Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-13

AMERICAN ADVENTURES SLIP IN AND CARRY OFF MILLIONS OF
SUNKEN TREASURE-DUKE OF ARGYLL LEFT LAMENTING.

There is a persistent rumOr in France
and England that three enterprising
Yankees and Philadelphia men at that,
gathering in the treasure of that great
ship of the Armada. the Admiral of
Florence, sunk in Loeb Duan, on the
Scottish coast, and from which the duke
was preparing to fill his depleted cof-
fers. 1t is also said that the same three
Yankees have lifted" the gold sunk in
the British. ship Lutine off the coast of
Holland, thus getting ahead of the Brit
ish government. which hau made a con-
tract with Lloyds for the recovery of
the treasure. The three men from Phila
delphia are said to have done the little
trick and to have become millonaires
by their treasure hunting The rumor
has now almost ceased to be a ru,nor
merely. for people of standing declare
that they have information which can
be relied upon to the effect that the
remarkable story is true.
The seizing of these sunken millions
from under the noses of the duke of
Argyle and the British government
makes story in which Robert Louis
Stevenson would have delighted, and il
illustrates the Yankee characteristic of
shipped in the Lutine hundred years
ago to aid Europe in her Struggle against
Napoleon, and the gold. silver and
precious stones with which Philip loaded
the great Admiral of Florence when she
set sail with the Armada for the con-
quest of England over 800 years ago, are
believed to be now. in part or in whole,
either in Philadelphia or on their way
there. The port they have reached is
far, far from the ports for which they
We're intended, and the uses to which the
treasure will be put will be far removed
from the ones for which they We're de-
signed
The United States seems destined by
fate to be a Nemesis to Spain. Having
seized upon her colonial empire. we now
rifle even the treasure chest of her in
vincible Armada 'to make a Philadel-
phia holiday" The gold Of the Lutine
will never 'set squadron in the field"
but at Newport and Atlantic City it's
expenditure may contribute to the gay
ETY. of the nations.
When the ships of the Armada which
British shot and British storms had left
atioat went fleeing from Drake and
Howard around the northern end of
Scotland there fled with them the great
treasure ship Admiral of Florence.
Cruising down along the wild Scottish
coast the mighty Admiral was wrecked
on the coast of Arkyllshire and sunk
in the shallow water in Loeb Duan, an
inlet on that storm-beaten shore. A
hundred years ago the then Duke of
Argyll began work on the wreck with
the intention of recovering the treasure.
But when he was informed that the
crown would claim any and all that he
might find. he stopped the work he had
begun and said of the treasure, Let it
lie there" A hundred years passed and
there came a new Duke of Argyll and
new laws regarding treasure trove.
The Duke of Argyll who now reigns in
the place of his fathers is the brother
in-law of King Edward VII and his es-
tates spread over many thousand acres
but he is poor-so poor that he has had
to let his ancestral castle of Inverary
and curtail his living expenses generally.
Then it was that he thought of the
treasure of the Admiral of Florence
and determined to recoup the fortunes
of his ancient house by gathering the
gold and precious stones from beneath
the waves of Loeb Duan. He began to
make elaborate preparations for eX-
plOring the wreck and his intentions in
the matter We're published widely in
the newspapers and formed the theme
of gossip in club and drawing room.
Three Yankees came ashore from the
John Silver. They had money and they
used it freely. The yacht never was
questioned by the port authorities and
John Silver, or another, the name did
not matter. The day after their arrival
they We're met by three other men, one
of whom was recognized as diver from
Brest. Several great boxes We're taken
hA Of f1n
learned in some way that the yacht had
an elaborate plant for deep-sea diving
slowed away in her. Two weeks ago
the John Silver returned to Boulogne,
and the three men who had joined her
there when she first visited the port
came ashore-the diver from Brest and
the other two Before taking the train
to their unknown destination one of
them remarked that they had been
searching for treasure in the North sea,
and had found it, The men left town
the day they landed, and the John Silver
steamed out of the harbor as soon as
the men We're ashore.
At the same time appeared in London
the rumor that the Americans had loot
ed the wreck of the Admiral of Florence
and the Lutine. One story is that only
the Lutines treasure was lifted" but
the persistent rumOrs have been enough
to cause some anxiety both to the Duke
OF Argyll and to Lloyds. Next summer,
When work is begun on the wrecks of
the Lutine and the Admiral of Florence,
will the divers find the strong boxes
empty and the treasure gone? That is
the perplexing question which is both
ering His Grace of Argyll and the
Lloyds. Almost everybody believes they
will. The duke and the government are
now filled with chagrin that their pro-
posed treasure hunting expeditions
were not kept a profound secret instead
of being bruited about in the most pub
lie manner.
At the same time it became widely
known that the British government,
after nearly century of negotiation
with Holland. finally acquired all rights
In the wreck of the sunken Lutine and
made contract with Lloyds to recover