SEARCH FOR TREASURE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23661, 21 May 1940, Page 5

SEARCH FOR TREASURE

OLD HULK SALVAGED £IO,OOO SPENT IN VAIN [from our own correspondent] LONDON, April 26 The hunt for the legendary £1,000,000 treasure of the hrigantine Telemaque, which sank off tho mouth of the Seine on January 3, 1790, may now bo considered as abandoned. Repeated attempts have been made to raise the supposed wreck of the Telemaque, which lay, close to two other wrecks, and on a recent evening tide tho hulk was beached near Quilleboeuf by two salvage tugs. The salvage crews set to work on the wreck as the tide receded, while a crowd assembled to watch. All the searchers found was a rusty anchor of 150 years ago, some old-fashioned pulleys, an empty barrel and quantities of gravel, but no gold or treasure. A banker financed the salvage operations, which are said to have cost abqut £IO,OOO. He took the matter philosophically and showed no signs of disappointment, but invited the divers and salvage workers to dine with him. Thus the story of tho Telemaque treasure ends, unless the salvage crews have brought up the wrong wreck The Telemaque sank while carrying French aristocrats from the terrors of tho revolution, aud divers who were searching for her brought up a year from a hulk at the mouth of the Seine, English sovereigns of the reign of George 11. and George lII* au .d double louis of Louis XV. aud Louis XVI. . ' , After months of patient work, hawsers were passed beneath the wreck, which was supported by two salvage tugs, in one of the most delicate salvage .operations ever undertaken. More than 3ft. of pebbles had silted over tho ship and had to be dredged.