Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-23
SEARCHING FOR TREASURE
IN A SUNKEN WRECK.

* Il.
that when the magazine exploded every
thing forward was thrown into a jumbled-
Vi, nnass-the guns, gun carriages, nuskets
brass blunderbussCs. blocks and rigging
into q massive barvicade. Such was tho
condition Of the forward part OF the ship.
In digging down among the ruin found
roll of silver dollars all coTrOded together,
, and by counting the edges found Il to con-
tain sonnet hing over thirty. As the armor
was becoming diiapidatCd. and were
somewhat short handed (several of the crew
nad run away Capt CouthouN concluded
to return to Boston and refit We got home
| in November. 1885 having been gone thir-
teen months
The president of the company. S. y.
Thompson. was formerly lieutenant in tho
navy and when l gave him a description
of the wreck he said that he felt con-
WINGED the gold was there. l told him
had my doubts that 1t was likely the COM
modore of the feet had smuggled the gold
out of the ship and then destroyed her to
cover the theft. Mr.. Thompson replied by
stating that so far as he could learn the
gold had been in the spirit room. directly
forward of the magazine and when the eN-
plosion took place its force had thrown tho
gold with the other things into the forward
part of the ship. He said that man who
held the position of commodore would not
commit so great crime, as his honor
and that when dug down into that barli-
cade l would strike ii rich. | told him
that II the gold was there could get IL.
SO they bought brgantine named
Emma and had her name changed to Mo-
nagas, in honor of the president of Ven
ezuela. We left Boston in February, 1851
first going to Silver Key Banks To work
the wreck of the English man-of-Yar
Severn. which was said to have had
large amount of money on board when she
was cast away. However, man named
Whtpple got there ahead of and we
gave it up. We then went to La Guayra,
and as Mr.. Eames the American minister
to Venezuela, returning to the states
we brought him on his way as far as St.
Thomas.
while here seven of our crew were
! taken to the hospital sick with yellow
fever, and we lay there number of weeks
before they could return to duty We then
returned to the old San Pedro digging out
the contents OF the hun and sending the
mud, dirt aud rubbish up to be examined.
we found some brass guns silver money.
musl0ets, cutlasses, and almost every con-
celVable thing that could be found aboard
man-of-war except gold coin. Whatever
we found of value was near the top Of tho
heap, and the deeper we dug the less we
found We dug out the ship clear to the
ballast. If the gold was ever in the shin
II mad been taken out before she went
down. Captain Couthouy got what Infor-
nation he could about the treasure He
SAID that on the day of the San Pedro's
destruction she was supposed to have in
the spirit room 81, SEQ coo in gold and ST.
100000 in silver. This is quite come
down from the S67.50o,00o mentioned in the
article you have just shown me CAPTAIN
Couthouy also ascertained that the COM
modore of the fleet never returned to old
Spain but bought an estate and settled in
France.
X K
las to the statement that the San Pedro
was never found I wish again positively
to state that l found a full set of spare
rudder hinges cast from brass with the
name San Pedro de Alcantara in the cast
lngs. L cannot say whether or not any
otnef company has at any time before or
after our visits found anything of value in
or about the wreck. l found in one place,
some distance from the hui proper a lot
OF cannon balls with silver dollars mixed in
conglOmeration.
"On our return voyage to Boston we were
cast away in the inner shore Of Cane Cod
the 10th day of March, 1859 during a blind
ing snow storm. But our troubles were not
Yet over At home we were told that The
company had failed. following large expen-
dltures in the Crimea in an endeavor to
raise a number of sunken Russian war
shps. SO all We received was q pro rata
snare of The sale of the wreckage of tho
Darkentlne. We We're gone on that voyage
a little over two years.
rms is the true story OF the finding Of
the San Pedro de Alcantara sometime flag
ship of the Spanish fleet in Venezuela
Like most other treasure hunters these
sturdy sons of New England met with
utter failure, at a heavy expense of men
time and money. But the great army of
adventures and fortune-seelers is the
richer for their experience, and there ia
now no excuse for man lying awake at
night dreaming of the millions 10 be had
could he but ocate the San Pedro de Al
cantara in her last resting place at the
bottom of the old Margarita channel