One of the most difficult operations ever performed by a diver, was the recovering of the treasure sunk in the steamship Malabar off Galle. On this occasion the large iron plates, half an inch thick, had to be cut away from the mail room, and then the diver had to work through nine feet of sand. The whole of the specie on board this vessel—upward of $1,500,000—was saved, as much as $80,000 having been got out in one day.
It is an interesting fact that from time to time expeditions have been fitted out, and companies formed, with the sole intention of searching for buried treasure beneath the sea. Again and again have expeditions left New York and San Francisco in the certainty of recovering tons of bullion sunk off the Brazilian coast, or lying undisturbed in the mud of the Rio de la Plata.
At the end of 1885, the large steamer Indus, belonging to the P. & O. Co., sank off Trincomalee, having on board a very valuable East India cargo, together with a large amount of specie. This was another case of a fortune found in the sea, for a very large amount of treasure was recovered.
Another wreck, from which a large sum of gold coin and bullion was recovered by divers, was that of the French ship L’Orient. She is stated to have had on board specie of the value of no less than $3,000,000, besides other treasure.
A parallel case to L’Orient is that of the Lutine, a warship of thirty-two guns, wrecked off the coast of Holland. This vessel sailed from the Yarmouth Roads, with an immense quantity of treasure for the Texel. In the course of the day it came on to blow a heavy gale; the vessel was lost and went to pieces. Salving operations by divers, during eighteen months, resulted in the recovery of $400,000 in specie.
Another remarkable case of recovery of specie is recorded, when sixty-two chests of dollars, amounting to the value of about $350,000, were recovered from the Abergavenny, sunk some years previously at Weymouth, England.
A very notable case—not only for the amount of treasure on board, but also for the big “windfall” for the salvors—is that of the Thetis, a British frigate, wrecked off the coast of Brazil, with $800,000 in bullion on board. The hull went to pieces, leaving the treasure at the bottom in five or six fathoms of water. The admiral of the Brazil station, and the captains and crews of four sloops-of-war, were engaged for eighteen months with divers in recovering the treasure. The service was attended with great skill, labor and danger, and four divers’ lives were lost.
A remarkable case of money having been recovered deserves a passing notice. It was that of the finding of 3,800 sovereigns under a pier at Melbourne, part of 5,000 missing from the steamer Iberia.
