THE BURIED TREASURE OF FRIGATE HUSSAR.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3585, 8 January 1883, Page 4

THE BURIED TREASURE OF FRIGATE HUSSAR.

The monumental fraud in the way of sunken gold, Avrites a correspondent of the Philadelphia Press, is right iv the harbour of Ncav York, and not more that eight miles from the centre of that great metropolis. I allude to the British frigate Hussar, Avhieh ran into one of the Hell Gate rocks late in the roA'olutionary Avar, was bulged in fonvard, and sunk near a spot where tho Morrisunia Gas "Works arc now situated, iv about eighty feet of water. She Avas a first-class frigate, and according to popular belief carried about i._,000,W1() in gold for the payment of the British iinny iii America. Right Avhere the Hussar went doAvn there is a A-ery strong tide and an eddy that renders work very dihicidt: but not long after the close of the Avar eiforts to get at her treasures Avere begun, and they htiA-e been kept up, Avith occasional intermissions, ever since. In 18")- I first had the idea of raising sunken ships that 1 applied in 1«S~)7 in Sebastapool, and I then thought of applying it to the Hussar : but in undertaking a scheme of this sort I always want to make sure that the treasure I am looking for is Avhere I have reason to think it is. So I went to England and commenced a thorough search through the records with regard to tho frigate Hussar. I hired numbers of searches, and made a complete investigation among the papers oi the admirultv and in the pay department, and AvasatleuglitsatisfiedtliaUhefJ, 000,000 carried by the Hussar had been landed and duly distributed to tho paymasters. Whether it ever reached the troops I did not take the trouble to enquire. When I came back to Ncav York I Avas culled upon by a friend avlio wanted me to go into tho scheme of raising the Hussar. I laughed at him and told him of my search among the records, but in spite of my Avaming he quit me and put ten thousond dollars into the Hellenic. For thirty years the search after this treasure (which does not exist) has been unremittingly carried on, and to-day if you walk out liis'th Street to the water trout, in Morrisunia (I Avou't be certain about the street), you will see a schooner moored off the shore, equipped Avith an engine and sending doAvn divers Avbcncver the tide suits. The of tho scheme arc a Boston company. I never heard of their recovering anything except a I'oav Avooden cups and platters and sundry guineas Avith the likeness of Georye 111, and yet tbe search litis been kept up for thirty years, and good money has been sunk iv the Avreck of the old Hussar—thousands aud thousands of it. My friend who invested the ten thousand dollars, called to see me Avhen I returned from Russia, and told me he Avas sorry he had not taken my Avarning, but I could see that lie still hankered after ihe supposed treasure, aud that he still had a lingering belief in its existence, despite his sad experience. I Avent out to Morrisunia and witnessed the diving for the treasure, Avhieh was done without concealment, and became more and more convinced that there avus nothing worth diving for.—The theory of the manager Avas that the Hussar's guineas had been packed in iron boxes, and that the material iv these had been oxidized by the influence of the sea, and that thus the divers wore forced to work slowly Avith drills and could accomplish no satisfactory results. The fact is that certain persons interested in the scheme saAv a chance of making money without raising it from tho deep, and availed themselves of it. One man avliosc Avholc life has been devoted to the Hussar and its supposed treasures, has built a row of brick dwelling-houses in Boston, I am told, and is very avcll-to-do, but tho money did not come from the Hussar. .1 need not say more. This is one of the most persistently followed searches for sunken treasure that I ever heard of ; but then, you see, there were treasures that never had been sun] that were aA'ailablc for its promoters