The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-05-04

4
ious cargo were insured. But Llodys
records of that date were destroyed II
1887, at he burning of the Royal Elk
change. The most judicious investiga
tors believe, however. that the sum OF
La Lutine was not less than e300000 IL
gold and silver
The other two ships got safely e
Cuxhaven with their freight, but La
] Lutine was lost at sea- She went dowr
on the night of Oct 9, 1899, off the
coast of Holland. and of all her pas.
sengers and crew only one man was
saved. OF course, the underwriters
promptly planned to raise the wreck
or. at any rate, to get up the specie
But before they could do so hostilities
were actively resumed and the govern
ment of Holland, taking sides with
france, treated the wreck as spoils OF
war. In the following two years the
Dutch made some efforts to secure the
bullion, with not a little success BY
means of long poles, on the ends of
Which were tongs and hooks and
scoops, no less than G55,770 was recov-
| cred, mostly In gold and silver bars
| Then so much sand was washed over
the wreck that operations had to be
suspended, and it was not until after
| waterloo that any further attention
was paid to the "gold bank" as the
| spot was called
| UNSUCCESSFUL attempts to recover the
| treasure were afterward made by the
| Dutch government, and about 1921 a
| company was formed to secure IL by
means of diving bell. After spending
10000 in the attempt the projectors
abandoned it, but they had succeeded
In drawing the attention of Lloyds to
the matter and Lloyds promptly
claimed the wreck, the Dutch govern
ment recognizing the claim.
Another attempt to get the treasure
was made In 1928 by a party of En-
glish divers, but without success In
1856 Dutch company was formed for
the purpose, and in the course of a
rev years succeeded in securing a few
coins and some bars of bullion, to-
gether with the rudder of La Lutine.
from the wood of which the chairman's
table at Lloyds and the Lutine table
were manufactured During the four
years from 1856 to 1860. Al gold bars and
"a silver bars were recovered, with a
lot of gold and silver coin, the total
value being s44.124. Half of this went
to Lloyds and half to the Dutch gov
eminent. At about this time an act of
parliament constituted Lloyds the sole
heirs to any further property found
Finally, in 1886, a Dutchman working
on his own account, recovered e6S6
worth of coin. That brings the story
of the wreck down to the present en-
terprise.
About two years ago, under con-
tract with Lloyds, a company was
formed to take hold of the matter in a
scientific way and get whatever was to
be got from the gold bank" There
are Is men in the company, with a cap
ital of only 100000. Under the contract
the company is to have half of all that
is recovered and the other half will go
to Lloyds, who will out of IL satisfy the
claims of the Dutch government The
Mar ~ laaiAad
company was decidedly novel. 1t was,
briefly. as follows*
First, to discover the site of the
wreck, then to lay down a wall or ring
of bags of. sand around IL to keep the
area free for time from further drift !
ing sand. On the first visit made to
the spot the diameter of this ring was |
fixed at 200 feet. Then a powerful |
dredging plant was to dredge out the |
inclosed area as quickly as possible. |
down to the clay bed at the bottom OF |
the sand. Finally a small suction |
dredger was to be used for cleaning UP |
inside the wreck and laying bare all !
hooks and corners among the timbers |
OF the vessel, so that everything might |
be ready for the eye of the diver. For
this latter purpose a fishing boat was
fitted up with powerful steam pump
dredging could be done at a
depth of so feet, The dredge pipe was
made flexible. so that a diver could
handle it and remove the sand over
any area at will, sweeping up the bot
tom of the sea as clean as a housemaid
sweeps the floor of room.
Work was begun in September, 1894,
and the location of the wreck was APP
ascertained. With 5000 sand
bags circular wall was laid around
the spot, inclosing an area of 200 feet
n diameter. That was all that was
lone that Az the haOinnfy0 Of
May, 1895, the work of dredging was
begun in earnest. A hole so feet in
iiameter was made in the sand, reach
ng clear down to the hard blue clay.
Then fence of oak posts was driven
nto the clay all around the edge of
his hole to keep the sand from drift
ng in until the spot could be carefully
explored. After all this labor the en-
sineers discovered that they were not |
n the right place. A few bits of the
wreck were found, with 200 or 300 gold
md silver coins. but the wreck itself
With the mass of the treasure, was not
here. After much trouble the wreck
vas found about 100 feet away from
he excavation that had been made.
Work was at once begun in the new (
lace and during the summer nearly {
alf the wreck was freed from sand
nd pretty thoroughly explored.
All sorts of things were found. There {
rs, few coins, five cannon and 165
annon balls. When the cannon balls s
anne up through the pump they made I
tremendous noise and the workmen
bought they had certainly struck the l
old bars at last. But no bars came
nd none have as yet been found 1t 7
estimated by the company, however. I
$ well as by the officers of the Bank 7
England, that there must be a great
lany of them still in the wreck. The G
airs hitherto found bear 10 different a
larks. as follows: NIB, MILL, MS, PC,
7, 81. BIB. HB, NIL and F. Each of
iese letterings has its own set of 4
which appear TO have run in Z
ich case from i to 100 That would
AXE 900 gold bars. Silver bars have II
zen found of at least five different h
making 500 of them. On this
asis 1t is estimator that there was at 4
asst $4,000 900 in the original cargo s
bout 100000 has thus far been re- n