Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-01-04
A SUBMARINE BONAr IA.

The International Submarine Diving
Company, whose vessel, the Mary d.
Leech, has been quietly engaged in search
ing for the location of her Britannia Majes-
TVS brig De Brook, which foundered June
10, 1898, off Lewes, has been rewarded
with unmistakable evidences of the lost
vessel. During the past eighty.th years
no effort 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 being irrevocably
lost, because the depth of the water is so
great that all appliances heretofore invent
ed for raising heavy bodies were useless.
The International Diving Company, which
was organized in Philadelphia for no other
purpose than to raise the abandon ID treas.
ure, is fitted up with all that ingenuity can
devise. The most wonderful piece of
mechanism on board is an immense diving
bell, in which diver might live comfort
ably for week. He has communication
with the upper world by telephone wires.
He is supplied 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
uiiH C'eiy ouIsiuc OuJSCb Will NlNiu ulS-
tinctness. At the side of the bell is
mechanical arm, with machinery so per-
feet that in every movement it resembles
the action of the human arm, even unto the
picking up OF pin. According to the
papers in the possession of Samuel s. Nc
Cracker, pilot, whose grandfather was
the only survivor, and who was engaged in
plotting the vessel in the harbor, about
S52, DOC. 600 of specie and jewels went down
with her. The money was taken by the
De Brook from an intercepted Spanish
feet while on her way to Halifax, England,
from a successful cruise on the Spanish
Main. With the specie were taken 200
prisoners. When the vessel foundered the
prisoners were in irons on the lower deck,
and were all lost. Captain James Drew,
who commanded the vessel, and whose
body was recovered two days afterwards,
lies buried in st. Peters churchyard, in
Lewes. Two years after the wreck the
British Government sent two frigates to
raise the De Brook, but without success.
Forty years ago, while McCracken was on
cruise, circulars were posted around SHs-
sex county. offering the sum of $50, 900 for
information that would lead to the dis
covery of the sunken vessel. 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 its real object from view, had been
since September working at another sunken
vessel, near where the De Brook was sup
posed to have foundered. McCracken,
who is to receive majority of whatever
treasure is discovered, ia an interview says
that the De Brook lies in fifteen fathoms of
water. The divers, in going down, found
a long, irregular ridge, about fifteen feet
high, eighteen feet wide, and sixty feet
long. On each side are piles Of loose stones,
supposed to be the ballast thrown from the
frigates in the effort made to raise the wreck
in the year 1900. Rough weather interior
ingwith future operations, the company was
compelled to postpone further investiga-
ton, and the divers returned to Philadel-
phia. The work, however, will be vigor-
ously pushed forward as soon as favorable
weather sets in. Heading (Pa.) Times.