SEEKERS OF SEA TREASURE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1613, 28 January 1903, Page 73 (Supplement)

SEEKERS OF SEA TREASURE

THEY ARE AT WORK STILL. HOW THEY HAVE TRIUMPHED AND TAILED. * There sailed from the Clyde at the end of last month, a vessel commanded by a •well-known retired naval officer, ■-who, with a crew of some forty adventurous seamen, will endeavour to locate a wreck which lies o.u the bed of the ocean just oft the Cape of Good Hope, which has in her battered hull treasure said to be worth a quarter oi a million. Considerable-secrecy has been maintained with reference to the vessel and its destination,' but the facts have leaked out that this expedition, the cost of which runs into several thousands, has been financed by a syndicate of stockbrokers, who hope to recoup themselves by a rich booty. There is a curious fascination about expeditions of this kind, and many stories are TOLD OF DARING ADVENTURES which, whether successful or unsuccessful, are nevertheless interesting. For_ centuries almost efforts have been made to rescue the- fabulous wealth that lies scattered at the bottom of the sea; men have braved storms and weathered hurricanes, divers have risked their lives, and prosaic commercial nidi have invested thousands in order to test the truth of what are in many instances legendary accounts of great wealth carried down by vessels which have met With disaster. How curious it is to find that the foundation of the solid edifice which gives such prestige to us as a nation of shopkeepers—viz:., the Bank of England—is. bound up iu a story of adventure of this character; indeed, there is little doubt that had not Paterson, its founder, reaped a rich harvest of £IOO,OOO taken from a Spanish galleon which had lain for half a century at the bottom of the sea in the West' Indies, with .£300,000 OF TREASURE IN HER LOCKERS. the Old Lady of Threadnoedle street might never have existed. In the early days of the nineteenth century, off the Bill of Portland, an East Indiaman, the Earl of Abergavenny, sank with a valuable cargo, and for quite twelve months she lay in sixty feet of water; but diving operations by means of the diving-bell were carried out by two brothers named Braitliwaite, who recovered from the wreck bullion and valuables amounting to £175,000. Perhaps in th e history of treasure ships none have called for so much discussion as H.M.S. Lutine. of thirty-two guns, which was wrecked off the coast of Holland, every soul perishing on board save one seaman, who was rescued, but who died before lie reacned England. This guffboat formerly belonged to the French, when she was known as La Lutine. but she was captured by that “grand old salt” Admiral Duncan, during the closing years of the eighteenth century. When she foundered she ha.d bullion and money belonging to English mercTiants to -the enormous value of TWO AND A HALF MILLIONS. She was underwritten at Lloyd's, and her loss created quite a panic. The wreck was claimed by the Dutch Government, who issued permits to various expeditions fitted out to recover the treasure, but the salvors were only allowed to keep one-third of the treasure they recovered. This was the cause of considerable international discussion, and for many years tfie diplomatists, both. Dutch and English, were engaged in endeavouring to get the better of each other in the mat-

ter of this wreck. What was really recovered was practically kept secret by the Dutch, but finally the King of the Netherlands ceded to Great Britain half of what remained of the wreck. This did not end here, and for close upon half a ; century haggling xvent on, varied bv oc- : casional expeditions being fitted out by j the Dutch, and no doubt considerable i treasure was secured. | Some forty years ago a Dutch salvage ; company was formed, promoted priiici- ! pally by English capital, and in the rei suit Lloyd's, for the underwriters, re- ! eeived nearly <£23,000, their share of the treasure recovered. It is estimated that | <£90,833 has been recovered, but there rej mains to be accounted for considerably j over a million. One of the possessions, of ! which Lloyd's underwriters are proud, is | a chair and a table made out of the ! rudder of the Lutine, which was recovered ! in 1853. 1 | In 1830 an English vessel, called the i Thetis, sailed from Rio de Janeiro, her ' destination being London, she having on board, besides other valuables, 800,000do]s., but within a few hours of her sailing she was LOST OFF CAPE FRIO. The exact place where she became a wreck was known within half a mile, and for some years the spot was a kind of Mecca for adventurous seamen, many of whom conducted very costly experiments to recover the treasure, but the fickle goddess Fortune smiled on none until Captain Dickinson, of the Lightning, constructed in England a number of iron tanks filled with air, renewed by means of some fire engines used as air-pumps. The tanks were lowered on to the wreck, and he actually recovered 712,000d015., of which his share was one-tliird. The diving, suit, as we understand it, composed of india-rubber, and the helmet, was first used by Mr Dean, who went down to H.M.S. Boyne, which was wrecked off’ Spithea'd, in 1832, and which* had been at the bottom of the sea for thirtyseven years. He recovered a large quantity of property, including some bottles of wine, but beyond making the cork a little soft the liquid had suffered no damage from its long immersion. Some of the lockers and chests belonging to the officers were recovered intact, including the pay chest, which is said to have contained many thousands of pounds. Another very curious instance which tends to show that often the'sea has very little effect occurred when some gunpowder was recovered from H.M.S. Colossxis, which was wrecked just before Qiieen Victoria came to the throne, off Sicily. For nearly half a century the powder magazine and a considerable quantity of specie lay undisturbed upon the bed of the ocean, and in such a good state of preservation was the gold recovered that it was determined to bring up certain portions of the ship, including her guns. From her magazine a quantity of powder was brought to the surface, but careless handlind of the divers LED TO AN EXPLOSION, and several seamen were injured. During a very bad storm the Spanish vessel Alphonso XII. foundered in deep water off the Canary Islands. She had on board a very valuable cargo and specie and money in golden coins worth <£103,000. The..specie was made up in ten boxes, each containing .£IO,OOO, but despite the depth of the water nine of these were recovered, but the tenth could never be located. ID is supposed that one of the divers wilfully buried it in the sand in order to recover it at a subsequent date, but up to the present time, despite many attempts, no one has succeeded in locating the missing "box. Some Danish speculators reaped a rich harvest from an English wreck some years ago, when they succeeded in finding

the particular spot where an English vessel named Helen sank just off the coast; of Jutland. She was laden with copper ivorth £60,000, whilst her machinery was worth another £IO,OOO. Her salvors RECOVERED EVERY SCRAP OF THE COPPER, all her machinery, even her anchor; in fact, they left nothing for the sea to wash over save her hull. This expedition was a very inexpensive one, and practically the whole of the property recovered went to the speculators. There are two other instances of the entire recovery of what was valuable on a foundered ship. The Russian frigate Alexander Nevsky was lost with 20,0001 b. of brass on board, whilst a few years later a British vessel went down off the Danish coast with 2000 tons of iron on board, and in both these instances every ounce of the property was recovered. There was a dramatic sequel to an expedition which left England for Cape Palmas in order to recover treasure from the steam-ship Gambia, which, striking some sunken rocks, had foundered, having on board an immense quantity of ivory, many thousand pounds' worth of precious stones, and bullion and money to the value of nearly £IOO,OOO. The s-ea had washed over tne battered hull of the Gambia for close mi twenty years, but some wreckage washed ashore told only toe plainly that she was breaking up, and it was thought that the time was ripe to make an effort to recover what THE SEA HAD CLAIMED FOR ITS OWN. She was in very deep water, but the speculator succeeded in obtaining tlie services of a diver —his name for the moment does not come to mind, but he was known as a very daring man —who had on many occasions gone down double the depth of any human being. He actually recovered .£2900 worth of ivory, and when he came to the surface he made the joyful announcement that he had succeeded in locating the safe and the bullion room. When lie went down the next time he gave three tugs at his lifeline, which was the signal that he had found the great treasure, but when he was drawn to the surface he was found to be dead. No diver, it is said, has been found so venturesome as to go down to the wreck —in fact, there is a kind of superstitious awe about the death of a diver amongst seamen.

IT WAS A LUCKY SPECULATION of an Irish gentleman named Harman, a resident of Liverpool, who purchased some thirty-five years ago, the shattered hull of the steamship Crescent, which foundered at Galleyliead, on the South Coast of Ireland, in some sixteen fathoms of water, with some £50,000 worth of specie on board. Mr Harman and his divers have succeeded in recovering £16,000, but the £34,000 which still lies in th e graveyard of wrecks i s his property, and it must remain there until he chooses to recover it. A few years ago the Aboukir Bay Treasure Recovery Company was formed for the purpose of recovering treasure known to be on board .L'Orient and other men-o'-war belonging to the French which were sunk at the- Battle of the Nile. The company’s divers were successful in finding several ships, and they obtained from the bottom of the sea a great many valuable articles. The expedition might have been more successful than it was had not the French Government put forward a. claim to the property, and so successfully was this urged that the Egyptian Government appointed a person to represent France and to bo present at- the diving operations. Three very powerful steamers were engaged in the work, and the latest appliances were used, and such interest was created that the Khedive of Egypt visited the scene of operations. Some £20,000 OF PROPERTY WAS RECOVERED, but for fear of international complications an order was given for the diving operations to cease. In the early part of the present year it was announced that the Pacific Exploration and Development Company had been formed to recover the pirates' treasure on the sandy islet of Cocos, in the Pacific. 550 miles west of the coast of Costa Rica, and that the barque Blakeley, commanded by Admiral Palliser. had started on the expedition. A British pirate deposited the first treasure on Cocos Island in 1821. the second, and greatest, treasure being deposited by a vessel called tlie Mary Dea. This barque sailed from Bristol, discharged a cargo at Valparaiso, and then proceeded up coast to above Callao. Peru was at war with Chili, and Callao expected an invasion. In order to save the Treasury and the wealth of private individuals, the Peruvian Government sought the protection of the British flag, and the captain agreed for a handsome. consideration to HIDE THE TREASURE ON HIS SHIP. An immense quantity of gold, silver and diamonds was secretly taken on board the Mary Dea. A guard was posted to watch over it, but temptation was more than the crew of the Mary Dea could stand, and during the night the guard was overpowered, the cable was slipped, and the Mary Dea sailed north across the line. A sailor named Thompson, the last survivor of the crew, told the following story: “We decided to bury the treasure on Cocos Island. Eleven boatloads were conveyed to the beach and buried. It was said to be many millions, some of it in boxes and some of it in hides. After she left the island a storm drove the Mary Dea back to the coast of Peru, where we were captured, taken to Callao, and sentenced to be shot. That sentence was carried into effect against eight of us, but I and two others were promised that if we would show where the treasure was concealed we would be pardoned.” All three died without getting any of the treasures but Thompson BEQUEATHED THE SECRET to a man named Keaton, who took into partnership a Captain Bogue. Keaton and Bogue went to the island and unearthed the treasure, but they could not carry much of it away at one time. They took out about £6OOO in gold each in vests specially made and in their boots and {

trousers. On their way to their ship they quarrelled, and the boat capsized. Boguo was drowned, but although Keaton held on. to the boat and was rescued,, lie only lived a few months. Expeditions have since gone froin San Francisco and Victoria without finding the treasure. At a meeting of shareholders of the Pacific Exploration Company, the chairman read a letter from Admiral Palliser, offering to reveal £he location of the treasure in. return for one-fourtli of the amount recovered and one-twentieth for liis repre*sentative. Subsequently it was asserted that Admiral Palliser found the treasure, and. not being able to carry a great quantity away, he blasted a great deal of neighbouring rock with dynamite, and thus hid the spot where he had been working. There is a sequel to this story, despite the fact that it is a far cry from. TIIE PIRATES’ TREASURE ISLAND to unromantic London; yet a rew months since there joined the Metropolitan Fir 6 Brigade a seaman who was formerly on H.M.S. Imperieuse, and who formed one of Admiral Palli-ser’s working party at the Cocos Island. He asserts that Admiral Palliser was not successful in locating the treasure, but he did, however, find a sterne slab upon which were some hieroglyphics. On removing this and digging down a spring was discovered, which put an end to all search. Admiral Palliser blew the ground up with dyna<mite in pure anger at being unable to locate the treasure.