£24,000,000 UNDER THE SEA.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 218, 6 July 1909, Page 2

£24,000,000 UNDER THE SEA.

Another 6tage in the Vigo Bay treasure-hunt^-a search for £524,000,000 and the most important, most romantic, and most hopeful enterprise ever undertaken for recovering the hidden treasure of the sea — has been marked by the formation of the Sea Salvage Company, Limited. The public ihave heard from time to time of the inventions of Cavaliere Giuseppe Pino, of Genoa ; 'of his hydro6cope, or seatelescope, which allows objects under water to be seen almost as clearly as objects in the air may be seen through fieldglasses; and of 'his elevators and pyropontoone, designed to recover the wrecks ot treasures revealed by the hydroscope. The Sea Salvage Company, Limited, has just been formed to purchase the British rights of these and other inventions, to have the U6e of a hydroscope and several elevators already made, and to have the full benefits of a concession granted by the Spanish Government for exploring Vigo Bay, in Spain, for the treasure galleons sunk there in the year 1702. The leading spirit of this enterprise Ls an Italian gentleman well knowp in England as professor, author, and man of affairs — Dr Carlo L. Iberti, who, for many years past, has devoted his whole energies to the question of the treasure in Vigo Bay and how it may best be recovered. OaVaH«re G. Pino is the consulting engineer. "We shall be in search," he said, "of a treasure that can be reckoned only in millions of pounds. The treasure in gold and silver alone at the bottom of Vigo Bay exceeds, at the most moderate computation, £24,000,000. This figure . has been reached by reckoning the specie at itsvalue in the beginning of the eighteenth century ; it ia woTth far more to-day." The story of the treasure in Vigo Bay goes back to the golden age of Spain's history, when she drew from her possessions in the West Indies gold and silver to- the value of moTe than £9,000,000 a year. In the year of the battle of Vigo (1702), a fleet of galleons brought home the accumulated treasure of three years, amounting to £28,000,000 in value, with a merchandise almost equally valuable. When they arrived at Vigo the seventeen Spanish galleons were attacked by ; the British and Dutch fleets under Admiral Sir George Rooke, and it was to save the treasure falling into the victorious allies' hands that the galleons were sunk. Only about half a million pounds' worth of treasure was captured, some of the gold and silver being adopted to the national currency in England, ea_Ji coin issued bearing tihe word "Vigo." Before the sinking of the galleons the Spaniards saved a sum estimated at about £2,000,000. From the day of the battle until to-day only some £300,000 worth of the treasure has been recovered by the many enterprises that have been attracted to Vigo, and the sum in gold and silver remaining at the bottom of the bay is put at £524,651 ,323. Among the inventions of Cavaliere Pino acquired by the company is a submarine boat, worked by electricity, and fitted with mechanical arms, wihich may be operated with great precision.