AFTER TWO CENTURIES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 10052, 10 February 1927, Page 3

AFTER TWO CENTURIES.

IIUGATE .OF LOUIS XIV.

DISCOVERY BY DIVERS

.'For, 234 years a~ remarkable museum of the .seventeenth, century French naval ..ar'm'ffmenf deep in Cherbourg Harbour, above which ocean liners and fishing whipshave passed for ages, unaware of 111 e historic treasures buried thirty fathoms below,' Only .recently divers working on new .harbour improvements , chanced to stumble on the long-lost subterranean mus.eum-r-iu reality the lifty-gun frigate Triom-phant,-pride of Louts XlV.'s navy. The silvers entered the sho,t-ridd,e.n hull and found there mussel.covered guns, which had been silent and forgotten since, that day in 1692 when they poured a final vain broadside against the victorious .British fleet. Admiral Toujrville,' with a French ■fleet.-'-of; 44.. frigates, opposed for a day and. a night the, Britisih-Dutch armada numbering 90. men-o'-war. Louis XIV. had ordered battle and To.urville gave it, regardless of the odds f , in a hopeless cause. Almost every. French ship was sunk or. badly

battereVt'''Five',''in" trying to' escape, were-puTsued and sunk by,2o British ships. The Triomphant, ' seriously battered, was carried by a favourable wind to Cherbourg /Harbour, but sank as she' was entering. Despite the overwhelming defeat, Louis XlV.'s'pride was'satisfied with the French 'gallantry, causing him to send Admiral Tourville a mestagc of congratulation for holding o:i "my enemies a whole day and a whole- night."

Divers are daily bringing up added treasures from"the frigate's hull, including casements, cannon, and seventeenth ceutuiy muskets. All the relics will be classified properly and mounted to commemorate . the bravery'' of the French navy in Louis' reign.