ROMANCE AND LITIGATION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2458, 24 March 1909, Page 2

ROMANCE AND LITIGATION.

TREASURE HUNT. IN JAMAICA J •••••■• - 'N.-\vV- . Nf • ■> ■!•?'•?. f - ' Tho insurance litigation arising-out ■of the Jamaica earthquake of 1907 lias at length been settled. All the companies involved have, it is said, accepted. their liability for the damage done by; the fires which ? accompanied tthe earthquake. About 800 policy-holders made claims, land twenty-three insurance companies were involved. A fire office committee, representing lall the companies, was established to deal with the matter, and that committee, sitting in London, ha® agreed to settle the claims. - ' The total (amount to be paid by the companies is about £600,000, together with £75,000 costs. Taking into account the costs incurred by the companies themselves, the cost of the settlement and tho litigation has been about £BOO,OOO. The original . claims amounted to just over £700,00. Tho case, according to thel“Daily Mail” led to ia romantic little . treasure hunt. Part of the hearing was taken in Jamaica, and during the consultations there some of the London lawyers became : interested in the story of a- sunken; wreck, lying "on a reef 150 miles south of.<Jamaica. Tradition, asserted that the wreck was either a Spanish galleon or one of Morgan’s pirate craft. Mr Maurice Blake went off to the,reef in a thirty-ton schooner, and made an inspection. Being an expert, swimmer he undertook tlie diving himself—the wreck lay in only ten feet of water—arid .(found twelve cannon and an anchor, but no timbers. Six or c seven hours a day were spent in diving. The .method employed was to explode charges of dynamite and then dive-from. canoes and fill buckets with broken coral (and sand;., which were drawn up and searched. In this way a certain amount of treasure was. recovered\ in coral-en-crusted * ‘pieces of- eight’ ’—small:- gold coins about the,size of a half-sovereign. •A hurricane sent the party, back to Jamaica, but .another .expedition will probably start soon. Sharks and, hurricanes are the chief, sources of trouble.