Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1895-12-13
THE DIVERS STORY
BY J. H. CoNNELLY.


had was only little one, but it mighty
nigh did me up. And the chap that go
it from Newell, it finished him il
great shape. Iguess know about opals
Eyes, I've no objection to telling you.
was, when a young man, diver, an6
considered good one too. A company
that had got concession from the
Venezuelan government to recover the
treasure of the Spanish line of battle
ship San Pedro Alcantara engaged
seven other divers and myself to do the
work That company was formed in
Baltimore, but five of the eight of us
were hired from New York, myself and
my chum, Alec Paterson, among them.
"The ship was burned, and her re-
mains sunk in Margarita bay in 1916,
during the war between Spain and her
South American colonies. Seven hun
bred men, out of the 1000 she had
aboard, persisted in the flames and the
waves, and it was believed that a couple
of millions in gold, a million in silver,
the rich plumber of several Venezuelan
towns and the great wealth Of some Ca
thedraIs-put aboard for safety-all
went down to the bottom with her.
That was the stuff we were after, and
thoughts of it set US all pretty near
wild.
"We worked with diving bell, two
men going down at a time and having
very smooth job. The water was only
60 feet deep, the bottom a sandy floor,
and cleaning up was easy. That we re-
covered some Of the lost treasure is suffi-
GENTLY evidenced by the fact that after
giving up the Venezuelan government S
share the expedition took back $500, 900
to Baltimore. And we were supposed to
be getting il all up, just for days wages
So we would-if we'd been chumps. 1t
was observable that none Of the jewels
known to have been lost was found.
They seemed to have melted away-so
far as the company's superintendent and
the Venezuelan fiscal" knew, anyhow.
Many months afterward, when we had
all got back, somehow, one Of the boys
sold in New York for $13, 900 a dia-
mond crop that he said he had found,
but he didn't tell where.
Zone day Alec and I were down in
the bell together when we both saw at
the same instant, in the shallow water
covering the sand at our feet, something
that seemed to blaze with flames Of all
imaginable colors, and together we
jumped for it. I clutched the thing, and
we had solid fight for it. The moment
it was in my hand, felt myself i'm
PEELED to kill Alec, but luckily I didn It.
Got the best Of him without that, for
was the stronger. But it was a fool
thing for me to do, he being revenge
full sort of devil, as I well knew, and
me engaged to his sister Jenny, who was
dearer to me than life. He gave up, but
said, 'I'll get good and even with you,
Ben Trumbull and be did.
"When l came to look at my prize, I
found it was all opal, Of about the big
ness Of your thumbnail, quite thick and
the most brilliant in its play of colors
that I ever saw. Fine as it was didn t
happen to think of reporting it to the
superintendent, but we gave him about
peck of black silver dollars we had
raked up, and he seemed pleased. OF
course Alec couldn't say anything to
him about it, for he himself had some
unconsidered trifies slowed away in his
dunnage and did not care to have any
suspicious awakened. The other boys
would have dubbed his head off if he
had.
"About fortnight after that every
diver with the expedition disappeared
one night. Some of them could not EN-
dure the thought Of possessing SO much
wealth as they had in their clothes with
out going on spree, and the steadiest
of us, who would have been glad to stay
as long as possible and get all he could,
had to give in and go with them, for
fear of suspicion and search when they
were gone. We took the longboat. The
superintendent said we stole it, but we
didn't, we just took it. He was welcome
to his old longboat any time after it
carried us to La Guayra.
cas- soon as we We're missed he di-
vined the whole thing at once, and crack
ing Oh all sail, with the help of favor
ing wind, got down to La Guayra in
pursuit soon enough to have us all ar
rested just in the opening up Of our
spree. Luckily we had taken the pre-
caution to hide away, i'll hands we
thought we could trust or in secure hid
ing places, most of the valuable things
we happened to have with us, and some
of that stuff was actually recovered aft
erward. But l was in hard luck. When
we were getting into the boat, some fool
who went down the rope ahead Of me
dropped his sheath knife, which was
sharp, and when l lowered myself-in
my bare feet, as we all were-I got a
mighty nasty cut in my left foot on
that knife. The salt water infamed it,
go that it was sight to see by the time
we got to La Guayra, and was think
ing more about my chances for lockjaw
than anything else. So couldn It hus-
tie around to hide my stuff, as the other
fellows did, and of course I couldn'
trust any Of them, and the upshot was
that when we were arrested every piece
of gold and every jewel had was cap
tured, all but the opal, which, being all
unset stone. I had slipped into the waist
band of my old trousers. 1t was not
found.
THE superintendent knew well
enough that all the valuables we had
belonged Of right to the company, but
he couldn' It prove it, at least he couldn
to the satisfaction of the Venezuelan
authorities, so after long hard fight i'll
the courts we were let go, but not until
We had been. upon one OF another pre-
text, stripped of everything in sight He
recovered nothing except his longboat,
bat the sailors, lawyers, courts and ev-
erybedy else pretty much took hack
at us until nothing was left. Then we
were literally kicked out.
II got to Porto Rico on goleta; then
to Trinidad before the mast; to Liver
pool in the same way, and finally back
to New York, firing on steamer. Lord
What tough time I had But through
everything managed to retain my big
opal. Invent to see Jenny Paterson, and
she would have nothing to do with me.
Alec had got home some TING before
did and poisoned her mind against me
=.