AFTER TREASURE TROVE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3371, 10 November 1911, Page 5

AFTER TREASURE TROVE.

THE ELINCAMITE’S GOLD.

ONLY £SOOO RECOVERED.

HOW THE GENERAL GRANT LIES. {.SPECIAL TO TIMES a i AUCKLAND, Nov. 9. The statement made by Mr. E. C. May, of Dunedin, that the Elingamite’s gold, to the value of £60,000 had been recovered within the last couple of years, given, according to Mr. May, on the authority of Captain Bull, of till® Huddart-Parker Co.’s Melbourne office, is very wide of the mark. In the first place' tlie Elingamite’s bullion was only worth: £17,000, and not £60,000, as above stated. Speaking of his search for tlie lost 1 specie at the Three Kings, Captain McKenzie, who commanded several (expeditions in search of the treasure, said that five years ago he had spent four months: a.t the scene' of the Avrec'k, and again in the following summer the steamer Claymore had been chartered for a month. Altogether nearly £SOOO was recovered, and the balance of £12,000, which was nearly all in gold coin, would, ill Iris opinion, for ever remain in the grip of “the Old Man of tlie Sea.” Three divers were engaged, and two of these, Divers Harper and Clarke, lost their lives before the expedition was abandoned. There is always a big swell in tlie vicinity of the Three Kings, and. this made diving operations difficult. When the hull of the Elinganiite was located, an examination brought dismay to the hearts of those in search of the treasure trove. Tlie strong room loca<ted on tlie starboard side amidships had been smashed in, and there was not a sign of the bullion to be found. The Elinganiite had struck almost at the foot of a great sheer riiass of rock', and rising and falling on a big swell, sharp rocks had crashed tlirough her hull, as easily as through an egg shell. Filling rapidly, the vessel had slipped back from ledge to 1 ledge until she finally found a cradle 24 fathoms deep. As the Elinganiite sank she left a golden trail of coin as it eseaoed from the broken strongroom. Following up this trail for quite 300 ft. to almost the point at which the vessel struck, the diver found little patches of gold and silver. Sometimes in a. crevice at the bottom of the sea. lie would find little heaps of sovereigns, his biggest haul in any one spot being 44 gold coins.

After several months’ work at this during th© summer cjf 1907 and 1908, Captain McKenzie and bis party decided that they had got all the treasure it was possible to recover, their total haul representing nearly £SOOO. The remaining £12,000 he thinks lies buried beneath te sand, and in view of the area over which it must be scattered he does not consider there is any likelihood of its ever being wrested from old Father Neptune

An Auckland man is now at Holme making inquiries of the Salvage Association with a view to a further expedition, now that Captain McKenzie’s right to search for the bullion is expiring. but Captain McKenzie feels certain that the sea will yield no more of the Elingamite’s gold to the treasure seekers. Asked what he thought were the prospects in regard to the. expedition which is to leave for the Auckland Islands in search of the General Grant treasure, Captain McKenzie said he did not think overmuch of the chance of success. Several expeditions have already tried and failed. In 1880 an Australian expedition from Melbourne set out from Lyttelton, and spent several months in quest of the treasure without success. They found it impossible to get a boat anywhere near the scene of the wreck, great seas always dashing up against the cliffs and into cave where the General Grant was wrecked. Finally they tried tunnelling through the cliffs above into the cave where the wreck lies, 'but no diver could venture into the water. It was all the time as if big seas were crashing against a 'breakwater. The proposal of the present expedition to lower a. diver over the cliffs from a fixed scaffolding will not, in Captain McKenzie’s opinion, prove possible, as he is convinced that if the General Grant’s gold is to be recovered, it must be done without any man attempting to go _ below tlie water. The: use of mechanical contrivances from the cliffs above will, he believes, be the only effective means of success.