Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-03-10
SEARCHING THE SEAS FOR GOLD


SEARCHING THE SEAS FOR GOLD
Treasures That Davy Jones Guards In
His Locker.
When Davy Jones once gets treasures
of gold safely into his locker he guards
them more tealously than any merely
human miser, says Tid-Bits.
And yet as Edgar Allan Poe once
wrote, one might almost trace ones
way to these sunken boards by the
trail Of bones OF those who have fall
ed to find them" Five expeditions
have tried to run the so-called "Kru-
gers millions" to their lair on the Ten
edos reef, and the last of them cost
the lives Of twenty eight gallant men.
One might fill volumes with stories
of these ainbow chasers, many OF
them startling and dramatic. No one
has ever yet found the San Pedro. the
five-decked Spanish galleon which
sank in the Margarita channel on the
Central American coast ninety-tWo
years ago, carrying untold millions In
gold and Jewels to the bottom OF the
sea. There were two chests which
held over s6,0O0,00O in doubloons;
there were gold images and precious
stones almost beyond number, placed
on board for safety, from Catholic
churches; and there were. millions Of
treasure to pay off the garrisons and
Spanish warships along the American
coast.
In all, the treasures Of the San Pc
dro were valued at s13,500,OOO. Syn
dicate after syndicate was formed to
rescue these riches from Davy Jones's
clutch; fortunes were squandered on
the search, many lives were sacrificed
in the chase, but all to no purpose.
Davy is still gloating over his doub-
looms and golden images as he gloated
first nearly century ago.
Then there is the Hussar, an Eng
lish man -of-war, which sailed away
to the west in 1880 laden with gold to
pay British soldiers and sailors. 1t
is said the Hussar had nearly a1.00O,-
900 aboard when she ran on rock and
sank in seventy feet Of water. less than
100 yards from the shore Of the East
river. For more than a hundred years
one attempt after another has been
made to snatch this treasure from the
deep, but so far not even the locker
has been found.
Not many years after the Hussar
disappeared under the water Of an
American river the sloop Of war De
Braak went to the bottom in gale on
the Delaware capes, taking with her
a rich spoil Of two captured Spanish
galleons laden with gold and gems OF
fabulous value. Governments and
private individuals have We'd with
each other for a century in the chase
of these treasures, but they still re-
main as seductive and elusive a lure
as when Davy first laid greedy hands
on them.
II any one seeks for treasure nearer
home 1t is to be found not many miles
from the Lizard, in Cornwall, where
they say a Spanish galleon with $l7,-
600 900 in her hold lies buried under
the sands and rocks where the richly
freighted vessel was battered to pieces
by the fierce Atlantic waves" Al
though many companies have tried In
vain to recover this submarine. hoard,
there Is no doubt Of its existence, for
coins are constantly being washed up
by the tide as tantalizing evidence OF
the richness of the Golfers from which
they have drifted.
In a cave in the Auckland Islands
may still be recovered all the gold that
the good ship General Grant was car
rying when she started in 1855 on her
voyage from Melbourne to London,
with a passenger list Of miners return
ing with their riches from the Ballarat
diggings.
Occasionally, when Davy Jones Is IN
an amiable mood, he will release part
of his booty, but he takes care to
clutch what remains more tightly still.
When La Lutino, a captured French
frigate sank under the waves Of the
Zuyder Zee a little over century ago
she took $50 bars Of gold down with
her, in addition to much silver bullion
and e1270OO the pay of the troops In
Holland. Within year Of her foun-
dering e $4,000 had been recovered; 80
years or more later she gave up anoth-
er $4,000; but on the rest Of her
hoard-she was insured for round
e1,OOO, ,OOO-she still keeps a jealous
hold.
And again-as evidence that Davy
Jones is not quite so bad as he Is pic
tured-of the ten boxes Of gold that
went down with the Alfonso XII, OF
the Canaries some years ago nine have
have been recovered. Davy keeps the
tenth.