Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 271, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1911 — BURIED COINS FOUND [ARTICLE]

BURIED COINS FOUND

Salvage Crew Successful in Raising V n-of-War.

Vessel gunk In 1799 Carried Gold Treasure Estimated at $5,000,000 -—Two Quaint Old Cannons and Some Balls Recovered. Tepschelllng. Holland.—The search for >5,000,000 sunken treasure believed to be aboard the old British man-of-war Lutine, which was wrecked in 1799 while on a voyage from Tarmouth to Hamburg, gets closer and closer to success every day now. Bit by bit the old wreck has been uncovered, the National Salvage Is•odation’s ship Lyons’ great vacuum pump having worked wonders in clearing away the masses of sand embedding her. Now she Is practically dear on the starboard side. The port side still remains more or less covered—the -Lutine must have heeled over to port when she went down,. or else the water gradually urged her over that way—-but the great pump should make little of the work of clearance. When this Is done, the exciting and romantic task of locating and bring-’ Ing up the bullion which has so long lain on the sea bottom will begin. Any day now. so the divers engaged on the wreck say, the sand may be' cleared and the first reel haul of Already, although no amount of the wealth borne on her

last voyage by the old Lutine has yet been brought to the surface, single coins, many silver ones, have been found. Altogether, roughly, a handful of silver has been recovered. And coins are all that the wreck has yielded. The Lutine’s anchor, a big crusted iron thing, eighteen by eighteen feet, with the ship’s name engraved upon it, Is now on the lighter lying over the wreck, and two quaint old cannons and some old fashioned cannon balls have also been found. The anchor, which weighs about three tons, is in a ivmarkable state of preservation, as Is another anchor brought up. . ..'..5:.... One cannon was loaded almost to the mwoUe. The task of taking the charge out occupied a man practically a whole morning. Everything about it la really wonderfully preserved; even the cord and the flintlock apparatus is inUct. <■/ The longer the weathdr remains fine the greater the chance of the gold being found soon, in lino, smooth weather the divers can work uninterruptedly, but on stormy days all are forced to be Idle.