The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1907-05-14
WRECK OF SHIP IN WHICH EARL
SOUGHT BURIED COCOS TREASURE
Noble Patron Of Gold Hunters and His Wife
Narrowly Escape With The Crew Of
the Attiquin--- Golden Goddess
With Mantle Of Gems
Still UnreSCued.

New Orleans, lathe Anselm,
just arrived in port, brought the crew
of the steamer Attiquin, a private
vessel belonging to the Earl Fitzwill-
iam
The Attiquin was large vessel,
built after the style of an auxiliary
cruiser. She cleared from Bristol,
England, stopped at Tampa and Be-
lie, British Honduras, which point
she left for a voyage around Cape
Horn, her destination being Cocos
Island off the west coast of Central
America, where it was the intention
of the Earl, her owner, to search for
treasure.
The vessel was beached and
wrecked off the coast of Honduras
and is complete loss.
The owner and crew escaped mar
rowly with their lives The Earl and
Countess Fitzwilliam went to Belize,
where they were cared for by the
British colonial authorities, while the
crew were sent to New Orleans. They
will be forwarded from here to New
York.
This is the second expedition sent
out by Earl Fitzwilliam within the
past three years to uncover the tabled
treasure on Cocos Island that has
come to grief In the latter part of
1904 the steamer Veronique, which
was chartered for the purpose by
Earl Fitzwilliam, carried the Earl,
Admiral Palliser, retired, of the Brit
ish navy; Colonel Carter, of the Brit
ish army, and several other friends
of Earl Fitzwilliam to the famous
treasure island off the Pacific coast
of Costa RIGA.
The Earl stopped at Jamaica and
took on two expert miners and six
teen negro laborers, with mass of
equipment and supplies. The steam
er finally got to Cocos after a rough
trip around the Horn. When the
party got to the island an old German,
who was about the only resident of
the place, told the Englishmen that if
they looked in the right place they
could find 100000 pounds of treas
ure and a golden statue Of a goddess
robed in costume of royal gems.
The German said that he guessed the
statue was buried under a cliff that
overlooked the sea.
The miners prepared to blow up
the cliff and get at the statue in that
way, but premature blast blew the
top of the cliff down on top of them.
Those who escaped went to work to
dig out their comrades, assisted by
the Earl. There was a landslide,
which buried the Earl and his men
in the sand, and gave him fractured
skull. A dozen of the men were sent
to the American Hospital at Ancon,
Panama. AS soon as the Earl was
able to travel he and his friends went
back home.
Earl Fitzwilliam was born in Can
ada and was the oldest son of Wis
count Milton, M. P, and Laura,
daughter of Lord Charles Beauclerk.
He married daughter of the Mar
quis of Zetland. He succeeded his
grandfather, the sixth Earl Fitzwill-
lam, in 1902. He carried dispatches
for the army headquarters staff DUR
ing the Boer war, for which he re-
ceived the Order of Distinguished
Merit. He is Master of the Went
worth Hounds and the Wicklow Har-
riers. He has vast estates in York
shire and in County Wicklow, Ire
land, which are said to aggregate
115, 600 acres, from which he derives
an income Of more than 100000 a
year. He is one of the wealthiest
peers of the empire.
The Cocos treasure is supposed to
have got there in 1920, when there
was big revolt in Peru and the
wealthy citizens at Callao took their
valuables out and buried them on the
island. While they were going back
to Peru sloop of war sunk all on
board but two men. The story runs
that these two men finally got back
to the island and picked up $500
worth of treasure, but on the way
back one of them was eaten by
sharks. The other fitted up ship
at Panama for treasure hunting pur-
poses, but was arrested and narrowly
escaped being executed. Then he
died natural death.