The daily Alaskan., 1904-07-13
THE TREASURE
 OF A WRECK
TConvrlght. l9Ol by c. D. Lewla.l

A. T A
 had been a sailor. He was killed a year later but meanwhile had told me a strange story of treasure wreck on
 Kerguelen island. After his death and the end of the war verified his story in part, and that brought about the organization of a treasure compa- ny. This company was composed or six men. all of whom had served In the nAvy, and our capital was the pay and prize money due us at the close of the war.
 We bought from the government the bark Racer, which was captured oR
 Wilmington in the last days of the blockade runners, and she was fitted out for the voyage at Charleston. We engaged twelve negro sailors for the voyage. making, with the officers, cook and steward, twenty men. We took on board shoYels, picks, axes, jack screws, powder and fuse and what ever we might need in cleaning out a hulk, together with lumber to build us A house ashore, and we cleGred for Sydney at the custom house. The Six of us had put in every dollar we could raise, and there was just SlS0 in the common purse when we sailed away. All of us believed in the treasure, how ever, and the craft was well supplied with provisions
 It was long voyage, without incl dent to interest. Our first and only stop. was at the Cape for fresh water. One day, months after leaving Charles ton, the island of Kerguelen rose up out of the sea before us. We gave three cheers and brought up in a shel- tered bay on the north side and soon had a boat in the water to go ashore
 Right there on the beach before our eyes was the treasure wreck Adams had told me of years before. The sight of that battered hull, gray and weather beaten and rotting away, was like coming upon the skeleton of human being on the great plains. We stood contemplating 1t for few minutes and then clambcred aboard. The birds were thick about. but not another living thing had visited that shore since Ad- ans padded away from 1t on a raft to be picked up 200 miles away. She lay fifty feet above high tide, and we could walk all around her dry shOd.
 We spent the first day in a cursOry examination of the wreck and the is- land. and on the next we built shanty with our lumber and unloaded our tools and provisions. On the third dag We chopped out her decks above the treasure room and reached the strong hold.
 There were no less than six Iron bound boxes and a big steel safe We got at the safe first When it had been hOisled on deck and lowered over the side, 1t was blown open with pow der. and we found S3OO,OOO in English gold and notes. There was jgwelry to the amount of about S15OOO0 and this was ticketed with the names of various In the six boxes, which were all private property, we found about S2O,OOO in cash and various pieces of jewelry and many papers. Among the latter were deeds of real estate in Australia and England and two commissions belonging to army officers. As fast as we came to private property 1t was retlcketed and laid aside with a view of restoring 1t to owners or relatives.
 Adams had told me that the ship was laundering when driven ashore in terrible gale, but when we came to get into the hold we found that very little of the cargo had been damaged. We got out thousands of pounds of wool in good condition, together with sufficient tallOw, hides and wines to give our craft a fair cargo.
 We began finding skeletons as soon as we began work, and from first to last We buried the bones of at least fifty unfortunate passengers, many of them women and children. We found them mostly in the main cabin and the and some of the skeletons were buried under four or five feet of hard sand.
 We did not find our treasure and get tue cargo out of the hulk in week or q month On the contrary, we were on the island sixteen full weeks and working hard every day, and when we at last finished our work the wreck was blown up, and the next high tide carried all that was left of her out to sea. She had rested there in the sands of that lonely shore for twenty-one years, and yet only one man knew of the treasure in her bowels.
 When our work was quite finished we sailed away, laying our course for the Cape of Good Hope. The six of us were rich men now, but do not remember that there was much re- joicing over the fact. The lonely sit uation of Kerguelcn and the finding of the skeletons had quite taken our enthusiasm away. After a prosperous voyage we finally reached the cape and anchored to take on supplies None of the sailors was permitted to go ashore We meant to run the craft straight to New York without another stop. took the sum of S2,O0O and went ashore to buy and send down the supplies, and I was then to take a steamer for America and reach there first and make arrangements for the raonptior of fho treasure 0n6 c0rnO
 Two days later I stood on the shore