Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1879 — Wealth Under Water. [ARTICLE]

Wealth Under Water.

In 1815, when Spain was exerting all her ©were to suppress the revolution in Venezuela, the 1,000-ton line-of-bat-tle ship San Pedro Alcantara was dispatched from the mother country, laden with ammunition of war ana treasure to pay the army in Venezuela and the navy on the Spanish main. She had on board, as proved by the records preserved in the State archives in Madrid, $2,000,000 in gold coin packed in iron chests, and $3,000,000 in silver packed in wooden chests. When the vessel arrived off La Guayra the insurgent forces were threatening Caraccas, and the frightened merchants and clergy, fearing a sack of the city, hastened to place their wealth in the treasure-hold of the San Pedro Alcan-

tara for safe keeping. Bullion, gems, church ornaments and jewels, roughly estimated at $1,000,000, were thus added to the riehes already aboard. The San Pedro Alcantara sailed from La Guayra to off the southern coast of the Island of Margarita, where she anchored between Cache and Cubagua, small islands to the south of Margarita. During a revel among the sailors a fire was started by the upturning of a bowl of blazing punch, the flames communicating with a barrel of brandy. It issaid the dry wooden vessel was speedily enveloped, and the Are soon became uncontrollable, until it reached the powder magazine, when a terrible explosion took place, shattering to fragments the after half of the vessel, scattering far and wide over the watera the wealth of her treasure-hold and sacrificing the lives of 700 out of 1,000 men. AU the

foregoing is a matter of history, established by undoubted authority; that remaining to be stated is a matter of knowledge toliving witnesses. In 1864 a company in Baltimore undertook to reoaver the treasure. They worked three months on the wreck of the forward half of the vessel, and" recovered about $2,00u in coin; the coin found there was only scattered silver dollars, stuck into the wood-work by the force of the explosion. Owing to the slow progress in recoveringany of the treasure, many concerned in the expedition became dissatisfied with the way by which the wreck was worked. Thomas H. Follingsby, one of the divers, advanced a theory to the Superintendent that the force of the explosion had thrown almost everything on the vessel aft; other divers coincided with him in his opinion. After changing the location on the schooner from which they worked a diving-bell to the place indicated FaJUngshy, tbev succeeded, after six mouths’ work, in recovering about $900,000 in silver coin. Howe er, much more was recovered, as the divers secreted about themselves large sums of money. They also found jewels mi which they rendered no account. One 4»an, in particular, picked up a diamond cross, which was subsequently sold in New York for $13,000. Several of the divers flnaJJhr stole the longboat and fled to La Guayra; they were, however, pursued and arrested, but as they had counter-claims for percentage, and the manager of the expedition quite unpopular, the affair was compromised ana they were set free, the expedition returning to B&ltimoi e to refit and set out the second time. Owing, again, to difficulties between the Superintendent and his divers the expedition vas compelled to return to Baltimore the second time and again refit. The third expedition was equally unsuccessful. Owing to a change in the Venecuelan Government a suspicion of pretended distrust and deception in the matter of royalty were taken advantage of to annul the grant. An expedition from Providence took some $30,000. but was believed to be dishonestly managed and brought up in a row. Another small expedition got Several attempts have been made since by incompetent aud inefficient expeditions, all of which have got money; but, owing to various circumstances, have only been measurably successful, having been stopped by incompetency or avaricious dishonesty. * The latest was sent out by a wellknown New York capitalist in 1878. It failed, however, through the incompeteucy of the Captain. The grant for exclusive working of the ground for a term of six years is now neld by Mr. Follingsby, the diver before mentioned as directing the movement in 1846, which led to the recovery of $300,000. The ground to be worked Is about two and one-half miles from shore, in an almost land-locked roadstead: the water is from fifty to sixty feet deep; the bottom is sand fourteen to thirty inches deep; at both ends of the roadstead there is very deep water, preventing, therefore, any accumalation of sand in the roadstead. The current is never more than two knots, which renders it an easy matter to work at the wreck the whole year. It is proposed to dredge the entire bottom for a sufficient radius to take up everything thrown out by the explosion. Dredges taking twenty-four square feet at each dip have been tried, and work well. Experts joutend that the iron chests containing the gold have afforded a solid break by the explosion force, and have consequently been thrown far oft; while the silver hurled from the burst boxes came down in a shower within a narrow radius, which accounts for the fact that only silver lias been recovered. The last expedition under Captain Post, of the brig Gypsy, was compelled to return to the United States, as all on board suffered from the heat and bad drinking water taken on board at the island of Margarita, so that work was impossible, and it may be said that the Captain was the only one who escaped any Illness.