 still remain to be found, and that of 176 bars of silver, 79 are still unaccounted for. There was, in addition, some £127,000 in specie for the pay of the troops in Holland. Rich as is this treasure awaiting recovery 50 fathoms deep in “Davy Jones’s locker,” it is small in comparison with many another sunken hoard. There were, for instance, the British sloop of war, De Braak, which foundered off the Delaware Capes one stormy day in 1798, with £3,000,000 on board; the British frigate Hussar, which sank off Port Morris, taking nearly a million pounds in gold down with her; the East Indiaman Grosvenor, whose wreck with its treasure of £1,000,000 in specie lies somewhere off the coast of St. John’s, Cape Colony; Hundreds of thousands. of pounds have been spent in equipping expeditions to salve these sunken treasure-ships, but so far not a solitary coin or gold bar has rewarded their efforts. On the bed of Vigo Bay are strewn the wrecks of a fleet of goodly ships which Ire known to have in their holds nearly £30,000,000 in gold and silver and jewels, all still awaiting discovery; and the waters of the Black Sea still cover all that is left of his Majesty’s warship Black Prince, with her cargo of £600,000 in gold, sunk by Russia’s guns during the Crimean War. Off the coast of Cuba lie a fleet of galleons as richly freighted as any that ever sailed from Spain, which foundered in a terrible storm in Stuart times. A couple of centuries ago William Phipps was

fortunate enough to discover one of these sunken vessels, and, with the help of a primitive diving-bell of his own invention, was able to remove from it 32 tons of silver and a large quantity of jewels. Returning to England with his treasure, he was rewarded for his enterprise by a knighthood, and became founder of the noble house of Normanby. One need not travel out of sight of England’s shores for sunken treasures sufficient, if they could be recovered, to satisfy the most exacting greed. Under the waters of the land-locked bay of Tobermory, on the north-west coast of the Isle of Mull, lies the treasure-ship of the Great Armada, with three million pounds in gold in her hold. In the great storm which shattered and scattered the Spanish fleet, the Admiral of Florence, after days of perilous voyaging, at last found refuge and was finally sunk in Tobermory Bay. For more than two centuries and a-half attempts have been made to recover the gold from the sunken vessel, but so far with disappointing results. In 1730 a very fine bronze gun was recovered, as well as many gold and silver coins. In later years the then Marquess of Lome rescued several pieces of ordnance, which may be seen today in the ground of Inveraray Castle, and among other articles brought to the surface at various times are sword-' blades and scabbards, pistols, and the bones of dead Spaniards, But the Admiral of Florence still keeps sentinel watch. oyer the millions of gold coins which she carried so proudly ' to the conquest of England in the long-gone days when Queen Bess was wearing her crown. On the Gunfleet Bank, off the Essex coast, lies the wreck of a once stately Dutch vessel, the Vrouiwe 1 Polder, which sailed from Holland a couple of centuries ago with .half a, million pounds in gold in her hold. “The sand,” we are told, "silted over most of the wreck, for a great gale from the east was blowing. . It Piled the driving shoal right over her. .timbers, and by the time the shoremen could get out to her only her ribs remained visible.” Twice daily the falling tide lays bare the great hogbacked bank of the Gunfleet, and shows where the riches lie buried. But, although attempts have been made to recover it, the Gunfleet still'keeps'her secret, probably by now buried many fathoms deep under her surface. Near Bridlington Quay .is a sunken galleon from whose treasure £30,000 was recovered a good many years ago. And these are but a few of the contents of “Davy Jones’s” capacious locker, which, if it could be successfully rifled and cleared, would add incalculable millions to the world’s wealth. But never was there a miser with so tight a hold on his wealth as “Davy,” and as the centuries pass he yields practically nothing while he gloats over his growing pile.