Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1896-09-05
THE DIVERS STORY.
BY J. II. CONNELLY.

copyright, 1895, by American Press Associa-
"All fool superstitition, eh? Well,
you keep on thinking so. But I know
better, because I've tried it. The one I
had was only little one, but it mighty
nigh did me up. And the chap that got
it from Newell, it finished him in
great shape. guess know about opals.
eyes, I've no objection to telling you.
I was, when a young man, diver, and
considered a 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 1915,
during the war between Spain and her
South American colonies. Seven hun
SIStL IutLJ OuU VI tllC lJOoO oIlO Auu
aboard, perished in the flames and the
waves, and it was believed that a couple
of millions in gold, a million in silver,
the rich plunder of several Venezuelan
towns and the great wealth of some ca
thedrals-put aboard for safety-all
went down to the bottom with her.
That was the stuff we We're after, and
>f cof oil ffxrY
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-
ciently evidenced by the fact that after
giving up the Venezuelan governments
share the expedition took back $500, 900
to Baltimore. And we were supposed to
be getting it all up, just for days wages.
So we would-if we'd been chumps. It
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 5 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 $l3, 900 a dia-
mond crop that he said he had found,
but he didn't tell where.
Zone day Alec and 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. l 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 l didn' It.
Got the best of him without that, for I
was the stronger. But it was fool
thing for me to do, he being revenge
full sort of devil, as 1 we'll knew, and
me engaged to his sister Jenny, who was
dearer to me than life. He gave up, but
said, 'pll get good and even with you,
Ben Trumbull'-and he did.
"When came to look at my prize, I
found it was an opal, of about the big
ness of your thumbnail, quite thick and
the most brilliant i'll its play of colors
that 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.
"As soon as we We're missed he di-
vined the whole thing at once, and crack
ing on all sail, with the help of ii 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, in hands we