TREASURE HUNT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 225, 17 May 1932, Page 2

TREASURE HUNT

AD VENTUROU S PARTY SEEKS SUNKEN GOLD OF THE SPANISH MAIN. A STRANGE QUEST. A thirty-ton frawler put out from Brixham, Devonshire, on December 29, for fhe Spanish Main, and will come hack laden with doubloons and pieces of eight from the pirates' lair. That, at any rate, is her programme, says the Daily Express correspondent. And the nine adventurous men on board mean to carry it out. Some time ago Mr. Stanfard Jolly who knows the wild places of the world like the back of his hand. an nounced his intention of leading the expedition. At once more than 3000 people, 200 of them women, begged him to take them with him. Men walked from Manchester and Glasgow to plead their fitness for the voyage. Out of all these were chosen the nine stalwart fellows for the great adventure aboard the Vigilant. The skipper is an old sailing ship and P. and O. officer; the mate a retired major in the Royal Engineers; and the cook an ex-lieuteant-com-mdnder of the ,Navy. Three of the rest are ex-naval officers, one of whom was serving in the Amphion, the first ship in action in the war; another is a former Rugby international. The remainder include a noted engineer, an amateur yachtsman of world-wide fame, and Mr. Copper, whose official title is that of "gold diviner." Mr. Cooper was a noted manufacturer who has now handed over his business to his family. The nine men reconditioned the whole ship themselves without any outside aid. They installed an auxi•liary engine, took out the fish holds, rebuilt the cabins, caulked the hull, and rigged and reeved the sails. The voyage will occupy at least a year. Somewhere on the Spanish Main of old lies, in the belief of these adventurous men, treasure whose wealth is beyond imagination, and should they fail to find it they will make for Cocos Islands. Five millions of wealth are believed to be buried there.