The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-20
DREDGING FOR TREASURE.
A Yankee Digging for the Gold In the
/ Old Hussar Wreck.
Nei0 York Letter in Baltimore Sun.

Ola HusSar wreck.
Nelc York Letter in Baltimore Sun,
Capt. Thomas Simonds, who ia digging
for suuken treassre with his hydraulic
dredge, Little Giant, in Long Island sound,
off Port Morris, where the British frigate
Hussar is supposed to have gone down 112
years ago with something like 81, 800, 900 In
specie aboard, thinks he has struck great
luck during the past week. After gruhbing
in the mad at the bottom of the Race"
ninety feet below the surface Of the water,
for several weeks without success, he has at
last come upon what he thinks is the wreck
of the treasure ship. He has hauled up
several English guineas OF the reign OF
IDENTITY from an English officers uniform.
Then he found some copper coins of the last
century and several bars of white metal,
which tests showed TO be silver.
The story of the Hdssar has even now
more than passing summer interest. She
carried thirty-two guns, and reached New
York Nov. % in the year 1880. With her
| consort, the warship Mercury, she had
feet Of merchant vessels under convoy, and
| served as carrier OF the gold sent by the
British government in payment OF the
troops then In rendezvous at New London,
Conn. The Mercury carried $3.50 900
| sterling, mostly in British guineas. The
Hussar carried 95S0,0O0 sterling. The
aggregate was e960,0OO, or S4,SoO,O00 in
anchored in New York harbor the
gold on the Mercury was transferred to the
Hussar. and while the former remained to
protect his majesty the kings property, the
Hussar set sail for New London. We are
told that the captain was in hurry, 80 he
ventured to take the route through He'll
Gate instead of the longer but safer southern
ND ala Lall lofa
a different place then from what it is now.
| and the dangers Of tho water gap were
heightened by an ignorance Of the course.
j he captain had heard that a negro pilot
had successfully steered large friRate
through the labyrinth of rocks, and he i'm
agined that he could do the same thing.
The Hussar had great success in running
the gauntlet until only few rods separated
her from open water. Then she struck
heavily on a sunken reef not noted ON the
chart. The current was running swiftly
and the crash opened big seam in the
| ships bottom. The recoil from the ledge
sent her back into the current and she was
swept into the open water, sinking fast.
All attempts to stop the leak were unavail-
ing. The only chance for salvation was in
Bleaching her. For this purpose there was
a promising place three-quarteFs Of a mile
further on, where there appeared
to be a gradually shelving shore.
and toward this the doomed
vessel was urged with all speed. She again
struck heavily Hawsers we're sent ashore
and secured to trees with a view to keeping
the ship from slipping back into deep water.
This move was futile, for the rents in the
prov admitted water too rapidly, ana with
her human freight the vessel keeled over
and sank, dragging the trees out by the
roots. The officers and few Of the crew
escaped. Many more met their death.
Among these were seventy continental
soldiers who had been left chained to the
guns on the decks by the i1humau captain.
Various attempts have been made ere now
| to recover the submerged treasure. Natur-
ally the British government was not dis
posed to abandon so much wealth without
making an effort to getlt, and in 1894, four
teen years after the gold went down, two
brigs arrived at Port Morris, the present
name of the locality, where the bulk of
the Hussar lies buried, equipped with
apparatus for raising the vessel.
For two years the British subjects
vainly grappled for the buried treasure ;
then the American government awoke to
a realization Of the fact that they had no
| legal right to be thus engaged, and ordered
| them off. In 1919 certain English capital
lists organized a stock company to prosecute
the search. thus showing that the story
about the sunkeu treasure was known in
| that country as in this. These Englishmen
tried diving bell. but without success.
Twenty-six years ago another and more
nearly successful effort was made, although
| like its predecessor it ended in failure.
| The divers found that the heavy guns had
long before crushed through the deck and
lodged over the powder magazine and
treasure vaults, and had been cemented
| by barnacles aud sand until the pick could
make no impression on the mass. All this
work was carried on in the dark. ali prog
ress was necessarily slow. Yet enough
| articles of historic interest and actual value
were found by cropping along the deck to
| fan tho excitement Of the Investigators.