The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-09-24
g|QUEST of Sunken Treasure zroOe Led the O'asas-
ebpectung Man to the Monsters Lair in the Hold Of
s Wreck Sixteen Fathons Deep

F." HIS story, concerning one OF the strahges1
and most desperate single combats OF
which there is knowledge is of the
best yarns of Captain Albert Herrimann
who has retired after more than forty
years of active seafaring. to Sailors Snug Har
gave up running vessels in the merchant marine
he was agent for the San Francisco Board of
Marine Underwriters In this position he had
charge of the northern district. out of San Fran
cisco the examination and salvage Of wrecks
along the Pacific coast to Behring falling to
his care He worked among his own divers;
one of whom the Lou Of this tale, and
the encounter which Lou had with the giant
octopus, herein described.
"REASuRE ii was-the lure of sunken dollars on
the reef that has drawn and will draw men TO
the uttermost parts Of the Garth, through sun
and sand and ice and storm, through CRIME and
deHth. Tressure-the VIII o the wlsp OF inc Seas
that has danced and will dance in the eyes OF all
who have the lust Of romance adventure ana fea
Somewhere of the bleak bluffs of Cape baneo
where the misnamed Pacific ranges IN white shore
ward ranks above ono OF its deadly graveyards,
specie ship had gone down among the forgotten
She had cleared from San Francisco almost half
before, in the days when California was send
by way of the Horn Fast locked her chests
bars upon bars of pure, soft metal bufetlng INTO
tempest far beyond her power 10 meet she was
driven for days northward crumble the rocks at
Bauco aud add another to the tragedies of the early
west.
But in her chests, fast locked, stlI the pure,
soft gold bars bars ard when rho story of her loss
country and the sorrow OF 1T had iaded TO curl
tale, the memory of her wealth renamed Inc
is of her dead forgotten, but the weight of ner
shipment was known to an ounce And so from
word Of sadness her passed INTO the years as an
of the cape She lay though the exact spot had never
been learned and the guardians of the depths watched
her while restless seekers piled and urged one
another with the oft repeated richness Of her mani
fest, and the Pacific ranked It's white graNestones
above.
4 company was formed in San Francisco to push
the search--a group of men to whom the chances OF
this tempting game were dearer than counting house
Tr-hts. slender caP'tai was scraped together' \
wreckng firm was induced 10 take a hand on tho pay
chests should be found And schooner, manned FOR
the work took station of Cape Blauco On board
One of these was Fred Lougc ee-so spelled his
They shaved down that impossible contrvance
to Lou among the wrcckers.
proper man was Lou, big chested long bodied
sith arms like gorilla and no legs to speak ot-a
folks had been French but there was little of the
Latin hre in him. He was slow of speech and move
mcn. lazy with dead blue eye In his head, and
he feared neither man nor aevil, nor the strange
things Of the bottoms where he Piled his trade
His daring cold. not heat, welded, and the wreck
ing firms sought him because he would go under water
when it humanity possible, and he got what he
After much sounding and trawIing about the sunken
barriers they came day to point where they were
sure OF & beneath nem M bn + t%o
sought. Lou directed To make descent and an
ly with the ground swell and there was no wind to
trouble The soundings indicated some sixteen tah.
oms to the deck of the wrecked vessel
Knife His Only Weapon
They helped Lou into his diving SUIT the skin OF
waterproof wherein "a diver clothed like
mummy. On each foot sole of lead
TO hold him upright, Over his hcaG they placed
of the automatic headpiece that governs the arr
pressure BY escape valve, and when they had
strapped the belt about him they fastened to the
string by which he to signal 10 the pump work.
string scarcely less vital to the diver safety than
the gutta percha artube itself for the state of tho
pressure: too high too low, might mean death III
the depths Then they slung about hs oody, by loose
weights for the descent and last of all fastened his
side the slashug knife. with a blade Twelve inches
long, sighy curved the Divers usual weapon against
the strange ambuscades and perous encounters In
the Jungle of The ocean floor
Lou went over the side early in the afternoon, ana
he sank from sight under the pull Of the weights
Whey paid the tubing after him and started the
pump working. II the gold there Lou would hnd
at. The part of those aboard the schooner to
mind the signals, keep up the air and watch.
Gong down Lou took careful note of his surround
ngs aad the position of the wreck She had settled
and shifted with the currents into n gully
cleft Of the upended seabed and with slight
list starboard her keel propped by the lodges
About and her hung the swaylng fronds
croepers of the ocean growtbs dapng her shattered
bull IN soft, cnglug garments, swathng her rottIng
tmbers in folds and sireamers and masses. Overland
with the Shiny vegetation her lines had been dimmed
and hidden, she had long since lost more than
bance of handicraft aud to any but the experienced
efe must have passed part and incident the
uneven of the bottom.
Lou had planned his drop well and with little ma.
neuvoring down upon the slanted deck about
in the dim suffused light he began that she
the treasure ship. The wreck that an
ancient brig, he thought, and she must have IN