LUTINE TREASURE QUEST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19694, 28 July 1938, Page 5

LUTINE TREASURE QUEST

GOLD PIECE SALVAGED

OPERATIONS OF DREDGER

(Reed. July 28, 9 a.m.) LONDON, July 27

The Terschelling (Holland) correspondent of The Times states that operations by the dredger Karimata, which has been specially equipped to recover the remaining contents of the treasure ship Lutine, which was sunk in 1799, are progressing favourably. Great rejoicing took place to-day when the Karimata brought up the first Spanish gold piece from the Lutine, whose bows are coming up in the buckets piecemeal. The steel scoops recently recovered, among other objects, a Spanish silver dollar, dated 1789.

The sea has kept a tight grip on the treasure which sank with H.M.S. Lutine when the frigate was lost off Vlieland, Holland, on the night of October 9, 1799. The Lutine carried a vast quantity of bullion estimated at £1,000,000. Shifting I .sands and the exposed position of the wreck hampered previous attempts at salvage, so that by merely locating the sunken frigate the present enterprise accomplished something. A chair and a table at Lloyds, London, are made from the Lutine's rudder, and the bell which tolls the knell of missing ships once spoke the passage of hours on board the frigate. The ringing of the Lutine beil is Lloyd's formal declaration that a ship is wrecked, and that insurance claims will be met.