Galleons and Doubloons

Horowhenua Chronicle, 13 March 1911, Page 4

Galleons and Doubloons

An anxious syndicate and a waiting world have for some time been eagerly expecting the news that Spanish doubkxins in bucketfuls and vast treasure of various kinds had •been fished up out of Tobermory Bay. l'V>r over a year now divers and elaborate dredging plant have heen at work in the Duke of Argyle's waters endeavouring to discover the great treasurcship of the Armada, the Duque di Florenzia, which is supposed to have sunk there with her untold wealth in sight of .hi vera ry Castle. Visions of the sea bed strewn with priceless pearls I'jidi symptuous gold plate have been dazzling many eyes, and now comes the horrible suggestion from naval Ihistoriajis that the ship that perished ?n Tobermory .13 a v was merely a hired transport—an insignificant vessel of some GOO tons —having nothing of any lasting value on board her. Mr Julian S. Corbett, in a commnnicar tion to the leading daily, states that in tibe Armada Lists there is ,no ship called 1 Duque di Florenzia. The ship the treasure-seekers had in mind appears iis the Ga.lleon of Florence, or sometimes as the Admiral of Florence. This is not the name of the ship, but its description, meaning that it was tihe vice-flagship of the Medieean Navy. Had the ship been wrecked in Tobermory Bay, she would have been well worth looking for; but the indisputable fact is that, according to both Spanish and Florentine official reports, she returned in safety. The ma in facts concerning tihe ship actually lost at Tobermory are equally ;certain. She was not a. galleon at all, but a uao, or ordinary armed transport, carrying two companies of a certain "terla." "We know its name," adds Mr Corbett, "and the name of the officer commanding; we know the name of the ship, the name of its owner, its tonnage, and its armament; and it was obvious to anyone familiar with naval matters of the period that, .however interesting tihe search might prove archneologically, by no means could it repay the cost. It is, indeed, a matter of surprise that tyiv of the guns recovered from such a ship were as good, as a few of them proved to lie. though, in passing, it may be said the Benvenuto Cellini is not patent to everyone."