THEY FOUND GOLD
The Story of SUCCESSFUL TREASURE HUNTS
By A. HYATT VERRILL
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Chapter XVI.
TREASURE HUNTS IN HOME WATERS. 210
The famous MERIDA the East River .
Chapter XVII.
THE MOST SUCCESSFUL OF ALL TREASURE HUNTS. 217
The remarkable salvaging of the LAURENTIC. Searching for the
LUSITANIA
Chapter XVIII.
THE GREATEST OF ALL TREASURE HUNTS. 225
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| Sketch Map of Treasures |
Appendix.
HINTS FOR TREASURE HUNTERS. 233
Why so many treasure hunts fail. Misleading
charts and faked maps. Incom plete
data. Ignorance of conditions. Treasure hunting a gamble. Cost of treasure
hunting. Inadequate funds. Laws and regulations. Concessions. Outfits required.
A game for wealthy men. Salvaging sunken ships. Modem devices. A business
proposition. The lure of treasure hunting.
AUTHENTIC UNRECOVERED TREASURES IN AMERICA
A list of known, historically authe ntic, lost, hidden and sunken treasures of America the time of writing
remain unfound.
LIST OF TREASURES ACTUALLY KNOWN TO HAVE BEEN
RECOVERED OR SALVAGED
IN RECENT YEARS.
CHAPTER XVI
Treasure Hunts in Hom e
Waters
ALTHOUGH mention of hidden treasure hoards and
sunken treasure ships brings up visions of ancient galleons and palm-fringed,
tropical shores, yet many a great treasure lies near at hand, resting in the remains of long-lost ships in northe rn waters. Perhaps the
most famous of the se for it has had the most publicity, is the
Ward Line* steamship Merida , which was
sunk in a collision with the Admiral Farragut, in 1911, off the Virginia
Capes the case, the re
was considerable mystery connected with the
loss of the Merida the
passengers and crew, all of whom
were saved, were rathe r conflicting.
But all agreed that the ship
remained afloat for nearly an hour and that the
captain and som e of the officers returned to the
stricken ship, when the y found she
still floated, and secured papers, documents and valuables. Also, as is often the case, rumors of vast treasures aboard the Merida om ewhere
upon her were millions of dollars in gold coin belonging to the refugee family of an ousted President of Mexico.
Even more spectacular was the rumor
to the effect that the ship had gone down carrying with her the crown jewels of the
ill-fated Emperor Maximilian and the
Empress Carlotta. But the vessel's
manifests showed no such treasures aboard the
Merida, which om ission,
so argued the sponsors of the tales, was quite to be expected as the crown jewels had been surreptitiously smuggled
out of Mexico, and the exiled
family's fortune would have been seized had the
Mexican authorities known it was aboard the
ship. But the Merida the ship's
cargo, togethe r with a number of mahogany
logs, and of course the re were a
certain number of valuables currency and jewelry, belonging to the passengers, which had been left aboard in the ir hurried exodus from
the stricken vessel.
* AHV
wrote "History of the Ward Line"
in 1930. Not recovered yet./drf
And although the
Ward Line's records do not indicate that any great amount of insurance was paid
on passengers' claims, or that any insurance had been taken out on the alleged millions in gold and the crown jewels, the
tales of the Merida's vast treasures persisted and caught the
popular fancy, as tales of the sort
always do, for the re is a rom antic streak in most of us. And what could be more
rom antic than the
long-lost jewels of Maximilian and his consort lying at the
bottom of the
Atlantic within the
hulk of a sunken steamship?
Of course, efforts were made to locate and
salvage the Merida the wreck was too deep for any
practical salvage work by divers in ordinary gear, although Frank Crilley, who
holds the world's record for deep
diving, reached the wreck, examined
her thoroughly and duly reported his findings. As a result of his report, the salvage com pany
employing Crilley abandoned the ir
efforts, having decided that it would cost more to recover the ship's valuables than the y
were worth.
The decision did not, however, discourage othe rs, and from
time to time, for a number of years, one expedition after anothe r has set sail to salvage the
mythical millions in the Merida om inent of the se were the
expeditions of the late Captain
Bowdoin whose persistence and perseverance are worthy of all com mendation even if, up to the
time of his death (1935), he had not recovered or found a trace of treasure and
has expended a good sized fortune on the
work. Moreover, Captain Bowdoin must be given all credit for having been the first to employ successfully metal-armored diving
suits in salvage work and for having not only brought up portions of the Merida, but in addition, securing underseas
photographs of the hulk. From time to time newspapers have announced in bold
headlines that the treasure of the Merida had been found, and about a year ago, excitement
and expectations ran high when the
shell-covered, mud-coated safe of the
Merida the surface. All felt
that the ship's massive safe would
contain priceless jewels, bags of golden coin, perchance even the Maximilian jewels. But when at last the long submerged safe was forced open it was found
empty as bare of valuables as Mothe r
Hubbard's cupboard was bare of bones.
Even more conveniently near at hand than the Merida is the
sunken hulk of the British frigate Hussar which lies som ewhere in the
East River almost within stone's throw of busy, bustling New York City
There is no doubt that the
Hussar was wrecked in the East River in 1780 when, on her way to Newport , Rhode
Island the
treacherous currents of Hell Gate and struck a reef near Randall's Island . But the re
is considerable doubt as to whethe r
or not she carried som ething over
two million dollars in gold, silver and copper currency which was to be used in
paying the long overdue wages of the Hessian troops, as has been claimed. Undoubtedly,
when the Hussar set sail from England the r documents are most
confusing and contradictory when it com es
to the matter of the Hussar's
treasure. One chronicler says "Reaching New York from
England the famous Hussar, frigate, with a cargo of a large
sum of money in copper, silver and gold coin. The British forces had not been
paid for a long time and this money was to still the ir
com plaints." Yet the log of the
Hussar does not make any reference to
the treasure nor does that of the frigate Mercury
which sailed from England the same time and was supposed to be carrying
380,000 pounds sterling in coin. On the
othe r hand, Fletcher Betts, an
officer on the Hussar, in his report on the
disaster, stated that twenty thousand pounds in coin, which was all that was on
board the Hussar, had already been
transferred to the Com missary General at New York
Still anothe r
historian states that the British
records show that the largest sum
ever shipped to America the Revolution was fifty
thousand pounds sterling, yet in anothe r
paragraph he declares that the Mercury carried three hundred and eighty
thousand pounds, despite his statement that her log did not mention any
treasure. As it is impossible to reconcile the se
various contradictions, any one may believe, with equal reason, eithe r that the
lost Hussar went down with millions
in her strong room or was sunk with
no treasure worth mentioning.
Neithe r
does any one know exactly where the Hussar now lies. As late as 1850 the wreck was buoyed as a menace to navigation, but
she may have been carried far from the spot by the
swift tides and currents of the East River since the n.
Of course many attempts have been made to salvage the
Hussar, for even the chance of millions in treasure resting on the bottom
of the river within a few hundred
yards of shore is a lure too strong for any real treasure seeker to resist.
The first attempt was made in 1818, when the frigate's anchor and som e
of her guns were brought up, but with the
crude diving gear in use at that time it was impossible to get into the wreck and secure the
coin, if any, that was the re. A few
years later, anothe r group of men
had a try at salvaging the old Hussar by means of a diving bell. The wreck
was located, but the bell proved
useless and one of the party—a youth
sixteen years of age and a powerful swimmer—dove out from
the diving bell, swam into the cabin of the
Hussar and secured a bronze plaque,
pieces of table ware and othe r
articles which are still preserved, som e
of the salvaged objects being in
Columbia University and the othe rs in possession of the
grandson of the daring young man who
salvaged than.
Since the n,
from time to time, the press has announced that som e
one was trying to secure the Hussar's almost legendary treasure. Only
last year the re were two salvage vessels
with divers working in the East River off 132nd
Street the
long-lost frigate. But the bottom of Hell Gate is
strewn with wrecks, old junk and refuse; the
soft slimy mud has covered the older
hulks to a depth of ten feet or more, and to find and identify one particular wreck
is an almost hopeless undertaking, especially as the re
is no certainty as to where the Hussar lies.
Possibly, had the se
last searchers been permitted to continue the ir
work longer, the y might have located
the Hussar, but unfortunately, the
United States Government has som ething
to say in the matter. Not only do the Federal authorities control all dredging and
salvaging operations in rivers and harbors, but in addition, the Government claims the
Hussar and her contents, owing to the fact that she was an enemy warship sunk in
American waters during a war. The only man who has official permission to
salvage, or to attempt to salvage, the
frigate, is Simon
Lake the famous inventor of submarines, who confidently
hopes to succeed by means of his latest salvaging device. This consists of a
captive miniature or "baby" submarine and a hinged steel suction tube
som ewhat like a gigantic
vacuum-cleaner in principle. Within the
submarine, which is connected with the
salvage ship by cables, telephone wires, air hose, etc., a diver may examine the bottom ,
and when a wreck is found he can emerge from
the tiny underseas craft by means of
an air-lock, or if conditions demand, he can operate claws or grapples attached
to the submarine. The purpose of the suction pipe is to suck up and remove the accumulated silt and also to draw up any
valuables that may be found. At the
present time, Mr. Lake feels that he has actually located the Hussar,
but again and again salvagers have thought the y
had found the old frigate, and only time
will tell whethe r Mr. Lake has
succeeded or not. But even if it proves to be the
Hussar, Mr. Lake is not
over-optimistic as to securing treasure. "I wish it clearly
understood," he says, "that I am not sure the re
is any treasure in the Hussar wreck. But we mean to find out. I
have wanted to settle the question
for fifty years." So until the
wreck of the ill-fated frigate has
been found and the many feet of silt
that covers her have been removed, and the
old hulk explored from stem to
stern, no one will know for a certainty whethe r
she carried millions to the bottom or whethe r
her reputed treasure is only a myth.
But the re
is no question whatever as to the
treasures that still rest within the
rotting hulk of anothe r British frigate
which is lying som ewhere on the bottom
of the East River not far from the
spot where the Hussar went down.
This is the
Lexington ,
which was sunk in the eighteenth century
carrying with her an immense fortune in currency, said to amount to over a
million dollars, in addition to a treasure consisting of gold and silver
bullion, gold plate, and othe r
precious objects which were taken from
Vera Cruz, Mexico
Yet such is fame, that few persons have ever
heard of this treasure ship wrecked so close to New York City, and no serious attempts
have been made to salvage her lost riches, whereas the
Hussar is quite famous and a real fortune
has been expended in efforts to recover a treasure which very probably exists
only in tradition and in imagination.
CHAPTER XVII
The Most Successful of all Treasure Hunts
ODDLY enough, the
salvaging of vast sums in coin or cargo from
modern ships sunk in northe rn waters
in recent times, never arouses the
same interest as the recovery of
treasure from som e old galleon beneath a tropical sea or som e hoard of gold buried by pirates, smugglers or othe rs on an islet under the
palms. No doubt the reason for this
is because so little true rom ance
surrounds the foundering of a
steamship and the recovery of its
contents by organized matter-of-fact wrecking com panies,
whereas the re is ever the halo of adventure and of rom ance
about the old galleons, the swashbuckling pirates and buccaneers, pieces of
eight, golden doubloons, and visionary treasure-hunters faring forth to desert
isles and shark-infested coral reefs.
Yet far greater treasures lie upon the bottom
of northe rn seas than among the corals and sea-fans of the
tropics, and far more of the se
sunken riches have been recovered than have ever been salvaged from galleons and plate ships.
When, a few years ago, the
salvors, after long months of dangers, hardships and heartbreaking
disappointments, wrested the
treasure from the
sunken steamship Egypt, it caused
scarcely a ripple of excitement or interest, whereas, had som e one salvaged a few millions in golden doubloons
and plate from the wreck of a Spanish galleon in the Caribbean, press and public would have clamored for
the story and every one would have
been thrilled.
Successful and remarkable as was the salvaging of the
Egypt the
only fortune which has been recovered from
sunken steamships in recent years without arousing any particular interest or
notice.
In 1912, the
P. & O. steamship Oceana collided
with a German vessel off Beachy Head ,
England the bottom carrying with her a treasure in currency and
bullion worth more than four million dollars. And although I doubt if one
person in ten thousand ever heard of it, salvagers recovered every cent's worth
of her cargo except two bars of raw silver worth two or three hundred dollars
at the most.
It was a truly wonderful, as well as a most
highly successful piece of salvage work, yet nothing by com parison
with the salvaging of the steamship Laurentic,
which stands out as the most
remarkable as well as the most successful
of all treasure hunts in the history
of sunken treasure ships. Not only was her immense treasure recovered, but more
remarkable still, the salvaging was
carried on during the period of the World War and continued for seven years, and was
so well and so econom ically
conducted that the entire costs
amounted to barely half a million dollars, a good sized sum to be sure, but a
very small item by com parison with the twenty-five millions salvaged from the
lost ship.
It was on January 25, 1917, that the Laurentic
was sunk off Fanad Head by a German U-boat. Over three hundred human lives were
snuffed out by the tragedy, and twenty-five
millions in gold went to the bottom with the
torpedoed steamship. Fortunately a little mine-sweeper was not far from the Laurentic at the
time and her captain, Com mander
Geoffrey Unsworth, rushed his vessel at full speed to the
scene of the disaster to succor
passengers and members of the crew
who still lived.
It was terrible weathe r,
a southwest gale was howling across the
sea and the huge com bers broke in icy spray over the gallant little ship. But the
Com mander and his men were true
British seamen, and for forty fearful hours the y
battled seas and gale, bitter cold and freezing spray, and by superhuman
determination and grit rescued every survivor of the
Laurentic's com pany.
But the heroic officer very nearly
sacrificed his own life, for the
exposure and cold he had endured brought on pneumonia and he was hurried to a
hospital.
He was the
one man who knew the exact spot
where the Laurentic had gone down, and when the
Government had searched in vain for the
sunken ship in order to salvage her millions, Com mander
Unsworth left his sick bed, and with a heroism, seldom
paralleled in the history of the sea, located the
sunken ship and buoyed the spot. Had
it not been for this one desperately ill man the
chances are that the twenty-five
millions in the Laurentic's strong room
would still be lying at the bottom of the
sea. Yet so lacking in sentiment and gratitude was his government that his services
were never mentioned nor was he honored in any way by the
British Admiralty, although the
actual salvagers were handsom ely
rewarded.
Of course, in the
salvaging of the Laurentic, the
salvors had one great advantage over all othe rs.
The entire resources of the British
Navy and the Government were backing
the venture. The capital the y could draw upon was unlimited, and the y were equipped with every known device,
invention and apparatus for deep sea salvage work. And bearing this in mind, we
can better appreciate the
difficulties to be met in recovering treasures from
wrecks in deep water under stormy seas when we consider that despite the fact that active work was begun within a month
from the
time the Laurentic was sunk, seven years elapsed before the final load of treasure came dripping up from the
depths.
Never in the
history of salvage work have men gone about the ir
undertaking under more adverse conditions. The World War was raging on land and
sea, enemy submarines were all about, the re
was no shelter from storms, gales
and waves, and the Laurentic was twenty-five fathom s beneath the
surface. Moreover, the explosion of the torpedo that had sunk her and the bursting of her boilers had torn the liner to pieces and left her a mass of bent,
warped and twisted metal, while at the
depth where she rested the divers,
using conventional suits (the
present day armored suits had not been perfected) could work for only an hour
or so at a time. Had the ship been
undamaged above the decks it would
not have been such a terrific job to have entered and reached her strong room . But as it was, it was necessary to remove hundreds
of tons of broken and twisted steel and iron and blast a passage through five
steel decks.
Also, of course, the
divers were working in almost total darkness, and in order to aid the m in the ir
work of tearing away the wreck
piecemeal the salvors had a scale model
of the Laurentic, exact in every detail, and each day, as the divers blasted and ripped apart the sunken ship, the
same portions of the miniature ship
were removed from the model.
Again and again the
salvage ship Racer was forced to slip
cables and seek safety from
tempestuous weathe r, and often weeks
would pass with no possibility of salvage work being carried on. But at last the hardest of the
work was done, the shattered plates,
the torn and buckled bulkheads, the twisted stanchions and steel frames, and the wreckage of state room s,
saloons and cabins had been cleared away; a great gaping hole had been blasted through
all five of the liner's decks, and the strong room
had been reached. But so slowly had the
work progressed, so often had bad weathe r
interrupted the salvagers, that only
eight bars of gold were recovered the
first year. But in 1920 over six hundred ingots were salvaged, the following year three hundred were brought up;
during 1922, the salvors recovered
nine hundred bars of gold and in 1923 all records were broken by salvaging one
thousand one hundred and fifty bars, the
total when work was at last abandoned being three thousand and fifty-seven
ingots of gold, leaving only one hundred and fifty-four bars unaccounted for.
Truly the most remarkable,
profitable and successful of all treasure hunts considering all the facts of the
case.
No doubt, the
question will arise in the minds of
my readers as to why, if the British
Government had such success in salvaging the
Laurentic, the
Admiralty did not also salvage the Lusitania
There are several reasons. In the first place the
Laurentic went down in twenty-five
fathom s or one hundred and fifty
feet of water, whereas the Lusitania sunk in more than one hundred
fathom s or over six hundred feet, which
is over three hundred feet deeper than any diver in a rubber suit ever
descended, and it is only within the
last few years that mechanically-operated, armored metal diving suits capable
of withstanding the enormous
pressures of deep water have been invented and perfected and have becom e practical. In the
second place, the exact spot where the Laurentic
sank was known, although if it had not been for Com mander
Unsworth, she might never have been found, whereas no one knows precisely where
the Lusitania the spot where she
was torpedoed is known, the stricken
ship drifted several miles before she went to the
bottom , and as she undoubtedly sank
very slowly she may have been carried a mile or more farthe r
by the tides and currents before she
reached the bottom six hundred feet and more beneath the surface of the
sea. Also, the re was no question
that the Laurentic carried a cargo of gold worth twenty-five million
dollars, whereas the re is
considerable doubt as to whethe r the Lusitania
had on board enough treasure to cover the
cost of salvaging her, despite the
fact that newspaper accounts refer to her "millions in gold," som etimes conservatively mentioning a mere twenty
millions, at othe r times boosting the total to two hundred millions. But largely the depth of water above the
torpedoed Lusitania the
stumbling block which has prevented serious efforts being made to salvage the most famous of steamships sunk by the Germans in the ir
inhuman and relentless submarine campaign. But at the
present time an expedition is actively engaged in attempting to locate and
salvage the Lusitania
With the
salvage ship Ophir, provided with
every up-to-date, scientific device, and aided by the
British Admiralty and survivors of the
Lusitania the
treasure hunters on the Ophir stand a very good chance of being
successful in the ir quest. Among the othe r
highly perfected apparatus employed by the
salvors on the Ophir is an electrical echo-sounding machine. Broadly speaking this
is a device which sends sound waves from
the ship to the
bottom of the
sea at the rate of one hundred and thirty
per minute, and the se sound waves,
striking the bottom , "echo" or are returned upward to the ship where the y
are amplified and actuate a moving stylus which traces the
varying depths upon a prepared sensitized roll of paper, thus giving a
"graph" or profile of the
ocean's floor. By slowly steaming over the
sea the salvagers can see the outline of the
bottom on the
graph as clearly as though gazing upon it with the ir
eyes, and any wreck or othe r object
is instantly recorded. Already a number of sunken ships have been found and
registered by the remarkable device
and at any minute—before I have com pleted
this paragraph, perhaps—word may be received that the
Lusitania the wreck,
the divers of the
Ophir will use a highly perfected armored
suit weighing nearly a ton, but so constructed that the
man within can move about, use arms and legs and can grasp, move or lift
objects by means of the steel claws
or fingers which serve in place of hands. Safely ensconced within this suit the diver can descend to depths far out of reach of the ordinary rubber suit, and as he depends upon
oxygen contained in a tank upon the
back of the suit, instead of com pressed air, he is not affected by the pressure and can breathe
freely and normally. Provided the Lusitania the re is no reason why the salvors should not recover everything of value within
the sunken steamship. Perhaps she
does hold a vast treasure. Perchance the
total valuables recovered will not repay the
costs of the expedition. But even if
no treasure be found, if the Lusitania is located and the divers, as the y
surely will, descend to the wreck, the salvors will be well repaid and will have
performed a service for which the
civilized world should be grateful, for an examination of the sunken steamship will settle for once and forever
whethe r or not the Lusitania
carried arms and munitions of war and hence was legitimate prey for a U-boat,
or whethe r the
Germans by torpedoing her com mitted the most callous and inhuman of crimes, the most atrocious wholesale murder, when the y sent the
giant Cunarder to the bottom and sailed away, deliberately leaving thousands
of men, wom en and children to drown.
CHAPTER XVIII
The Greatest of all Treasure Hunts
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| Ogre-like Diving Suit |
Ever since treasure ships went to the bottom
of the sea the re
have been treasure seekers and salvors striving to recover the submerged gold. But in every case, irrespective
of whethe r success or failure was the outcom e,
the treasure hunters have confined the ir efforts to som e
one treasure or som e particular
wreck. In a way this is a good deal like putting all of one's eggs in one
basket, as the old saying goes. If the one wreck sought is not found, if storms or othe r circumstances prevent work on the one wreck, if it is found impossible to secure the treasure or if for any one of a dozen or more
reasons the attempt is unsuccessful,
the n time and money have been lost
with no chance of making good. But the
expedition I refer to is to conduct operations on quite a different basis.
Instead of setting out to salvage any one treasure ship, the se
salvors have scores of treasure-laden wrecks on the ir
list. Indeed, it is planned to search the
entire coastwise waters of the Atlantic
seaboard of the United States from Florida to the
Gulf of Maine, with som e of the West Indian seas in addition, com bing the
reefs, shoals, bars and waters for the
treasure-laden vessels which have gone to the
bottom during the
past three centuries or more, and salvaging all that may be found. It is a stupendous,
a gigantic undertaking; beyond any question the
greatest, most elaborate treasure hunt in the
history of the sea. Also, it stands the greatest chances of being successful, for
surely, among a score and more of wrecks which are known to hold treasure, it
would be strange indeed if at least one were not found and salvaged. And any
one of the many to be searched for
would repay all costs of the
expedition with a million or more over as dividends.
Moreover, even if no golden doubloons, no
blackened silver coins, no long-lost gems or precious bullion are recovered, the re is little chance of this salvage expedition being
out of pocket, for aside from
treasure ships the re are countless
wrecks, filled with valuable cargoes of merchandise, dotting the ocean's floor between Key West and Eastport.
While bales of silks and velvets, bundles of
merchandise, cases of dry goods, and crated motor cars and machinery, are
rendered worthless by immersion in salt water, the re
are many cargoes which suffer no harm through being sunk, even for years.
Copper and tin, lead and zinc, case-oil and liquors, cabinet woods and
minerals, even canned provisions and side leathe r
are all salvageable. And to the
salvor who is out to make a profit, all should be treasure which com es to his grapples, to paraphrase the trite old proverb. Even if the re is a lure and a rom ance
in gold and silver and precious stones, a few thousand tons of copper or tin,
thousands of feet of mahogany or rosewood, hundreds of cases of choice imported
liquors and othe r equally unrom antic com modities
all are worth good money, and a million dollars is a million dollars quite
irrespective of whethe r it exists in
the form of gold, silver, copper,
lumber, brandy or champagne, or othe r
merchandise.
Finally, this greatest of treasure hunts will be
equipped with the most highly
perfected, the most efficient and the most practical of modern devices. The armored
suits to be used in diving are capable of permitting a diver to descend to
depths of a thousand feet and have already been thoroughly and exhaustively
tested as deep as six hundred feet with entire success. Although appearing like
som e grotesque, semi-human monster,
gigantic, cumbersom e and bizarre,
yet the suit is so constructed that the diver has as much freedom
of movement as if in an ordinary rubber suit even at extreme depths, for the all-metal joints are so designed that the greater the
water pressure upon the m the more mobile the y
becom e. When working at great depths
the diver within the suit depends upon mechanical hands and fingers
consisting of steel grips which are so delicately yet strongly adjusted that a
single coin may be picked up or a section of heavy timber torn from its fastenings. But in fairly shoal water the diver may do away with the se
and use his own hands and arms like any diver in a conventional suit.
For breathing, the
occupant of the suit depends upon oxygen
contained in a tank within the suit
itself, thus entirely obviating the
danger of a leak releasing the
precious gas and leaving the diver
to suffocate before he can be drawn to the
surface. Moreover, the diver
ensconced in this remarkable gear is not cramped, but can move about freely. In
fact the re is abundant space for him
to watch the dials and indicators
within the suit, use the telephone or even read a paper. As the northe rn
seas are ever murky and visibility poor, even in shoal water, and as the ocean is a dark, greenish-black void at great
depths, entirely new and wonderful underseas lights have been provided which
will illuminate the bottom of the
sea for many square feet and will enable the
divers to have as clear a view of the
wrecks as though working at moderate depths in the
crystal-clear, transparent waters of tropical seas.
Finally, one of the
most interesting, the most novel and
the most spectacular features of
this greatest of all treasure hunts will be the
radio broadcasting from under the sea. Each day, as the
diver descends and moves about upon the
ocean's floor, he will talk into a microphone within his helmet, telling what
he sees, describing his surroundings, giving a graphic account of the grotesque forms of life about him—the strange fishes, the
great gray sharks, the gigantic
lobsters and enormous crabs lurking in ancient wrecks or reaching immense claws
from crevices in subterranean
cliffs. No living man has ever yet seen the
inhabitants of the bottom one hundred fathom s
or more below the surface of the Atlantic along
our coasts. No one can say what unknown, strange, impossible monsters may
inhabit the se depths. But the diver in this wonderful new suit, with the powerful beams of the
undersea lights illuminating the
ocean's floor, will see and report to the
world the wonders of marine life.
And when a wreck is found tens of thousands of listeners will hear the voice of a human being, far beneath the surface of the
sea, describing the appearance of the shell and algae-coated hulk, the rotting timbers, the
ancient guns, or if it be a more recent wreck, the
corroded iron hull, the twisted and
torn steel beams, the slime-covered
decks will be described. Even after the
diver in his grotesque armor has actually entered the
wreck his voice will still be heard, com ing
through hundreds of feet of water, through hundreds of miles of space; uncanny,
thrilling, amazing, as he tells of fearsom e
devil fish and octopi, of giant eels and huge crustaceans haunting the empty stateroom s
and cabins, or announces that he has entered the
strong room of som e ancient treasure ship and with his steel fingers
is lifting bars of gold or silver or is pawing over mounds of black and
encrusted metal disks that once were shining golden and silver coins.
So even if the
expedition salvages no great treasure, even if no centuries-old galleons are
found, it will be a success, for it is a many-sided undertaking with an egg in every
basket, metaphorically speaking; a treasure hunt which even if on the sea win still be on the
air.
Perchance, at the
very first descent, the diver in his
metal armor may find himself standing beside the
wreckage of som e once proud and
stately galleon with a mound of gold marking the
spot that once had been her strong room .
Perhaps many a mystery of the sea
may be solved. No one can say with certainty what new and wholly undreamed-of
creatures may or may not be discovered during this exploration of the bottom
of the Atlantic .
But one thing is certain. Within the
next few months countless thousands of persons throughout the world will be transported mentally to the bottom
of the sea, and for the first time in history, divers, hundreds of feet
beneath the surface of the ocean, will be talking to the
world at large, broadcasting the
story of what the y see and find
where no human being ever has been before; where no human eyes have ever gazed
upon the strange inhabitants of the Atlantic's depths, where hundreds of shattered,
forgotten wrecks lie scattered on the
ocean's floor with incalculable treasures only awaiting the
modern salvor in his fearsom e armor—a
far more grotesque monster than any denizen of the
deep.
APPENDIX
Hints
for Treasure Hunters
I HAVE often been asked why it is that so many
treasure hunts fail if the treasures
really exist and the ir locations are
known?
There are many reasons why treasure hunts do not
always result in finding and recovering treasure. Granted that the treasure hunters actually possess knowledge of the exact location of a hidden, buried or sunken
hoard, the principal reasons for
failure are: lack of adequate funds to carry on the
work, improper equipment, inexperienced personnel and insufficient knowledge
and experience in the work
undertaken.
But far more treasure hunts are doom ed to dismal failure because of inaccurate
information, faith in traditions or legends, faked maps or charts, or ignorance
of the laws of the countries where the
treasures exist. Amateur treasure hunters are, as a rule, very credulous and
will swallow as gospel truth almost any exciting tale of hidden or sunken
treasures. Many a man has set out on a quest for som e
mythical treasure with only a few hundred dollars in capital and an alleged
chart or map as his equipment And here let me warn all prospective treasure hunters
to beware of charts, maps, written directions or similar documents purporting
to reveal the precise spot where som e old hoard has been cached. Nine times out of ten
the se are faked, or if genuine the y were purposely made misleading, the owners of the
treasures being the only persons who
could understand the m. In othe r words, the y
are a sort of code, and so many paces or feet to the
north, for example, may mean the
same number of yards in anothe r
direction. As a rule, however, maps and charts of buried treasures, despite the ir apparent age and the ir
earmarks of being genuine, are modern and are made with the
object of luring innocent treasure hunters on false quests. Take, for example, the alleged map of the
Cocos Island the chapter on that famous treasure. It purported to
have been made by Captain Thom son of
the brig Mary Dear; but it would never have fooled a sailor or any one
thoroughly familiar with the history
of the Lima treasure hidden on
Cocos. In the first place, Thom son's name is spelled "Thom pson" on the
document. In the second place, it
reads "Captain of the Mary Dear" although no
master-mariner would ever sign a paper othe r
than as "Master," while finally, the
real Captain Thom son was quite
illiterate and spelled the name of
his brig "Mary Dere"
Anothe r
chart which I have seem, and which led an expedition on a wild goose chase and
cost the dupes nearly ten thousand
dollars, showed the cached treasure
buried, "a fathom deep,"
in a spot which proved upon investigation to be bare, solid ledge. Still anothe r "pirate's map" which was crackled and
yellow as if of great age, and was written and drawn in a faded reddish ink
(supposedly blood) gave the exact
location of a sunken pirate ship fairly bursting with loot. Yet the spot where the
ancient wreck was supposed to be resting in six fathom s
of water was, in reality, over a mile from
the sea!
I do not mean to assert that all treasure charts
are fakes or that the re may not be
genuine treasure maps in existence. But if so, the ir
owners would go hunting the treasure
for the mselves, instead of disposing
of the m for a few hundred dollars
and a "share" in the
treasures. Neithe r do I know of but
two treasures which have ever been recovered by means of one of the se supposedly old charts. I am convinced that it
was very rarely that any one hiding treasure or who knew of the exact location of a sunken or hidden treasure,
really made a chart disclosing the hoard's
precise location. To have done so would have been to risk having it fall into the hands of som e
one else who would be in a position to recover the
riches. Even Sir William Phipps took good care NOT to mention the exact location of the
galleon whose cargo of treasure he salvaged. Nowhere in his journal or log was
its position referred to, and his chart, which is still preserved, although clearly
showing the reefs of Silver Shoals,
does not indicate where the wreck
was discovered. Only by a careful study of his notes telling the depth of water where he anchored, the general direction from
his anchorage to the wreck, the time it required for his "pinnace" to
make the trip, and othe r trivial matters, was I able to figure out the general position of the
wreck. In the chapter on the Valverde treasure I have mentioned the old map, a copy of which is reproduced. Although
Valverde intended—or supposedly intended—that his chart should enable othe rs to locate the
source of his riches, yet it is so indefinite and confused that no one yet has
been able to follow the route to the treasure, with the
single exception of Colonel Brooks. Perhaps Keating's original chart, showing the treasure cache on Cocos Island the
present possessors of a map alleged to be his. But by far the greater portion of treasure charts are of no
more value in a search for hidden hoards than the
imaginary map of Treasure Island in
Stevenson's well known book.
Anothe r
com mon fault with treasure seekers
is the ir habit of starting on a hunt
without first learning the
conditions the y are to face—the laws of the
country, if out of the United
States, concerning treasure trove; the
character of the territory where the treasure lies, or the
seas, bottom and reefs, if a sunken
treasure; the difficulties to be
encountered, and the engineering or
salvaging problems to be solved. A ten-acre islet may appear a mere pin point
even on a large scale chart; but ten acres of jagged coral rock and sand
covered with dense, thorny jungle and razor-edged sawgrass, and infested with
sand flies, mosquitoes and ticks, is a lot of territory to dig over. And even
in the crystalline waters of the West Indies , where
the bottom
is visible thirty or forty feet below the
surface, it is a long, costly, tiresom e
and disheartening undertaking to spot an old wreck. A sunken ship, even if a
good-sized vessel, is a small object com pared
to the area of bottom , the
cliff-like reefs, the great
submarine caverns, the immense
coral-trees and the jungles of
seagrowths, and when coated with lime, coral, sea-fans and algae a wreck is
almost invisible. Even if the exact
location—within a few square yards—of a buried treasure chest is known, the searcher should bear in mind that a million dollars'
worth of gold occupies a space scarcely as large as an ordinary steamer-trunk,
and that the re is a lot more earth
than chest even in a space a few yards square.
Also, recovering a treasure is not always a
simple matter of pick and shovels and elbow grease, nor is it such an easy
undertaking for an amateur in a makeshift diving gear to descend to a sunken
ship and salvage her treasures.
The treasure seeker, if he is to have even a
chance of success, must eithe r
possess engineering knowledge and be an experienced sailor and diver, or else
employ men who are. And all this costs money. To attempt to salvage a sunken
treasure or to recover treasures buried on land on the
proverbial shoestring is a sheer waste of time and money. If the treasure seeker feels that he has reasonably definite
knowledge of the location of hidden
or sunken riches it should be a good .enough gamble to risk adequate capital.
And if not, the n pass it up as too
great a risk.
Treasure hunts, if properly conducted, are
expensive propositions. In fact most persons will be amazed to learn how
expensive the y are. It is
practically impossible to undertake a maritime treasure hunt with less than
fifteen to thirty thousand dollars capital, and while a treasure hunt on land
may cost less, if com paratively
accessible and near at hand, yet it is surprising how quickly ten or fifteen
thousand dollars may be legitimately expended. Why, it may be asked, is so much
money required? Let us consider the
expenses of an expedition to salvage an old treasure wreck in the West Indies .
First, the re is the boat to be purchased or chartered. A good, fast,
seaworthy vessel with steam or Diesel power is necessary. A yacht is worse than
useless for such work, a sailing vessel is worse yet, and a power-propelled ship
large enough and seaworthy enough to make a long ocean voyage and stand Caribbean
seas, squalls and a possible hurricane, will cost at least $3000 per month
chartered. Unless she is a wrecking or a salvage vessel she will require
powerful hoists, re-enforced derrick-boom s,
small boats, a diver's boat and extra heavy ground-tackle. The wages of her crew,
consisting of captain, two mates, engineer, assistant engineer, oilers or
firemen, cook, and at least two seamen will amount to over five hundred dollars
a month. In addition the re must be a
diver who will receive a minimum salary of three hundred a month, and a diver's
tender at two hundred. Next the re is
the diving equipment. If this is hired
it will run into a lot of money, and nine times out of ten will be
unsatisfactory. Som e divers supply the ir own suits and gear, but as a rule the se are supplied by the
expedition. There must be two full suits, a shallow water helmet, several
hundred feet of air hose, a powerful air com pressor,
plenty of new, high-grade hemp rope, repairing supplies, a diving ladder or
stage and othe r incidentals which
will run up the bill to a couple of
thousand dollars. Enough provisions to supply twelve men and the treasure seekers for several months must be
taken along, and it is astounding how much food a dozen husky seamen and a couple
of divers will eat. Finally, the re
are the fuel and water, the costs of papers—clearances, manifests, consular documents;
port charges, pilotage and othe r
incidentals—to consider. In othe r
words the operative costs will run to
almost five thousand dollars a month or for a three months' trip fifteen
thousand dollars plus equipment, diving gear, food, etc., which will com e to fully two thousand dollars additional. And as
a reserve fund for unforeseen contingencies is essential, the capital required will be fully twenty thousand
dollars. Of course a treasure-hunting expedition on land is far cheaper. But if
the search is to be made in Latin America the re
will be the costs of securing a
concession, the good-sized
"presents" to be made to officials which are essential if long delays
and opposition are to be avoided, the
costs of travel, wages of laborers, food and equipment all of which must be
provided before starting on the
expedition; tools and instruments, steamship fares, and usually a large sum of
several thousand dollars to be deposited as a bond to insure the fulfillment of the
treasure seekers' part in the
concession. Neithe r should the prospective treasure seeker forget that it costs
money to clear jungles and to dig holes. It would be a simple matter to
disinter a treasure if one knew the
exact spot where it was buried, but, unfortunately, this is rarely the case, and even if one is certain that the cache is located within a given area of a few hundred
square feet a deal of time and cash will be expended before that area is
thoroughly excavated. If the treasure
seeker plans to dig ancient graves or mounds he will find a number of problems,
aside from the
expense, confronting him. In every country of Central and South
America the re are laws
which prohibit the excavation of the old Indian tom bs,
graves and mounds without permission of the
government, and the n only when the work is done by representatives of som e recognized scientific institution. Moreover, in
such cases the government reserves the right to any and all specimens desired for the local museums or collections and, as a rule,
claims all objects of gold, agreeing, however, to pay the
finders the bullion value of such
specimens. And as an official usually is appointed to accom pany
the expedition and supervise all
excavations the re is little chance
of "getting away" with anything, quite aside from
the ethics of such a procedure. I do
not mean to state that it is impossible to dig ancient graves without a
concession or permit. Neithe r is it
impossible to secure a permit which allows the
concessionaires to retain what treasures the y
find. But, in the first case, it is
risky business, for the diggers, if
apprehended, are liable to heavy fines or imprisonment, while one must expect
to "pay through the nose"
as the English express it, in order
to secure a favorable concession or to blind the
eyes of officials as to what is going on. Even assuming that the expedition locates and secures treasure from the
ancient graves, the re is still the problem of getting the
objects out of the country, for in most
cases the exportation of huacos is prohibited unless one has a
permit, and Latin American custom s
officials have the right to open and
inspect outgoing as well as incom ing
packages and luggage.
But let us assume that the
expedition is going in search of som e
treasure which does not com e under the law governing archaeological specimens, and
estimate the costs of such an
undertaking. First, the re is the camp and othe r
equipment, including provisions and supplies, tools, fire arms, packs,
clothing, etc. The cost of such will of course depend a great deal upon the number of persons forming the
expedition, the distance to and the locality of the
treasure trove, and the length of
time to be devoted to the search.
But assuming that the re are but two
men, that the objective is som ewhere in the
Andes—as the Valverde treasure, for
example, and that it is planned to be gone for six months, the preliminary costs of outfitting will run into a
thousand dollars at least. Then the re
are the steamship fares, say anothe r thousand for the
round trip, which is putting it rathe r
low. Landing, freight, wharfage and custom s
charges on the outfit will spoil anothe r couple of hundred dollars.
There will be hotel bills to meet while the party is being organized and permits, documents,
etc., are being obtained, and by the
time the se essential papers are
secured a third thousand will have been expended. Then com es
the question of labor and of
transportation. Horses, mules or llamas must be purchased or hired to convey the outfit into the
mountains beyond the railways or
motor roads, and a gang of native Indian or Cholo (mixed white and Indian)
laborers must be hired. Labor, to be sure, is fairly cheap in Latin
America , a day laborer receiving on the
average a dollar a day or less; but don't forget that it takes four or five
natives to do the work of one husky
European laborer. At least ten natives must be employed if anything is to be
accom plished, so that the labor bill alone will amount to fully fifteen
hundred dollars, not counting the
cost of pack-animals and the ir drivers.
In othe r words, such an expedition
might just as well be abandoned unless you are prepared to expend at least six to
eight thousand dollars. And as totally unexpected and unforeseen contingencies
almost invariably arise the re should
always be a reserve fund of several thousand dollars on hand.
Treasure hunting, whethe r
on land or under the sea, is not a
poor man's game. In fact it is not a game for anyone unless he or the y look upon it as a game, an out-and-out gamble,
and enter into it for the adventure,
the thrill and the fun to be had for the
investment. Regarded in such a light, treasure hunting is one of the most exciting and pleasurable of sports with
prizes worth the proverbial king's
ransom , for the
lucky winners. But as a business proposition, treasure hunting, as a general
rule, is about the poorest
investment any one can make. There are, however, exceptions to that rule as to
every othe r. When the location within a reasonable distance of a
sunken treasure ship is known, and when the
value or approximate value of her contents is established by historical or othe r documentary evidence, treasure hunting may be considered
as a bona fide business proposition with more than even chances of paying
immense dividends.
That more of the
countless treasure-laden ships which dot the
oceans' floors have not long ago been salvaged is largely because of obstacles
and conditions which formerly could not be met and overcom e.
The ordinary diver in his rubber suit and bronze helmet is restricted as to the depth at which he can work, while the amount of work that he can do, even in fairly
shallow water say fifty feet, is limited. Any one who has ever descended in a diving
suit appreciates the handicaps under
which even the most skilled and
experienced divers must work. One's movements and vision are both very limited.
One must move slowly, as if in one of those nightmarish dreams where one is
striving madly to dash from som e peril and finds oneself incapable of moving
rapidly, but must crawl laboriously and painfully forward. And as a man in a diving
suit has little stability and less weight, any great exertion or effort is
impossible. A diver may pry or lift up on a bar or som e
piece of wreckage, but the mom ent he presses downward the
effort lifts him from his feet. To use
a bar, pick or shovel for digging, or to wield an axe, maul or hammer
effectively is impossible. One has only to immerse one's arm in water and try
to use a hammer or a hatchet beneath the
surface in order to realize how futile it is. As a result of all this it becom es obvious why so few of the
sunken treasure wrecks have been salvaged, for the
majority lie one hundred feet or more beneath the
surface and in water so turgid or so dark that for a diver to locate the m is an undersea game of blind-man's-buff. But
within the past few years tremendous
strides have been made in improving gear and apparatus for deep sea salvaging.
The Williamson* undersea tube was devised primarily for salvaging, but has
proved of more value as a means of taking underseas motion pictures, although the depth to which this collapsible tube with its
huge glass-windowed observation chamber may be lowered is limited to about
fifty feet. More practical and ingenious than such devices, which are clumsy
and restricted in the ir scope, are the armored, articulated diving-suits, several of
which have been invented and used. These heavy all metal suits, which resemble
weird robots or monsters from som e othe r
sphere, are designed to be used at great depths and to withstand the terrific pressure of the
water several hundred feet beneath the
surface. Several of the se armored
suits were provided with leathe r,
rubber or othe r flexible material at
the movable joints of arms and legs,
but proved worthless in deep water where the
pressure so com pressed the flexible material as to render it solid and immovable.
As a result, the latest designs in
metal suits have all-metal joints, som e
being provided with ball bearings and othe rs
with ball-and-socket joints. At least three different types of the se have proved practical and have been tested out
at depths utterly beyond the reach
of divers in ordinary rubber suits. One such has been used in attempts to
salvage the steamship Merida , anothe r type is now being used in efforts to salvage the Lusitania the
best and most prom ising, is to be
used on the greatest of all treasure
hunts now being organized (see Chapter XVIII).
*
Williamson movie documentary "With Williamson Beneath the
Sea" (1932) lists AHV as a writer.
This is supposed to appear on the
web soon. /drf
With such modern apparatus, togethe r with submarine lights which illuminate the bottom
for an area of many square feet, the re
is no valid reason why many of the
lost treasure ships should not be salvaged. But the
expense entailed in using the m is
very great. The suits alone cost hundreds of dollars, special electrical and othe r devices essential to the m
add to the cost, the underseas lights are expensive, and a specially
fitted and equipped ship must be provided. Only a very wealthy man could afford
to undertake a salvaging expedition of this sort on his own. In order to
conduct such an expedition with any hopes of success a com pany
or organization with ample capital is required, and the
work should be planned and carried out on a hard and fast, matter-of-fact
business basis as a salvage job pure and simple, depending upon the recovery of general cargoes, such as copper,
coal, merchandise, case oil, canned goods, etc., for profits, and with treasure
as a side line. Such an undertaking may destroy the
rom ance, the
thrill and the adventure of treasure
hunting, but it also eliminates a great portion of the
element of chance and is the only
way in which treasure hunting will ever becom e
a business proposition and not a gamble.
The majority of men, however, are inherently
gamblers in one form or anothe r, and
as long as human beings are human beings, as long as men find a thrill and excitement
in taking a chance; as long as the
love of adventure and the lure of rom ance exists in the
hearts and minds of men, treasure hunting will hold its own and men will follow
the will-o'-the -wisp
of golden hoards whethe r buried
under the palms on sea-girt tropic
isles, hidden in secret caverns in the
fastnesses of the mountains or lying
amid the coral-encrusted, rotting
hulks of ancient galleons beneath the
sea.
Authe ntic
Unrecovered Treasures in America
Only those treasures the
existence of which is borne out by historical or documentary evidence have been
included.
NOVA SCOTIA . Oak Island the bottom
of a shaft about 130 feet below the
surface. At intervals of about ten feet, bulkheads of timber, matting or cement
were placed in the shaft, and two
side tunnels nearly five hundred feet in length were constructed with secret
openings below the level of the sea so designed as to cause any excavation to be
flooded with sea water. For nearly two hundred years various attempts have been
made to recover the treasure, but so
far without success. Borings, however, have proved its existence, for bits of
gold and silver, a ring, parts of a gold chain and a fragment of parchment with
writing upon it have been brought up by the
drills. At the present time anothe r effort is being made to secure this immense,
mysterious hoard estimated to be worth several million dollars.
MASS. Eastham.
The pirate, Bellamy, sought to establish a pirates' fort and colony on the Machias
River the Whidaw, with several millions in gold, gems and othe r valuables on board. He may have buried much of the treasure here on the
banks of the Machias River the r the survivors, swore that he never divided his loot.
On the othe r
hand it may have been on board the
vessel when she was intentionally run upon a reef off Eastham , Mass. om Bellamy had captured.
 |
| Ward Line advertisement |
It is reported that anothe r
attempt to salvage the wreck will be
made this summer, 1935.*
* Since
writing the above Captain Bowdoin has
died and it is doubtful if his operations will be resumed.
Returning to New York the old hulk
when a hurricane com pelled him to
abandon the work. When the storm had passed it was found that the waves had so altered the
shifting sandy bottom that the wreck could not be located. The Santa Margarita still remains where she
went down.
To prevent the ir
treasure from falling into the hands of the
Dutch, the Spaniards threw overboard
a large part of the three million
dollars' worth of currency and church plate aboard the ir
vessels. Never recovered.
SILVER SHOALS. Chapters IX and X. On the se dangerous mid-ocean reefs, about one hundred
miles north of Santo Dom ingo the Spanish plate fleet of sixteen galleons struck
in a hurricane in 1637. Nearly one hundred million dollars in gold, silver,
pearls, emeralds and othe r treasures
were lost, as well as every man. In 1687, Captain Wm. Phipps, later Sir Wm.
Phipps, Governor of Mass., salvaged nearly two millions from one of the
wrecks.
In 1933-34, the
author conducted two expeditions to the
reefs. One of the wrecks was located
and much of her fittings and armament was salvaged. But bad weathe r, unforeseen circumstances, accidents and othe r causes prevented the
salvaging of the treasure. Not far from this wreck the
wreck of a privateer of 1812 was found and many arms, much equipment, etc.,
were recovered.
It is a well known and historical fact that a good
sized treasure is hidden in, under, or near the
church at Nat which is the oldest
church still in use in America
According to tradition, the
old church at San Francisco , in Veraguas Province
In northwestern Panama the
ancient Indian graves or "huacas" often contain a great deal of gold.
When Sir Henry Morgan sacked and burned Old
Panama, many of the inhabitants hid the ir valuables in cisterns, wells and othe r spots. Many of the
owners were killed or were carried away as captives, and the re
is good reason to believe that large quantities of valuables still are hidden
at the site of the old city. A few years ago an attempt was made to
find the se by means of a radio
detector; but the only object
recovered was a gold rosary. Owing to disagreements with the
government of Panama the claims of private owners
of the land, the
search was abandoned.
Also, at the
time when Morgan attacked the city,
many of the people managed to escape
in ships, taking with the m the ir riches. Several of the se
vessels put in at Taboga
Island the treasures were buried. None have ever been recovered
as far as known.
Many of the
innumerable ancient Indian graves or "huacas" of Costa Rica the r objects.
List of Treasures Actually Known to Have Been
Recovered or Salvaged in Recent Years
ISLE OF PINES. Chapter XIII. Four or five years
ago an American resident of this island located a cave wherein the loot of Vera Cruz was hidden. When he returned
to secure the treasure he found the local officials had taken it. Anothe r treasure was found by a man searching for a
lost hog.
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