SPANISH GOLD ON THE SEA FLOOR

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 21

SPANISH GOLD ON THE SEA FLOOR

TREASURES AWAIT THE FORTUNE-HUNTER

(By "Spunyarn.")

Scattered on the floor of the seven seas, in high-pooped, weedcovered wrecks, many fathoms deep, lying among the rocks of desolate islands, and buried in a thousand treasure-troves the world over there is gold—Spanish gold. For Spanish treasure ships, wrecked on inhospitable coasts, plundered and sunk by pirates of many nationalities, and destroyed by the fury of the storm, exist not only in the storybooks of childhood, but also in the reality of present-day life. There is gold of untold value,

plundered from sacked cities an the floor of the ocean.

[1 taken from the Incas, lying on

When the great Armada was scattered by storm many of Spain's proud galleons were lost on the rocky coast of the British Isles. There was, for instance, the treasure ship of the Spanish Armada, the Florentia, a straggler from the fleeing fleet, alleged to have been sunk in Tobermory Bay. It was said she carried gold and jewels and Spanish . doubloons to the value of two million pounds: and there she lay. But it was not so. The Florentia carried no treasure, and she got home to Spanish waters. The ship sunk deep in the sand of Tobermory Bay was, they subsequently found to their disgust, the San Juan Bantista, of Cicily; and salvage operations in recent years resulted only in a couple of silver plates, a dollar or two, a few cannon balls, and miscellaneous articles of no value: and that was that.

There was, however, another famous treasure-laden Spanish galleon wreck-

Ed off the Bahamas. An enterprising gentleman, called William Phips, got after this booty in .1681. He introduced himself to the Duke of Albemarle, and successfully whetted his appetite, to the end that he was brought to the presence of King Charles 11, who, also with an eye to the main chance, made him captain of a frigate and gave the enterprise his blessing. For months the work went on out there, fruitlessly. Sickness ravaged the crew; they mutinied; were subdued —and again the work went on. But in the end shortage of stores drove them home.

In the meantime King Charles had died. But again the indomitable Phips went to the Duke and prevailed upon him for more money for a fresh attempt; and got it. Another ship was fitted out, and again the search began. This time the months ran into years: result nil. Until one day one of the naked Indian divers of the expedition happened upon a bar of silver on the sea bed, and came with it, gasping, to the surface. . . . You can imagine the excitement. They eventually found thirty tons of it down there, besides much gold, pearls, and other treasure. The total value of the haul was at that time worth £300,000, equivalent to about a million sterling today. And with it all the English ship berthed in the Thames in September, 1687. It is said that the Duke of Albemarle's share founded the family fortunes. For those who may want to investtheir money in something exciting,' there are eleven Spanish galleons lying in sand and mud at the bottom of Vigo Bay today. Their treasure is said to be worth about £20,000,000. Wouldbe speculators have always put off this enterprise by the report that the Spaniards, after Sir George Rooke's attack upon them in 1702, affirmed that they had unloaded the treasure and taken it ashore for safe keeping when they heard Sir George was coming, so that he sunk "empty" ships. Whether or not they said this to minimise their loss, nobody knows. But the shrewd financier has always felt that the odds were a shade too long for him in this market. DRAKES TREASURE. That great treasure lies at the bottom of the sea near the Peruvian coast is undeniable. In his famous Golden Hind he captured the bullion-laden Cocofuego, but the loot he secured was so great and his little ship so weighted down with it that, for safety, he had to jettison many tons of silver, pieces of eight, plate, and gold ingots. Few people, however, would credit the existence of Spanish treasure in the vicinity of Torres Strait, but there is ample evidence to show that Spanish adventurers penetrated to this region in their galleons, which today would be regarded as tiny craft. About forty years ago the late Frank Jardine, one of the sons of John Jardine, who was appointed by the Imperial Government to establish a settlement at Somerset, on Cape York Peninsula, in 1864, made the first discovery of treasure.

Out one day, some miles from the settlement, ( Frank Jardine, seeking beche-de-mer, found gold. On a small island he noticed an old rusted anchor, half-submerged in the sand. He went ashore, and beside the rusting iron he found gold which had ■ rested undisturbed for centuries. He dragged the anchor aside: he found more gold.

The coins were gold and silver Spanish dollars, minted in the seventeenth ani' eighteenth centuries, and in one afternoon, after much scratching and sifting of sand,-Jardine found several thousand pounds' worth of specie. It was discovered later that the anchor and a few yards of chain were of' Spanish workmanship.

The Murray Islanders also recount the story which hss been handed down by their fathers. They tell of the time, n.any moons belore the white men came, when the huge "sailing canoe" ran ashore during a cyclone and was wrecked on a reef off the island. Some of the crew managed to get ashore, bringing with them boxes of coin, but the natives attacked and killed the strangers.

The boxes of coin, if they ever did reach the shore, have never been discovered Perhaps those boxes heavy with doubloons and pieces of eightnames which history has made even more romantic—r-were sparks from fiery imaginations, flaming strong and fierce above lonely campfires or from the childish minds of the islanders. Perhaps. Who can tell except time? Strasge as it may seem, gold coins have been picked up on Murray Island, and a rusted cutlass of Spanish workmanship and design is also

saiu to have been fou.id near where the galleon is believed to have" struck.

It is also interesting that on a small island near Thursday. Island many years ago coins were picked up, further' proof tfiat a Spanish ship, probably on its way to th? settlement in th Philippines, went to it?., doom.

The blue north holds many secrets. The earliest history of Gladstone, the port between Bundaberg and Rockhampton, on the Queensland coast, tells of the discovery of the remains of a ship on the reefs outside the harbour by some of the first settlers. The remains were rfferrci to as the Spanish galleon.

Perhaps imagination again played a big part, but, strangely enough, a few hundred yards inland from where the ship had struck was found a clearing. In this clearing was what the weather and time had left of a small hut made of logs. The logs had been cut and roughly trimmed by axes, axes which must have been sharp and efficient— not native weapons. Those logs had been cut years before, many years, and, according to records, white people had never set foot on. that part of Australia before.

Ships of Spain, .yellow men and yellow gold. A rusted anchor, a rusted cutlass. Ships of Spain which came and died and left their bones.