The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-03-06

Vast Riches Recovered From tho
Oceans Bed.
Notable Cases OF Ships Sunk
With Fortunes on Board.

Among the ships which have been
sunk with immense sums Of value
upon them. is LOront, a French
line-of-battlo ship blown up by Nel-
son at tho battle Of the Nile. IL had
specie to the amount OF SO, 900, 900,
besides other treasure, tho spoil Of a
raid on % courch at Valette, and an
immense quantity of other articles
Tho vessel had been dispatched TO
Bouapario, the money 10 be used in
paying the army A sword aud other
relics have been recovered, but until
the present date no attempts to re-
cover the immense treasure have been
made.
The Lutinc, a ship which sailed
from Yarmouth Roads in 1893 for tho
Texel, laden with an enormous guam
tity Of treasure, was wrecked in a gale
off Holland. Salying operations dur
ing eighteen months resulted in the
recovery of about 100000. After
that numerous attempts to recover
moro met with no success till 1857
when $3.50, 900 was brought up.
A remarkable case OF recovery of
specie is recorded in 1906, when sixty
two chests of dollars, amounting to
the value OF about S3jO,OO0 were
fshed mp by means of diying-bell
from the Abergayenny, sunk some
years previously at Weymouth.
Another notable case-not only for
the amount of treasure on board, but
also for the big "windfall" for the
salyors-is that of the Thetis, a Brit
ish frigate, wrecked of the coast Of
Brazil, in 1880, with $500, 900 in bull
lion on board. The hull went to
pieces, leaving the treasure ut the bot
tom in five or six fathoms of water.
The admiral of the Brazil station and
the captains and crews Of four sloops-
oi-war were engaged for eighteen
months in recovering the treasure.
The service was attended with great
skill, labor and danger and four lives
were lost. A good deal Of litigation
was the result, as disputes rose be-
tween the parties as to the amount Of
reward for the saivors.
One of the most recent cases of sue
cessful saving operations is that Of
the Spanish mail steamer Alfonso
XII, bound from Cadiz to Havana,
in February, 1885, and sunk off Point
Gando, Grand Canary, in twenty-five
/ fathoms of water. She had on board
treasure valued at $500, OOO The I'M
derwriters who had insured the YES
sci organized salying expedition.
which was dispatched to the scene OF
the wreck in the following May. A
few months later most of the specie
was recovered.
Some Danish spectators are reap
ing harvest of golden grain from the
depths of the sea which washes the
coast of Jutland. Some years ago the
British steamship Helen, laden with
copper, foundered. All her cargo has
been recovered. The steamer West,
dale, laden with 1000 tons of iron,
went down off the Danish coast in
1888 Nearly the whole cargo, her
machinery and'a great part of her fit
tings have been saved by these Jut-
land spectators.
Two other remarkable cases o.
money or valuables having been re-
covered deserve passing notice. Tbs
first, that of the finding of $500 SOY
ereigns under pier at Melbourne
part Of 5, 500 missing from the steamer
Iberia; the other, that of the recen
recovery of piano lost in a collision
between two steamers off Bangor. On,
! of the vessels sank with all hands
the piano, however, was some months
afterward cast on shore near Worth
ing, and the finder is sanguine that h,
will be able to make it again a tunefu
instrument.
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