UNKNOWN

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1454, 2 October 1915, Page 3

UNKNOWN

THEORIES AS TO VALUE

MILLIONS OR THOUSANDS

Bun'iq Sept:. M)

The. cutter Enterprise lias re turned to the Bluff after a search for gold on the General Grant wreck at the Auckland Elands half a century ago. I’'or three months Captain Catling and his parly have explored the coast line, using a centreboard canoe in hazardous work and located the cavern where it is supposed the General Grant: sank. On several occasions the party had narrow escapes and the canoe was wrecked. The party returned for provisions and a new launch. The baiterprise is fitted out with the most complete diving, electrical and observation equipment south of the line, including air compressors which supply the diver with air for two hours without pumping. Captain Catling leaves in a few weeks to continue, and is sanguine of success.

It was rumoured some time ago that oue of the American syndicates formed to recover the gold from the General Grant had despatched a vessel from San Francisco for the Auckland Islands. The schooner Robert Hendry, owned by the American Deep sea Exploring Company, successful!}' carried out some salvage at Tahiti, and after lifting about ,£-1000 returned to San Francisco to re-fit for the Auckland Islands. The last that has been heard of her locally is that she was wrecked off the coast of North America and that all her plant was lost, Mr E. C. May, well known in New Zealand in connection with the General Grant, was managing director of the company. Mr May always spoke in millions when he mentioned the gold of the General Grant. He advanced the theory that although the manifest showed only about .£ 15,000 worth of specie, the “sundries” consisted largely of gold, while there was also the

private gold of the miners aboard who were going home after “making their idle.” Mr May set down the probable value at _£j,ooo, 000, In it Captain Catling, of the cutter Enterprise, states that he does not believe that there is much more than ,£50,000 to ,£■lo,ooo worth. Captain Catling states that he is satisfied that the gold in the General Grant will still he in its boxes and that the frame of the vessel will still be perfectly sound.