A CENTURY-LONG TREASURE HUNT.

Northland Age, Volume IV, Issue 47, 13 July 1908, Page 7

A CENTURY-LONG TREASURE HUNT.

Th. news that yet another aU tempt la to be made to recover t» remainder of the gold from the hold of H.H.S. laitino, recalls memories of one of the mejst protracted treasure hunts of modern times—a hunt that has lasted, off and on, for considerably ever a hundred years. The Lutine sailed from Holland on October Bth, 1793, having on board some £1,350,000 in . bullion and coined money, wherewith to pay the English troops then serving in the *'Low Countries," and for other purposes. She had scarcely cleared the Down*, when a terrific gale sprang up, and twenty-four hours later she foundered aff the island of Terschelliag. Only one member of tbe crew was saved, and he died before reaching England. Attempts, authorised and unauthorised, were at once made to get at the sunken treasure. Some of the latter were undoubtedly partially successful. Indeed, it was said that some months afterwards English guineas were In regular circulation amongst the fishermen and smugglers of that wild coast. There was aslo a Scotch mastermariner named Saunderson, who unless rumour lies, sailed away with £22,000 worth of bar gold, after a visit to tho scene of the wreck of less than a week's duration. He converted an iron water-tank into a diving-bell, and utilised as an air pump a small hand fire-engine ha had brought with him for the purP<k».

A Dutch salvage company, working on scientific lines, also succeeded in recovering £99,893, of which sum £22,161 was handed over to Lloyd’s. Tbe ship's rudder, recovered in 1859 was likewise sent to Lloyd’s, and a table and a chair was fashioned from it for the use of the members. Since then several attempts have been made to salve the £1,175,000 remaining, but without success. Whether the present one will fare better remains to be seen. But great confidence is expressed by its promoters, who are relying principally on a novel kind of submarine boat, worked by compressed air stored in its interior.