TREASURE IN MUD

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 401, 7 April 1937, Page 3

TREASURE IN MUD

AT MOUTH OF SEINE Attempt May Be Made To Recover French Fortune. Lying in the nud in a sunken barque in the mouth of the Seine are tlie famous diamond necklace of Queen Marie Antoinette, the fortunes of many French refu gees in England, and the riches of churches. An attempt may be made this summer to recover th£<m to enrich the French treasury and muteums, says the Paris correspondent of the London Daily Mirror, and the Depart; ment of Domains is now seeking permission to raise ithe barque, the Telemaque. The bargue was surk in a terrible storm in 1790, during the Revolution. Louis XVI. and his queen and tho clergy of the north of France loaded itheir private fortunes and the trea*’ suit's of the churches, on to two ships —the Tel maque and a schooner- * which sailed from Rouen for England. The barque, skippered by an English marint-ir named Captain Curtf l mi ng, outsailed her pursuers' and reached the mouth of the Seine, butt foundered in a gale 150 yards from the shore.