The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1881-12-15
SUBMERGED TREASURE.
THE SEA TO GIVE UP $50, coo, 600 IN MONEY
AND JEWELS.

THE SEA To GIVE UP S52, GO0, 900 IN MONEY
AND JEWELS.
The International Submarine Diving
Company, whose vessel, the Mary d.
Leech, has been quietly engaged in
searching for the location of her Britain
ME Majesty's brig De Brook, which fcun-
dered June 10. 1898, off Lewes, has been
rewarded with unmistakable evidences of
the lost vessel During the past eighty
three years, nc effcIt with the exception
of that made by the British Government,
in 1910, has been made to recover the
fabulous treasure which is known to have
been sunk. 1t has been abandoned as
irrevocably lost, because the depth of
water is SO great that all appliances here.
tofore invented for raising heavy bodies
were useless. The International Diving
Company, which was organized in Phila-
delphia for no other purpose than to
raise the abandoned treasure, is fitted mp
with all that ingenuity can devise. The
most wonderful piece of mechanism on
board is an immense diving bell, in which
diver might live comfortably for week.
He has communication with the upper
world by telephone wires. He is sup
piled with the means of making his own
air, and for light in his exploration he is
provided with powerful electric fame,
which, when in operation, reveals to him
every outside object with vivid distinct
ness. At the side of the bell is mechan
ical arm with machinery SO perfect that
in every movement it resembles the ac-
ton of the human arm, even unto pick
ing up Of pin.
According to the papers in the posses
sion of Samuel S. McCraken, pilot,
whose grandfather was the only survivor,
and who was engaged in plotting the yes
sci in the harbor, about So. 1000, GOO of
specie and jewels went down with her.
The money was taken by the DeBrook-
from an intercepted Spanish feet while
on her way to Halifax, England, from
successful cruise on the Spanish Main.
With the specie were taken 200 prisoners.
When the vessel foundered the prison
ers were III irons on the lower deck, and
were all lost. Capt. James Drew, who
commanded the vessel, and whose body
was recovered two days afterwards, lies
buried in ST. Peters churehyard inLewes.
Two years after the wreck the British
Government sent two frlgates to raise the
De Brook, but without success. Forty
years ago, while McCracken was on
cruise, circulars were posted around
Sussex County, Offering the sum OF $780,
coo for information that would lead to
the discovery Of thu cnalzos. vacaal- 1t
had been supposed up to the present
that the hull had been swept away by the
action of the tides. The international
Company, to keep It's real object from
view, had been since September working
at another sunken vessel, near where the
De Crook was supposed to have founder
eC.. McCraken, who is TO receive ma
ioritJ of whatever treasure is discovered,
in al interview says that the De Brook
lies in fifteen fathoms of water. The
divers, in going down, found long
irregular ridge, about fifteen feet high,
eighteen feet wide and sixty feet long.
On each side arc piles of loose stone,
supposed to be the ballast thrown from
the frigate in the effort made TO raise the
wreck in the year 1900. Rough weather
interfering with further operations, the
Company was compelled to postpone
further Investigations, and on Wednes-
day the diver8 returned 20 Philadelphia.
The work, however, will be vigorously
pushed forward as soon as favorable
weather sets In.