The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-07-27
EPPLEY SPENT ONLY $1,000.
oTHER HUNTERS FOR ri HUsSlR,S
IREASURB HID sUNK $500, zoo. aa,

LRElSURB HAD SUNK $500, 600. ~
raey D,an't rake the Frecaution or A,esrt,,,,
inr First whether Thore was Any Esunds-
tier FOR the Myth which Eppiey MAJ Expseaea
Charles y. Fratts WORK on the wPeclz,
Francis NJ. Eppley Of Orange. N. j., the law
yer who. an told in THE o yesterday. has e.
tablished the fact that there was no treasure on
board the British frigato Hussar whom she won't
down In the East River In 1850, has an office Al
14o Nassau street.
ut was In tho carly part Of 1894 said Mr..
Epplcy yesterday, that my attention was hrst
brought to the Hussar and the gold she was
supposed to have carried down with her. The
man who talked to no about II was George W,
Thomas, who had . contract with tha
Government in tho carly eighties to got
tho gold, and whose four years work
ut pumping used up . heap of money for
those who had gone into bis scheme. Some
timo in 1893 he had been scnt TO me as q client
and 1 had done q little work for him. Il
didn't SEQ him again for . year and had
almost forgotten his existence, when he
camc into tho ONCE one day and showed me his
contract with the Government and asked mo to y;
put some money into the scheme. He talked eli
mo for q long time, claiming that his contracts.
was still good. although In reality IL had been
annullod In 1884, and ho aid his best to get mo-
TO 70 In with him. refused. but tho Idea took
root In my mind. and I Thought Q good deal,
about it.
Ono night not long after Thomas's visit Il
was In Newark with Thomas c. Barr OF that city,
and 1 began to talk to him about It, when he
said;
"'why. I know the very man you want to zee
about it-old Pratt. down In Worcester. He
knows all about the Hussar. He worked on the
wreck for twenty yearp, and got . lot OF stun
out OF It,
Pratt was Charles D. Pratt Of Worcester,
Mass. He 10 q man 90 years old, lively 40 q
cricket, and IL President Of tho street railway
company in that town. Well. Barr and I talked
It over that evening, and tho idea 90 grew on az
that We decided to 20 to Worcester and see Pratt.
he has had moro to do with the Hussar than any
man living, and he II the man who really started
mo on tho hunt. Years ago he had been q deep
sea diver. and up to thirty years ago he had
spent the better part Of twenty summers work.
ing on tho wreck. He removed from my mind
whatever doubt I had had about It. He had To-
GATED the wreck and said he know II from stem
to stern. He gave me one range for locating 10
which ran from tho old Governor Morris
house to ono Of the Brother Islands, and the
transverse rangehe promised to give to me when
1 wanted II, for he would have had to como here
to do it. He told me no used to 60 Town in the
summer with a iatboat and a scow and dig out
the mud and hoist It to the surface in a bag. He
eSery winter nj r's Would siid't Undo lo all al sS" work 'e %
81 'o iPP% the before wreck. hf He az sho1Ss si n ssn a
box made Of what seemed to b. ala.
guineas, possibly tho property Of some dead and
gone officer OF the ship; He got some beer mugs
that is now IL tho museum In Worcester He
clinched all this by saying that he could get for
G csp E fRsp pHd "a I 81 ssf Rsnd %f rs Island Ia ddn fa9 Which, fS5 t Gls
latter had paid $l.7o0. which showed conclu-
ing over to the Morrisania shore. However, he
r"Atte?. . lot Of ,nvestis.tton." said Mr..
Eppley, I'VE employed an expert searcher to go
1 the M Me- eeGSFa and q I Hassar. and md co.. could Ihe n lSSS' n 90
mention Of treasure. and in tho records of the
money sent to this country at one time was
100000. and that went to Charleston. SO we
the Hrssar's treasure nj never ~ existed. 1 have
never regretted It. The whole thing cost only
d dssi y f fun out aao .! 'i e. h s@ 3 ss' we ws . 81 e FG aSa
sRs S nd p1 plssse a. IL 4 III Ii t h %sss Fl shs Documents
when do you think the story began" was
was in fsll bloom in isss7. and it is PROBABLY loo
How much do you think has been spent in
should say that 500. 600 would be a mod.
were spending money. Thomas spent a lot. and
him spent 8 o.OoO. That I know. That was
got up by Became and Hartwell OF Providence.
Beane ruined himself on it. They employed
Thomas to do the work. I went up there
one day with my transit. and. taking
the range that / knew. found that he was 400
feet from where the ship lay. He used q centrif-
ugal pump and was pumping up the bottom Of
the East River. A great many OF the Beane and
Hartwell crowd were Spiritualists and they had
all kinds Of mediums and clairvoyants locating
the treasure. but work was never done on scten-
to do that II there had been any treasure, but
there was none nor had there ever been any, and
I guess the Hussar will not be disturbed again"