, 1905-05-04
SEA HOLDS TREASURE
STRONG BOX OF DAvY JONES
HARD TO FORCE.
Immense Wealth Known to Be at the
BOTTOM Of the Ocean Seemingly Inn
possible Of Recovery-vast Sums
Spent All to No Purpose.

When Davy Jones once gets treas
ures of gold safely into his locker he
guards them more jealousy than any
merely human miser, says London
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
failed to find Them" Five expeditions
have failed to run the so-called
"Kruger's millions" to their lair on
the Tenedos reef, inc the last Oh them
cost the lives of twenty-eight gallant
men.
One might fill volumes with stories
Of these rainbow chasers, many of
them startling and dramatic. No n
has ever yet found the San Pedro, the
fve-decked Spanish galleon which
sank in the Margarita channel off The
Central American coast nlnety-two
years ago, carrying untold millions in
gold and jewels to the bottom of the
sea. There were two chests which
held owe E6,0O0,0 900 in doubloons;
there were gold images and precious
stones almost beyond number, placed
On board for safety, from Catholic
churches; and there we're 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 e13,5 0,0CO. Syn.
dictate after syndicate was formed to
rescue these riches from Davy Jones'
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 gloat-
ed first nearly a century ago.
In 1890 the sloop of war De Braak
went to the bottom in a gale of the
Delaware Cares. taking with her a
rich spoil of two captured Spanish
galleons laden with gold and gems OF
fabulous value. Governments and pri-
vate individuals nave We'd with a
other for a century in the chase OF
these treasures; but they still remain
as seductive and elusive a lure as
when Davy first laid greedy hands on
them.
If 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 ST.
00O, 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"
Although many companies have tried
in vain to o this submarine
hoard, there is no doubt Of its exist
ence, for coins are constantly being
washed up by the tide as tantalizing
evidence of tho richness of the Golfers
from which they have drifted.
In a cove ir the Auckland islands
may still be recovered all the gold
that the good ship General Grant was
carrying when she started In 1856 on
her voyage from Melbourne to Lon
don, with a passenger list of miners
returning with their riches from the
Ballarat diggings.
Occasionally, when Davy Jones is in
ar amiable mood, he will release part
of his booty, but he takes care to
clutch what remains tightly
still. When La Lutino, a captured
French frigate, sank under the waves
of the Zuyder Zee a little over a cen
fury ago she took $50 bars of gold
down with her, in addition to much
silver bullion and f127,0O0, the pay
of the troops in Holland. Within a
year of her laundering 955,O00 had
been recovered; fifty years or more
later she gave up another 100000;
but on the rest Of her hoard-she was
insured for a round G1,000. 000-she
still keeps a Jealous hold.
And again--as evidence that Davy
Jones is not quite SO bad as he is
pictured-of the ten boxes of gold
that went down with the Alfonso XII
of the Canaries some years ago nine
have been recovered. Davy keeps