ARMADA TREASURE SHIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18170, 16 August 1922, Page 9

ARMADA TREASURE SHIP.

GALLEON IN SCOTTISH BAY!

MANY RELICS RECOVERED.

EFFORTS TO REFLOAT HER.

By Telesraoh—Press Association— Copyright

A. and N.Z.

LONDON. Aug. 14;

Guns, swords and other relics are being secured from the Spanish galleon Almirante de Florencia, a treasure ship of the .Armada, sunk in 1588 in Tobermory Bay, Argyllshire. It is suggested that tHe whole ship may be raised. Portions of the treasure have been recovered.

Salvage has been proceeding since 1661, but the ship has been several times lost in the mud. It was rediscovered in 1910 under 60ft. of slime.

A ROMANTIC ENTERPRISE. SALVAGE EFFORTS 250 YEARS AGO. Tho search for the treasure ship of the Armada in Tobermory Bay, off the Islanti of Mull, which was suspended during tho war, was resumed in 1919 under Colonel Mackenzie Foss, who is directing the work on behalf of a syndicate. If the hull of the ship should ultimately be recovered, and unless the whole crusade has been undertaken on false information, which is extremely improbable, a rich reward is in store for tho finders. The galleon de Florencia was the treasure ship of the " invincible Armada.'" In its strong room were gold anu silver plate and jewels, while it was also supposed to contain the crown intended for the coronation of the Spaniard wbo was to reign over England when the heretic Queen Elizabeth had been subjugated. In the covenants drawn up not long after the wreck of the Florencia in November, 1588, it was expressly stipulated that if tho crown were recovered it should become the property of the King of England, the rest of the treasure to be the property of the Marquis of Argyll. The vessel sank as the result of an explosion, one of the Macleans of Morven. who had been disarmed by the Spaniards after going cu board to receive payment of a debt, laying a train to the powder magazine. Among the officers were several Grandees. Tho Florencia carried 52 guns, and had on board, in addition to a crew of about 80. 400 soldiers. The explosion, however, did not blow the vessel to pieces, but the fact that it scattered wreckage over a considerable area accounted for numerous failures to locate the hull, as the recovery of relics from time to time created among the salvors the impression that they had only to dig deeper to discover the real treasure chest.

Hunt in Seventeenth Century. The earliest attempts to salve the vessel were made in 1661 by an expert from Sweden, who found that the deck and a considerable portion of the sides of the galleon were blown off from the mii;zenmast forward, and that the hull was filled with mud and sand. The poop, however, was standing up undamaged beyond the heavy African oak beams and planking. The bow was in 8 fathoms of water, while the stern lay 11 fathoms below the surface at spring tides. These early investigations, which were frustrated by tho Clan Maclean, showed that cannon and other materials were scattered about the vessel with a radius of 60ft. Owing to no permanent marks having been left by tlie 17th-century salvors and to the shore having altered by the passage of time, the syndicate which began the modern operations in 1903 had little practical guidance from the Swedish predecessors. The most interesting result of the early search was the recovery of two cannon, one in bronze of most elaborate workmanship, and now among the relics at Inverary Castle. This beautiful piece of ordnance was the work of Benvenuto Cellini, whose monogram it bears, along with the anna of Francis I. and the fleur-de-lis

After the lapse of fully 300 years, operations were begun in 1903 by a syndicate under the control of Captain Burns, who employed two expert divers and a diving lighter with powerful machinery. High hopes were raised by their first season's labours, the relics brought up including a large bronze gun with breech block filled with its charge of powder, a stone cannon ball ready for the application of the match, several blunderbusses, swords, and scabbards, a gold ring, and 45 doubloons, some bearing the names of Ferdinand and Isabella and others that of Don Carlos of Spain. This encouraging start induced the syndicate to enter into a five years' engagement with the Duke of Argyll "for the recovery of the galleon and its contents." While many relics were picked up during that period, the salvors were unable to locate the ship, despite a great deal of hard work in boring and digging a sandbank, which they subsequently realised had been almost futile. It seemed to be beyond doubt then that they had been searching tho wrong place. Long steel rods were used to probe the bed of the bay and when a hard obstruction was encountered a Priestman digger was set to excavate, and in that way an area extending to 350,000 square feet was ransacked. The search was by no means void of interest, and a large number of articles, mostly of warlike character, were recovered during the five years. In October, 1909, a new syndicate took up the hunt under the direction of Colonel Mackenzie Foss, who satisfied himself that the ship'lay much nearer the entrance to Tobermory Bay than had been supposed. The most approved appliances were procured and tho advice of experts sought, and in short, nothing was left undone to expedite the work; but Colond Foss did not under-rate the difficulties in attempting to locate a hulk that was believed to be buried under 30ft. of silt mid boulder clay, which in turn, were more than 70ft under water. In tha autumn of 1909, the salvors recovered a number of powder flasks, broken muzzles of small calibre, necks of jugs of Spanish pattern, and. most important of all, a tongs-like appliance which had been employed by Swedish engineers in 1666. This seemed to show that the divers were at tha spot where the galleon sank. Ship Under Barrier ol Boulders. ! In the following summer it was recorded that operations had reached the stage of certainty as to location. New dredging methods were introduced,, a centrifugal pump with suction capacity of 250 tons being brought into play. The recovery of numerous pieces of black African oak and lime-encrusted iron stimulated the belief that the searchers had at last struck tho scene of tho treasure ship. Then came a new source of trouble, the diggers encountering a thick layer of clams, oysters, and cockle shells pressed almost to the consistency of concrete, and soon afterwards the divers found below these layers of shells huge.boulders ranging up to half a ton in weight. With a more powerful suction pump the salvors in 1911 made a large addition ta the list of relics, and brought up large quantities of timber, which were judged to have been blown off the stem of the tralleon. The boulders, which had probably formed tho ship's ballast, proved a stiff barrier to the progress of the work, but in 1912 confidence in the success of the. search was unabated. Along with a variety of relics were found three perfect teeth firmly fixed in a jawbone, and almost the complete bones of a boy about 14 years of age. Coins, pieces of pottery, and firearms were constantly being unearthed. The material results of the exploration may ultimately prove to be of great value; but these are not the sole factors that are now inspiring the salvors, whose aim is to raise the sunken galleon as a relic of supreme historical interest. It would be a, matter of national pride if through the untirinc efforts of Colonel Foss the country should find a unique memorial of that "invincible Armada," which, in the words of Bacon, " a.fter they had been well beaten and chased, made a perambulation about the Northern Seas, ennobling many coasts with wrocks of mighty ships, and so returned home' with greater derision than they set forth with • expectation; '