QUEST FOR TREASURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19144, 9 October 1925, Page 12

QUEST FOR TREASURE.

DIVERS* BIG SCHEMES. SEARCH OF SEA-BED. WAR AND PEACE-TIME WRECKS. Ever since Robert Louis Stevenson wrote 'Treasure Island" novelists have been busy with the theme of the qnest for lost treasure, but no writer with the most extravagant imagination has invented anything approaching the colossal hont for sunken wealth which is to be earned out by an American salvage expert, says a London paper. This expert is Mr. Oscar Stanton, who for some months has been examining all the cases on record of ships which have been lost with valuables on boaid, ranging from the trail of the Spanish Armada to the U boats. Charts have been prepared indicating the approximate whereabouts in three oceans of wealth estimated at about £1.000,000,000. Mr. Stanton, who has already identified himself with some of the biggest treasure quests of recent years in the Pacific Ocean, and was interested in several recent ventures off the Irish Coast, has interested some of the best known financiers in America in his scheme, and has obtained the financial backing necessary for a thorough search in the waters of the Pacific, tine Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. It is estimated that the full search will require at least five years, and ten specially fitted up ships will take pail. The staff of divers will be drawn from the ranks of some of the most intrepid engaged in deep-sea work, and women will bo employed, for the expert advisers claim tliat for some tasks women are better than men. The search off the Irish coast will be entirely devoted in the first instance to trying to locate the rest of the ships torpedoed during the war. Private and Government salvage operations have already recovered much of this treasure, but it is believed that only a fraction of the wrecks have been located. in addition to wartime wrecks the promoters have obtained particulars of wrecks off the Irish coast during the Spanish Admada and again during the Napoleonic Wars. They claim to have obtained possession of maps and charts not available for previous searches, and have been advised that the British Government raises no claim in regard to the majority of these wrecks. One collection of treasure it is hoped to locate is the almost priceless jewels of the ex-Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. When this unfortunate, monarch was executed by his subjects, gems in the Royal collection, including irreplaceable stones dating back to the days of the Incas, were despatched to Europe, but the ship bearing them foundered. New information, it is claimed, has placed the position of the wreck with a degree of accuracy that will simplify salvage. All treasure found is to l>e shared in average proportions among those taking part, after the claims of the different Governments have been met.