SINKEN TREASURES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2860, 6 January 1909, Page 41

SINKEN TREASURES.

The renewed attempt which is being { made to recover the half-million or so^ in 1 gold and coins which went down in H.M.S. ■ Lutine off the coast cf Holland revives , interest in the subject of sunken treasure ' generally. When, one considers all the immemorial procession of years which ha* passed over j the saa, all tne ships with their precious '. freights, the labouring argosie.-, the treaI sure-burdened ships of war, the fights, the i storim, the quakings of the unfler-dec-po, ! which have strewn 'so rich a harvest to tho waves — one is induced to reflect on how great a volume of treasure must be to-day in the ocean ooze — how great a^wa6tage of i human labour and human desire bas thus passed away for ever from the ken of man. j Taking into consideration only one very ; short span oi years out of all those agee, 1 the Elizabethan age alone must have addod a vast ©tore of wealth to the treasures of thp oce<ui. Not a vvx-ek passed by while the gentleman adventurers of England were- at tho zenith of their daring and success without some onslaughts being" made on the tr<?a- ' &ure fleets which continually passed to and fro between Imporial Spain and the newdisoovered continent,. Many and many a rime must ingols of gold and silver, geixo from the treasures of Indian kings, ornai ments and imaged of gold aixl silver havo sunk down into the &tillness of the hundreds of fathoms of mid-Atlantic brine — sunk by the broadsides of Biitish mariners, 1 or engulfed in the towering seas of the ' equinoctial deeps. THE GOLD OF THE ARMADA. I When the great Armada was driven like chaff before the gale round about the English coasts it left behind it many legend." of vast treasures sunken in th© stormy se-as within sight o,f land, and attempts, have been made on several occasions to recover some of this fabled wealth. There is reputed to be a great galleon lying at the bottom of the Sound of Mull, and both the late Duke of Argyll and the present duke have fallen under the spell of the legend and organised endeavours to retrieve the treasure. A syndicate was eventually formed with sufficient capital for the working-out of the project, but the full results of its operations have not yet been made public. There have, however, not been lacking proofs that there is substantial cause to attach credence to the popular belief, for there have been brought to light many relics of the period, in the form of ship-fittings and pieces of ordnance, which point to the fact that the wreck is still there, and it is practically certain that, every considerable ship which formed part of the Invincible Arroade carried a tremendous amount of valuable material in the form of chinch plate, as well as the large war-chests essential in those days. Similar beliefs are current off the coast of Ireland, and in. n^any cases the lapse of centuries has woven many a fairy spall about the golden glamour of submerged Armada gold. THE ROMAXCE OP THE INDIES. Full of romance is the story of William Phipps, the founder of the noble house of Mulgrave, whose work in command of an expedition to the West Indies for the purpose o£ treasure from one of the i +rea^uie ships sunk off the Hispaniola I ceast, was rema/kable no less for its im- ! mediate results than for the practical dej mcn^traiicn thus made of the usefulness | of submarine apparatus which h?s since— 'of course, in an incalculably improved i form — come into general use. E\on so long ago as 1664 the noble house ( ■of ArsrylJ had been attracted by the t ' Spanish' shfp pre\iou«ly referred to; for I ive learn from a book of thp period that they emplo>ej, fiist. a man from Gla-arow , who \v<mii <'own and surveyed the ship. ! ••the air fioin alxn c beinar communicated i j to hi- lungs by a loner uipe of leather."' i Next an " ingenious gentleman," the | I Laird of Mel-tin, went down with a divingi bell, and cot up three guns. Several years j later a third and more successful _ attempt I was made. Phipps's efforts ;n; n Hispaniola 1 were not crowned with «uecc-s till h- had =psnt )ong anJ toilsome veais without any reward. He was. indeed, rot .successful rill afi-er much p^rsi^rem effort he obtained in 1687 the tia'ronifre of th" Duke i of Alb"marle, *on of the celebrated General I Monk, aid with hi= as^stancp was abo j to proceed with hi« owiatior« on a. much , j more ambitious =cal». IT" i"?.p<*d so trolden a har-.pst tiiar on lik iPturn to , England ho was ivv.-a.id~l with a knight- | hood for bis courageous pnt~rpii-<». j r.y pivm avd =n\. Th" fficif river'- of i1 1 i\or'<l mu«+ al?<> havo .Itpoii fro-n x'nvr immemoriil thp leceptacles for counrlp-= valuables, as woll as th» mountain* of rubbish whir-h have • been silted down them thicuerh the \a.p=o j of centuries. ThL, is especially th<? case with oompurativelv sluggish rivers, <=uch j ac the Tiber, in whose bed some very I

interesting researches have been made, resulting in most valuable aichreological finds, though no very rich treasure-trove of gems and gold was brought to light. Surely Thames of England must contain a good deal which might be well worth retrieving ! A remarkable instance of a recovery of sunken treasure was- in connection with the Elgin marbles. During their transit to England in 1803, by a vessel called the Mentor, the vessel sunk in 10 fathoms off the island of Cvtherea, now eailed Cerigo. - Many people ■would have been aghast at this staggering blow;- not co Mr W. R. Hamilton, who was> in charge of the precious cargo. - After a few weeks of delay he got together a uartv of Greek divers from the islands of Synie and Calymna, and th*>so skillad men, after two or three jear*' work, actually succeeded in bringing up the 'cu'p'oiree, absolutely uninjured, from the hold of the sunken vessel.