RECOVERED FROM THE SEA.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 249, 9 February 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

RECOVERED FROM THE SEA.

TREASURE TROVE THROWN UP BY THE TIDE. The second week of October last will lciig fee remembered 14 Islay, as about 120 persons received the rewards of their industry in the salving of a large quantity of raw rubber which had, during the earlier months of the year, floated ashore in the bays and creeks ot the island. The collectors, who comprised fishermen, farmers, and many boys, received £2,300 at Bowmore, in 6iims varying from several hundreds of pounds down to a few shillings. Many curious,: and occasionally very valuable,. objects are from time to time thrown up by the tide. Not so long ago, for instance, the sea washed, up a considerable, numoer of ancient coins, it Thorpe, in. Suffolk '. At one period Thorpe was a place of some importance. It is only five, miles from the prebend "Consumptiy psr Mare," or "Swallowed by the Sea,"' and as in 1299 the church had Jin.ivorv comb and a silver pvx for the Eucharist, with a canopy, there is nothing, surprising, in the recent find of treasure* Exceptional tides, have often disclosed the treasure .and stores, of an ancient wreck. A number of years ago a patch of peat was exposed on the beach between West JHartlepool and Seaton Carew, and a number of Spanish silver dollars, gold fHjd other valuable objects were found in it. The discovery caused great excitement in tho district, and there Was a rush of apprentices, and other ■" prospectors" yo the peat-bed, which became for the moment a local gold country* The coins bore dates ranging from 1720 to 1804. A SPANISH.; SLAYER History recorded that a ship of London, named The Duck, hadbeen wrecked at this spot in 1829, and at that time a number of dollars, amounting in ail to the value of three hundred pounds, had been taken from her . It was supposed - that thft coiiA and jewellery found in tho peat liad been secreted in the vessel's timbers, and had been released as these had fallen to pieces under the rude battery of many Thevessel had originally been a Spanish ship engaged • in the slave trade, and' this accounted for the coins being; Spanish ones. She Itad been-captured by the English, and thus became -an English trader and acquired an English name. Many year* ago, the waters ct the river La.Plata, in South America, were driven back and forced into the neighbouring palins. The bed of the river ras laid bare, and several ships wEich had been lost more than thr.rty years before were exposed to the gaze of the inhabitants of the,country. On? of these ships was an English vessel which had been wrecked about the time mentioned

Several persons, braving the risk that the pent-up water might return,, walked on to the water-beaten hu4k.s. ransacked their cabins, and returned laden with silver and other treasures, which had long been covered-by the waters. After three days the water returned violently to its natural channel.

Most people are, of course, more or iesa-fenuliar with the daring and clever •operations otf-profesisonal salvage men, a fid ate aware that under favourable

circumstances they are abb to atrip away everything of value, from the mails and the bullion to the engine and tha screws of manganese bronze. But even in the dAys when the diver wis not so well equipped, as lie now is, and when his work was in consequence much more uncertain and speculative, if cot more^. dangerous, many valuable and curious'objecta were rescued from the sea. In the reign of Charles the Second, William Fhipps, the son of a ilaeksmith, aided by expert swimmers and,divers, and perhaps also by an early type of diivng bell, succeeded after many attempts in, recovering treasure to the value of something like £200,000 from the week or aSpanishship which had sunk off +he island of Hipaniola, in the West. Indies.

Not so many years ago, a man literally threw.aawy a fortune which the sea gave him. While holidaying at Digby, ■n Nova Scotia, he saw a lump of tallosvy substance floating about in the "bay. Recovering it, fee took it home, and ondea.voured-to boil the lump down to make s«ft ■soap. He failed in his .attempt, however, and threw away the supposed tallow. The lump when he first /found it weighed about lOOib., and he kept about 51b. of it as a curiosity. Imagine what he thought when he discovered, a little while a tor, that what he had thrown, away was amber 7 gria worth 47 an ounce! He had unknowingly thrown away several thousand pounds! TREASURE FROM THE THAMES. A Glasgow man who took a trip to London 'had a stroke of luck which more than cleared the expenses of his holiday. One day he was wandering along tho Thames Embankment near Chelsea Bridge when tho tide was low. His attention was attracted by something sticking out of the sand and mud. On investigation, this proved to be a small wooden box containing ingots of copper to the value of £SO! Holiday-makers, as a rule, are more in the habit of losing things than finding them. Whe th's happens at the seas;do the lieaehcomber is generally tha individual who is in luck's way. The fudt is not his if he fails to) discover anything that has been lost, or which th'i tide may have washed up. At mo»t of the reports round the English coast, in the early morning or evening when tho tide is out, a few of these men may always be seen rakinir diligently among the loose pebbles or soft 6-1 sid for the trinkets or valuables which trppers have lost. One beachcomber at Yarmouth has gone out.iijght and morning for tho pant twenty yenrs, and seln .returns home empty-handed. Hi.v h..:ise is full of sn.all treasures which !::■> has picked up, and among bis linds Sri* ;'.I! sorts of trinkets, from a cannon bi'l to a diamond r;n-, winch had evidently slipped front tho tinker of a lady w'io was betrothed.

There is the story of a lady who on.? jc.ir lost her watch en the <-and» at Yarn"*%uth, and. though she made all inrjuiiieq, she failed to trace It. The police promised to lielp, hut it was not till th* following year that she came across th» lost time-keeper. She saw it in n pawnbroker's el i op! CURIOUS FINDS OX TH!! IJEACi!. Bachcombing is yet its infancy m T ' of the Scottish holiday resorts, hut it. is an art which learned quickly. Or.e morniiiii's haul at an Avrshire town rs.'; n Qtly included a set '.f fal-e teeth, :> ji'ur of fiehl-tflasses. ;• rattle, a gold wadding rinsr. three .singlo stochii)2j, and two bathing costum?.?. t A paragraph headed Remark.-ihle l-'.l-'.s at Portobplln. which ,T[)*ienre(l. in an i<sue of an Et!int>ury|i p'>wi* the •"'mnier heforo last, paid a <-trik : ii<r tribute to the wealth of the Second Citv, Ch'sgow. Tt ran : " Duriny the past few d'.v< exceptionally Iri.L!; h.iv nre- ' '- at Portohe ! 1 . Th ;- v pre known

as the PorWbeUo harvest tides, and are feculiar to this season._. A- strong easterly wind blowing tip the channel tends to emphasise their height, .and for several aftwnoons the promenade has been impossible owing to the waves breaking over it. The tide washes up coins and other valuable articles which are said to have been dropped by trippers dining Glasgow Fair week. Tho other daj a boy picked up half-a-sovereign, and 1 yesterday a man found a watch." Few valuable watches are ever found by the beachcomber, most of them being silver chronometers of little value, but there is a case on record of a gold watch worth £SO being picked up at a South Coast resort. The finder in this case took the watch to the authorities, and after a time it was returned to its owner . Coins are often discovered among the general debris, as also »ro pocket-knives and handkerchiefs galore, while children's toys always form a large proportion of the harvest of the sands.

Even the oldest searchers, however, believe that, despite their expert eyes, there are many valuables which remain embedded in the beach and are passed over. "It is not a stick one needs to prod the sand," is the maxim of one. " What is reallv needed for a. thorough search is a small-toothed comb!"