WEALTH UNDER THE SEAS

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 225, 22 September 1928, Page 13 (Supplement)

WEALTH UNDER THE SEAS

SEARCH FOR LUTINE'S GOLD

NEW EFFORT TO RAISE IT.

SUNKEN TREASURE

f he fascination which sunken treasure exercises over enterprising spirits has been exemplified once, more fti the cabled announcement that Lloyd's have entered into a contract with two Dutch salvage companies, which intend to attempt to recover some of the treasure, in *roM and silver from the wreck of the. British frigate Lutine, which sank in the- shallows between TersehelUng and Vlielend off th« Dutch coast, on the night of October 9, 1790. No definite authoritative information is available as to the amount of the treasureoosn s board the Lutine, but the records of the Admiralty show that "a- considerable sum" of money was shipped in her by British merchants and bankers, for the relief of Hamburg business houses, whose finances had been embarrassed by Ph/rope'a war with the newly-established / Trench Republic. The amount is said / h*ve been nearly £1,000,000, but this i. / Estimate is probably much in excess of , J the actual figure. Nothing was done ~,'.'/ toward salving the treasure during the ], ( - Napoleonic wars, but when peace was >"\ . eventually restored, the Dutch Govern.V .j m«>nit claimed the wreck. In two years, ,/, j frwfcoh fishermen who abandoned fishing y i i for salvage work recovered about f £56,000, and of this amount the Dutch 1 1 (Government took two-thirds. The ' British Government, acting under presi sura from Lloyd's induced the Dutch | Government to abandon its claim to ; the wreck, and since that time all salvage work has been carried, out under Arrangement with Lloyd's. There havo been many attempts at salvage from this wreck since the invention of the' Siebe diving dress 80 years ago, but the Tesults have been poor. Tor some yeans it was impossible to locate the wreck, as the shifting sands had buried her. But eventually a great galo washed away the sand and exposed part of the hull. For five yearsfrom 1857 to 1801, salvage operations were carried on as weather permitted, but in this period only £40,000 was recovered. Owing to frequent storms in the locality, salvage work can be car- , ried on only at intervals, and the currents sweep the sand about and undo ! in ft few hours the work of weeks., i In 1858 the Lutine's bell was recovered < and handed over to Lloyd's. This bell • is nung in a heavy' metal framework ~ a t 'Lloyd's new offices in London, and it is rung whenever news is received of jthe safety of a ship that had been ported as overdue. The news brings joy* to Lloyd's underwriters Summoned by the Lutine bell, for it means that instead of having to pay the insurance on the vessel and (her cargo the premiums paid to them for insurance and reinsurance represent clear profit. # A Spanish Galleon. i-.A much older wreck than -the Lutine has also been the scene of salvage operations extending down to the present day. Jn 1588 a Spanish galleon was sunk in Tobermory Bay, in the island of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland. This galleon was one of the vessels of the Spanish Armada, which fled, northwards tihe" intention of sailing round the e Orkney Islands, in order to get back to Spain. But she was driven by stress of weather and shortage of provisions into Tobermory Bay, where she was blown up as the result of a. quarrel between the commander end the Scottish clan Mac Lean. It is said that the galleon was the Almiiante de Florencia, the pay ship of the Armada, and that she carried an enormous sum of money, • besides.a large quantity of gold plate and gold cups, which King Philip intended for the Spanish Court he was to set up in London. But Spanish records show that very little money was ■r: --sent with the Armada .to.: pajN. the troops, and. that the paymaster-general was on board the San Salvador, and not ; the Almirante de Florencia. , Nevertheless* salvage operations have been carried on at Tobettnory Bay spasmodically for over 250_years, but with very little success. Since J9OO opera- - tions on a more scientific basis with \ modern pumping machinery have been o#'0 # ' carried oft every summer, except during'if the yeans of the Great War, but only i* a fey Spanish "cbJAs, sVords and cant rion have, been recovered- The vessel ligs' buried L in the. sand, and only part of her deck has been cleared by suction (pumps. When.one-salvage company exhausts its 'fund* jn? the endeavour to recover the treasure another is quickly .;.' formed by hopeful ; individuals who believe that untold riches Me only a few feet below the sand. ■During the past 20 yearsi several , attempts have .been mode to recover ,' . • treasure from Jthe Lutine, wrecked more tliaa 100 years' ago. In 1911 an English salvage company found her buried 36ft below the ocean bed. The sand was ; pumped up by suction pumps and the wooden hull was exposed, despite the strong currents which tended to sweep the sand'back as soon as it was removed. But these searchers found that the canT non balls which had been stored in the magazine of the frigate, had rolled* about the deck when the magazine rotted away, and that these ball* of iron had been rusted together by the water. The treasure lay under an almost solid mass of iron, five to six feet thick, which had to be blasted away by explosives. The . searchers abandoned the task for lack,of r. money with which to carry on. As recently as 1925 another salvage company was formed 1o search for the treasure, but it met with little success. A Recent Wreck. Tt is difficult to recover treasure fm;i: n ship whose hull has been buried undci sand in the course of many years, but the case of the P. and O. liner Egypt. siink off TJshant after a collision with the French cargo steamer Seine on the night of May 20, 1922, shows (hat it may Im equally difficult to recover treasure from a ship that lias been under water for a comparatively brief time. - The •Egypt, which' was proceediup from London To Bombay, carried gold and silver in specie and bullion to the value of £1j004,000, hilt none of the'treasure has been recovered owing to tbo fact that she sank in deep water. The maximum depth at which divers can work in the Siebe dress, which has. been in general use for the past 80 years, is 150 feet, and even at this depth a diver can work only fifteen to twenty minutes at a time owing to the physical strain on.his body . by the pressure of the water, which at . 150 feet-is four or five times the atmospheric pressure. It was announced in August, 192G, the German divers, using • newly invented diving dress, "had located the wreck of the Egypt and anticipated little difficulty in recovering the treasure, but they were entirely unsuccessful. The new diving dress consists of a complete , suit of steel or aluminium, which entirely protects the

body of the diver from the pressure of water, and, therefore, theoretically enables him to descend to any depth, at which the steel or aluminium euit is able to resist the water pressure. Inside the suit the direr carries a sufficient supply of air to last him four or five hours, the air being Tepurified by a 1 chemical process and additional oxygen I being supplied from cylinders inside the suit. The suit is jointed at the hips, and the coverings of the legs and arms are so devised as to allow the diver considerable freedom of movement. By means of a mechanical device he can operate his steel arms, and do such jobs as bore a hole in a ship's plate, fix or remove a shackle and place a bolt in position. The diver is lowered by means of a cable from a crane or winch. It is claimed that he can work for several ■hoars at great depth, and that as his body is not exposed to the pressure of the water he can be hauled up in a few minutes without feeling those iU-effsds that would follow a rapid ascent in ths Siebe dress. Illumination below the water is provided by electric lamps of great power fitted into the suit, and there are several observation windows for the diver to look through . £5,000,000 Treasure Ship.

To the British Admiralty belongs the credit of having recovered from the sea sunken treasure amounting to over £6,000,000. White the White Star liber Laurentic was proceeding from Liverpool to New York in January, 1017, with gold ingots to the value of £5,458,500 in payment for war stores and ammunition received from America, she was torpedoed off Malin Head, at the extreme north of Ireland, by a German submarine. She sank almost immediately, and 354 persons out of 475 on board were drowned.

The wreck was located at a depth of 120 feet, and the Admiralty began salvage operations, but owing to the attentions of German submarines the work had to be discontinued, and it was not until after the war was over that operations were resumed. Owing to the fact that the locality was exposed to fierce gales work could be carried on only at intervals. The moat expert divers in the service of the Admiralty were employed—they had had a great deal of experience in salvaging torpedoed vessels during the war—but at a depth of 120 feet a day's work consisted of two spells of fifteen minutes each. Explosives were used to dear away the wreckage of twisted plates and Steel girders that hid the strongroom where the treasure had been stored. On several occasions the divers found, after suspending operations on account of storms, that they had again to face the task of clearing away more wreckage that had been strewn about by the strong currents. The treasure had been scattered about by the currents, and much of it was buried deep in the eand, but enormous suction pumps were employed, and they proved effective, though tttey often became choked with large pieces of wreckage and big boulders. Owing to the fact that operations had to be suspended for months at a time because of stormy weather the salvage work extended over seven years. Eventually £5,416,000 was recovered, leaving behind £42,500. The Laurentic's gold, which weighed over 45 tons, was in 3211 bars, each weighing 400 troy ounces, and all but 25 bars were recovered. The search for these remaining bars amid acres of wreckage, partly buried under sand, was abandoned as hopeless.