The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-02-04
MAINE RESIDENT
TELLS SEA YARN
Scoops of Treasure From a
Sunken Spanish War
Vessel.


was boy, and that was more than
half century ago, he lived in the city
Among the citizens of that town was
enc Captain Peter Grant Bradstreet,
who commanded small trading schoon-
er that, for a time at least, did bust
ness between San Francisco and many
of the islands of the Pacific, Hawaii
among others. After gold was discov-
cred in California in 1S49 he continued
to run his vessel, bringing yams and
other products to the Pacific coast in
exchange for their, then, uncoined gold
nuggets.
It was in the course of this adven-
turous life that Captain Bradstreet
heard of strange tradition. 1t was
said that the Spanish man-of-war, the
ship Don Pedro. had sailed during the
latter part of the seventeenth century
from some Spanish port, having on
board many thousands of silver dollars
with which to pay off the troops along
the Spanish MAN, SO called 1t was
also reported that, by some accident,
her powder magazine had exploded,
and the vessel. with all on board, had
gone to the bottom. After a time he
discovered that this tradition was
founded on fact; that the ship had sunk
in the Caribbean Sea, probably off the
coast of Venezuela or Martinique
Tt dus during one Of the voyages in
the Pacific that Captain Bradstreet
landed on a desert island to replenish
his water casks, and saw a dark object
projecting from the sand along the
beach. Further investigation made
plain the fact that it was the head of
of a native, which was attached, below
the sand, to a body very much alive.
1t proved to be the last member of a
native family, the remainder of which
were at rest not in the bosom of
Mother Earth, but in the stomachs of
a tribe of savages. Poor Cochee, for
that was his name, was very grateful
for his rescue from the threatened fate,
and ever after, until death, remained
with his beloved captain. 1t was some
time in the fifties-I think in 1857 or
1S5S-that my story commences, but It
led up to important results.
Captain Bradstreet chartered a small
schooner at Gardiner, on the Kennebec
River, and sailed, as sailed Columbus,
for an unknown and undiscovered
country of King Neptune and his do
mains among the coral reefs. On deck
he placed an old-fashioned diving bell.
for at that time submarine diving suits
were not invented, and with his South
Sea islander, Cochee, who could dive
and remain under water an almost fab
ulous length of time he started forth
I remember, as a boy. the day of de-
parture, and Of the return, after more
than years absence. On the deck of
the vessel were two ancient cannon,
a orrn-eaten, honeycombed and she'll
covered block, together with other ma
terial from the sunken ship. Then we
knew that success was theirs.
It seemed that, after reaching that
part of the Caribbean Sea where it was
supposed the accident occurred. and
where the bottom could readily be seen
far below in the almost Transparent
water. if a suspicious object was yfsf-
BILE, Cochee, knife in hand. for he well
knew how to defend himself against
the man-eating sharks, would dive and
search At length their efforts were
rewarded with success The skeleton
timbers and frames lay In their grave
of shifting sand, covered with barna-
cles, while the only life visible was that
of the fishes as they swan in schools
through the waving, swaying sea for
ests
Working by means of the diving bell.
it was found that when the magazine
of the ship exploded the treasure was
blown from the stern in a fan-shaped
mass. However, after gathering be-
tween two and three hundred thousand
of these silver dollars the return vow
age was made, and the home port of
Gardiner was reached. I can even now
remember the salt sea smell, as lie
there had been a resurrection in the
kingdom of "Davy JONES'" and the
strange appearance of the adventurous
craft. Many of the dollars were COW
cred with sea shells, and I know where.
today. there is one of them, attached
by shells to one of the ancient cannon
balls that was found at the same time.
Only a few years ago I was telling