DIVING FOR A MILLION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15002, 25 May 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

DIVING FOR A MILLION.

WORK ON H.M.S. LUTINE.

WEARING THE BULLION.

Towards the end of this month another, and it is hoped the final, attempt will be made to recover the gold and silver bullion, amounting to over a million sterling, from the British frigate Lutine, which lies below the waters off Terschelling, on the Dutch coast. '

The wreck of the Lutine and the story of the subsequent expeditions to recover her specie reads more like a romance. The frigate left Yarmouth roads for Cuxhaven on the morning of October 8, 1799, and she foundered on the evening of the following day in a terrific gale. On board her was £1,217,000 in gold and silver bars and £147,000 in coin shipped by the War Office for the payment of the troops in Holland.

The bullion was insured at Lloyd's, and the chairman of the corporation at that time himself carried the biggest- amount of insurance. As a result of the loss of the treasure the chairman committed mi' cide.

Little success has attended previous efforts to recover the treasure, and the total amount brought up by salvage expeditions has been only £100,824, and that oyer 50 years ago. There is thus well over a million sterling still on board.

The most determined effort yet made to reach tho wreck was begun last summer, the salvage operations being in charge of Captain Charles A. P. Gardiner, an experienced officer. The powerful steamer Lyons was bought and equipped with huge suction pumps. Just when the divers were within reach of the treasure, the bad weather which set in for the winter last October caused a temporary suspension of the work. The Treasure by July Captain Gardiner is now in London completing his arrangements for the final attack on the strongroom of the Lutine. "We are going back to Terschelling," ha said, "and I calculate that by July we shall have reached the bullion. We found the Lutine on July 26 last year, and. had to leave her on October 3 because of the weather.

"Altogether we had only two months' work on the wreck, and we cleared away the whole of the western ground and removed over 700,000 tons of sand from the banks, and bared the hull of the ship. She lies at a depth of 50ft, and I have walked round her myself. The 'tween decks and the main deck have given away and fallen on the inside of the ship, and all the cannon balls which were stowed there have simply collapsed on top of the specie. Every time we went deeper into the hold whero the cannon balls are we got more and more coins. • So far we have got about three-quarters of a bucket of them—English, French, and Spanish.

" On the last day that we were working on the Lutine we "made another explosion —our third— when we put the pumps down again we pumped up a piece of incrustation the exact model of a bar of fold, and with some grains attached to it. here are 1800 bars of gold still left in the ship and 401 bars of silver. Each gold bar weighs 144 ounces, and the silver bare 501b each. Only four Feet of Sand. "Since last October Lloyd's agent at Terschelling has taken a sounding of the wreck every month, and the amount of sand that has come back over the wreck iB now only between three and four feet. We could clear the wreck again in a day. We are using three pumpsone of 22in, that can remove 1750 tons in an hour, and two 12in pumps. " I do not think that we shall get at the bullion before July. In the firet place, May is an uncertain month, and we may be able to work only a few days after we lay down our moorings. Then we have again to lay bare the wreck as we did before.

"We have already got slings round the wreck, and I am thinking of getting a couple of big lighters to lift the ship and to carry her clean into Terschelling Harbour. That would not give much trouble, but it would all depend upon the condition of the bottom of the ship and the general fabric.

" We have recovered from 50 to 60 tons of oak, and it was in quite a perfect state. We also raised two of the cannons, which were loaded to the muzzle, and the shot that came out was just as good as when it was put in, and even the powder. There are six or seven more cannon which we could send rip to the surface, but we are not bothering about them. "There are any number of cannon balls on board the Lutine, and although they weigh 141b, our powerful pumps fetch them up quite easily. Owing to the weight of the gold and silver bars," added Captain Gardiner, "I do not think it is possible for the pumps to raise them, and this is where our divers will come in."