The herald., 1894-02-18
SUNKEN GOLD.

Very likely the reader has often heard
of it, but until was sent for by firm
of London marine contractors with ref
erenoe to it 1 knew nothing of the ia
nous shipwreck of the British mail
steamer Pondicherry off the Chinese
coast
1t seems that in the year 1856 the
Pondicherry, en- route from London to
Shanghai with cargo of goods and
$50, 900 sterling in treasure, ran upon
sunken ledge off Cape YangTse in a
thick fog. The steamer rested upon the
rocks long enough to enable the passen-
gers and crew to get off, and then she
parted amidships.
The forward portion rolled inside the
ledge into comparatively shallow wa
ter and was easily reached, but the aft
er part went down into very deep water
outside, and no trace of it could be
found.
Unfortunately it was the after part
of the wreck which contained the bull
lion room, and with it ESQ, 900 in Eng
lish gold had gone out of sight, SEEM
ingly forever.
That is to say, it was still out of
sight when, 80 years after the Pondi-
cherry was wrecked, | was summoned
to the Office of Barbold & Co., in Lon
don. and asked if | could go to Shang-
hal. | suppose my good luck in getting
up, from depth of more than 25 faith
oms, great part of the treasure that
went down with transatlantic steamer
off the Azores had something to do with
the call received from Barbold 81 Co.
The newspapers were full of it at the
time.
OF course l was ready to go to Shang-
hal or to the north pole if / received
my transportation thither and fair re-
muneration. Within week embark
ed, with my diving apparatus, for
China.
Our little expedition was in charge
of Captain John Reese, an enterpris-
ing Welshman. My companion diver,
George Cowles, accompanied us, and
with us went several other men and a
good deal of apparatus. We chartered
tug at Shanghai and proceeded down
the coast to the scene of the PondicheI-
ry's wreck.
We found that owing to the danger
GUS character of the lodges here, it was
impossible to work from the steamer.
We had to send back the tugboat and
replace with large, open whaleboat,
propelled only by oars, in which we set
up our windlass and other apparatus.
put on my diving dress-a close one,
of course inclosing the whole body
L II. -Et A. j
tern, provided with three plate glass
windows and outlet and inlet valves at
the back.
/ went down slowly to a depth of
about 140 feet before found the bot
tom. 1t was as rough and rocky as the
reef at the surface.
| had great difficulty in moving about
and working at this depth. The pres
sure was tremendous. felt much as
old Atlas must have felt when he had
the world on his shoulders-only the
pressure was all over me instead of
merely on my shoulders. The hum
ming in my ears was like dozen trip
hammers working all at once.
However, got used TO it after a lit
tie. Presently, prowling about with
my lamp, | saw dimly, rot Is feet
away, great dark object which evil
IDENTIFY was not a rock.
lunged slowly toward it-one can
almost walk in the water at such a
depth-and saw the object take the
form of the stern of a vessel. Coming
right against it, l made out four raised
letters, Pond
All the rest of the steamers name
had been knocked off somehow, prob
ably when she made her rough descent
into the deep, but that was enough. l
felt as light as feather for about five
minutes.
Il looked the wreck over little and
then started slowly up to the surface to
report to Reese and get Cowles to come
down and help me.
After he had joined me we ripped
up the deck, blew out a quantity of
wreckage with a submarine cartridge
and opened passage straight down to
the treasure room. Then l set at work
alone taking out the boxes of bullion,
which ] sent up by rope worked upon
the windlass in the boat above.
Though it was thrilling work to lift
out these solid boxes of sovereigns / am
afraid it would not he interesting to tell
the story of our toll for the next two
days.
But we worked steadily on-only two
or three hours day, the pressure was
SO terrible--excited by the thought of
the thousands of pounds we were getting
up from the bottom of the sea, though
but a small share of it was to be ours.
One day, just after had got down
and had begun my work in the bullion
room, felt great jerking on the life
line attached to my waist. jerk jerk
The rope was drawn in hard, quick
pulls that once or twice quite lifted mo
off my feet
thought at first that sharks was
taking series of headers against the
line, but presently, by the steadiness of
the pulls and a certain kind of human
nervousness that was in them, I made
put that | was being signaled from
above TO come up, though the pull was
Aot the come up signal that had been
NGreed upon.