The Book of Buried Treasure Part 25

Commanded by Captain Lancelot Skynner, R.N.

Sailed from Yarmouth Roads

On the morning of the 9th October, 1799 with a large

amount of specie on board,

And was wrecked off the Island of Vlieland the same night,

When all on board were lost except one man.

The rudder of which this table was made and the rudder chain and the bell which the table supports, were recovered from the wreck of the ill-fated vessel, in the year 1859, together with a part of the specie, which is now in custody of The Committee for managing the affairs of Lloyd's."

The chair has a similar inscription, and these pieces of furniture serve to remind the visitor that Lloyd's has a lost treasure story of its own. The flavor of piracy is lacking, true enough, but the tragedy of the _Lutine_ frigate possessed mystery and romance nevertheless, and is worthy of a place in such a book as this. As the owner of a treasure lost more than a century ago, the corporation of Lloyd's still considers the frigate a possible a.s.set, and as recently as May 31, 1910, Captain E. F. Inglefield, the Secretary of Lloyd's wrote the author as follows:

"Various attempts have been made, with the sanction of Lloyd's, to recover further treasure, but it was not until 1886, when steam suction dredgers were first employed, that any results worthy of notice were obtained. A number of coins and other relics to the value of about 700 were obtained.

"In 1886, also, two guns were recovered from the wreck, one of which, after being suitably mounted on a naval gun carriage, was presented by Lloyd's to the Corporation of London and has been placed in the Museum at the Guildhall. The other was graciously accepted by Her Late Majesty Queen Victoria, and was forwarded to Windsor Castle.

"In 1891, a few coins of small value were recovered. Since that date, operations have been continued at various times by salvors under agreement with Lloyd's, but nothing of intrinsic value has since been obtained. In 1896, a cannon which was afterwards presented to H. M.

Queen Wilhelmina of Holland by the Committee of Lloyds, was found together with some small pieces of the wreck, etc.

"In 1898, some timber weighing about two hundred weight was recovered from the wreck, and was presented to the Liverpool Underwriters'

a.s.sociation, whose Chairman, Mr. S. Cross, had a chair made from the wood, which he presented to that a.s.sociation.

"A company which was formed for the purpose of continuing operations has made efforts at various times, but the site is extremely exposed and owing to bad weather, it has often been found impossible to continue dredging operations for more than a few days each year. I trust the above information may be of service to you, but I may add that I understand that it is this year intended to operate with some new apparatus."

Some light was thrown on this latest enterprise by the publication of the following in a recent issue of _Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper_ of London:

"SEA TREASURE GETTER.

NOVEL MACHINE TO BE USED FOR RAISING SUNKEN WEALTH.

"An extraordinary machine was towed to the mouth of the River Colne, off Brightlingsea, and anch.o.r.ed on Thursday. It is to be used in a final attempt to recover 500,000 treasure of gold, in coins and bars, which is said to have gone down in H. M. S. _Lutine_ in 1797 near the island of Tersch.e.l.ling, off the coast of Holland.

"A portion of the treasure has been recovered, but the ordinary dredging plant is now useless, as the vessel has sunk into the sand.

The new device is a great steel tube nearly 100 ft. in length, and wide enough to allow a man to walk erect down its centre. At one end is a metal chamber provided with windows and doors, and at the other a medley of giant hooks and other tackle.

"The apparatus has just been completed, after years of work, by Messers. Forrest and Co., shipbuilders, in their Wyvenhoe yard. One end of the tube, it is explained, will be clamped to the side of a steamship or barge. The other end, by means of water-ballast tanks, will be sunk until it touches the bottom. Then, by means of compressed air, all the water will be forced from the tube and also from the chamber at the bottom of it, which will be flush upon the bed of the sea.

"Divers will walk down a stairway in the centre of the tube until they reach the submerged chamber. Here they will don their diving costumes, and, opening a series of water-tight doors, will step out into the water. Engineers will be stationed in the chamber, and, following the instructions of the divers, who will communicate with them by means of portable telephones, they will operate the mechanism of two powerful suction pumps, or dredges, which are fitted to the sides of the tube.

"These dredges, it is hoped, will suck away the sand around the sides of the heavy chamber until it gradually sinks by its own weight right down on to the deck of the wrecked ship. Then the divers, making their way from the chamber to the deck of the ship, and thence to the hold, will be able to transfer the treasure from the ship to the chamber by easy stages."

How Lloyd's happens to own a treasure frigate of the English navy, lost more than a century ago, is explained in the following narrative, many of the facts of which were found in "The History of Lloyd's and of Marine Insurance in Great Britain," by Frederick Martin, a work now out of print.[1]

On October 19,1799, the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of London contained this news:

"Intelligence was this day received at the Admiralty from Admiral Mitch.e.l.l, communicating the total loss of _La Lutine_, of 32 guns, Captain Skynner, on the outward bank of the Fly Island Pa.s.sage, on the night of the 9th inst., in a heavy gale at N.N.W. _La Lutine_, had on the same morning, sailed from Yarmouth Roads with several pa.s.sengers, and an immense quant.i.ty of treasure for the Texel; but a strong lee-tide rendered every effort of Captain Skynner to avoid the threatened danger unavailable, and it was alike impossible during the night to receive any a.s.sistance, either from the _Arrow_, Captain Portlock, which was in company, or from the sh.o.r.e, from whence several showts were in readiness to go to her. When the dawn broke, _La Lutine_ was in vain looked for; she had gone to pieces, and all on board unfortunately perished, except two men who were picked up, and one of whom has since died from the fatigue he has encountered. The survivor is Mr. Shabrack, a notary public. In the annals of our naval history there has scarcely ever happened a loss attended with so much calamity, both of a public as well as a private nature."

In almost all the accounts of the wreck of the _Lutine_ it is stated as a fact that the frigate was bound to the Texel, and that the bullion and treasure she carried, and which was lost in her, was designed for the payment of the British forces in the Netherlands. Both statements are without foundation, as proved by a careful search in the archives of the Admiralty. These official records show that the _Lutine_ was under orders to sail, not to the Texel, but to the river Elbe, her destination being Hamburg, and that the treasure on board was not the property of the British government, but of a number of London merchants connected with Lloyd's, and that the business of sending the coin and bullion was purely commercial.

The records wholly fail to explain how it happened that, sailing for the mouth of the Elbe, the _Lutine_ commanded by an able and experienced officer, and in all respects well manned and found, came to be driven, within eighteen hours after leaving Yarmouth Roads, upon the dangerous shoals of the Zuyder Zee, far out of her course, even when every allowance is made for the strength of a northwesterly gale.

Another mystery of the voyage of this thirty-two gun frigate of the royal navy is her employment as a mere packet, carrying cash and bullion for the benefit of private individuals. The officer responsible for sending the _Lutine_ on this unusual errand was Admiral Lord Duncan who "received a pressing invitation from some merchants to convey a quant.i.ty of bullion." It was his first intention to dispatch a cutter, but the treasure given in his care was swelled by larger amounts until its total value was 1,175,000 or more than five and a half million dollars. The admiral thereupon discarded the cutter and selected instead the swift and staunch _Lutine_ frigate, one of the best vessels of his fleet. On October 9, he wrote to the Admiralty from on board his flagship, the _Kent_, in Yarmouth Roads:

"The merchants interested in making remittances to the continent for the support of their credit, having made application to me for a King's ship to carry over a considerable sum of money, on account of there being no Packet for that purpose, I have complied with their request, and ordered the _Lutine_ to Cuxhaven with the same, together with the mails lying there for want of conveyance; directing Captain Skynner to proceed to Stromness immediately after doing so, to take under his protection the Hudson's Bay's ships and see them in safety to the Nore." When this letter was written, the _Lutine_ had already sailed, and before Lord Duncan's communication reached the Lords of the Admiralty, the splendid treasure laden frigate had laid her bones on the sand banks of Holland.

Admiral Duncan appears to have escaped all censure for this disaster which followed his action taken without consultation and without waiting for the approval of his superiors. The merchants of London were powerful enough to command the services of the navy, and English credit was needed on the continent to b.u.t.tress English arms and statesmanship. With her millions of treasure and hundreds of lives, the _Lutine_ drove straight toward as fatal a coast to shipping as can be found anywhere in the world.

It is a coast which is neither sea nor land, strewn with wrecks, and with somber memories even more tragic. Where is now the entrance of the Zuyder Zee was unbroken terra firma until the thirteenth century when a terrible hurricane piled the North Sea through the isthmus separating it from the large lake called Vlies by the natives. A wide channel was cut by this inroad, and in 1287 the North Sea scoured for itself a second inlet at the cost of a hundred thousand human lives.

Ever since then, the channels have been multiplying and shifting until what was once the coast line has become a maze of islands and sand-banks, the Texel, Vlieland, Tersch.e.l.ling, Ameland, and hundreds of lesser ones which confuse even the mariners born and bred among them.

With a wind which should have enabled him to give this perilous sh.o.r.e a wide berth and to keep to his course up the North Sea, Captain Skynner plunged into a death-trap from which there was no escape. The sole survivor could give no coherent account, and he died while on the way to England before his shattered nerves had mended. There was no more frigate, and as for the hundreds of drowned sailors, they had been obliterated as a day's work in the business of a great navy, so the Admiralty left the mourning to their kinfolk and bestirred itself about that five and a half million dollars' worth of treasure which the sea could not harm. Vice-Admiral Mitch.e.l.l was informed by letter that "their lordships feel great concern at this very unfortunate accident"

and he was directed to take such measures as might be practicable for recovering the stores of the _Lutine_, as well as the property on board, "being for the benefit of the persons to whom it belongs."

The underwriters of Lloyd's with an eye to salvage, were even more prompt than the Admiralty in sending agents to the scene of the wreck.

The greater part of the immense amount of coin and bullion had been fully insured, a transaction which indicates the stability and ample resources of this a.s.sociation as far away in time as 1799. The loss was paid in full and with such prompt.i.tude that only two weeks after the disaster, the Committee for managing the concerns of Lloyd's addressed a letter to the Secretary of the Admiralty in which was requested "the favor of Mr. Nepean to lay before the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty the information that a sum of money, equal to that unfortunately lost in the _Lutine_, is going off this night for Hambro, and they trust their Lordships will direct such steps as they think expedient for its protection to be taken."

The request was granted somewhat grudgingly. Apparently the Admiralty regretted the employment of one of its frigates as a merchantman.

Admiral Lord Duncan was directed to send a convoy this time, but was told also "to let them know that their lordships have done so in this particular case; but that they must not expect the packets can again be convoyed." With this letter ends all reference to the _Lutine_ and her treasure in the correspondence preserved in the Record Office of the Admiralty.

Having paid their losses, like the good sportsmen that they were, the underwriters of Lloyd's thereby clinched their right to the ownership of the treasure, provided they could find it. The situation was complicated because England was at that time at war with the Netherlands whose government claimed the wreck as a prize, although inconsistently refusing to let it be adjudicated by a prize court. On this account, Lloyd's could make no attempt to fish for the treasure, which delay was very much to the benefit of the st.u.r.dy Dutch fishermen of the islands at the mouth of the Zuyder Zee. The sands and the surf held a golden harvest. The wreck of the _Lutine_ was partly exposed at low ebb tide, and a channel ran close to the side of the ship.

The clumsy fishing boats or "showts" swarmed to the place and never was there such easy wealth for honest Dutchmen. Their government soon put a watch on them and took two-thirds of the findings, giving the fishermen the remainder. They toiled in good weather for a year and a half, and recovered treasure to the amount of eighty-three thousand pounds sterling. The official inventory reads like the h.o.a.rd of a buccaneer, including as it does such romantic items as:

58 bars of gold, weight 646 lbs. 23 ounces.

35 bars of silver, weight, 1,758 lbs. 8 ounces.

41,697 Spanish silver pistoles.

179 Spanish gold pistoles.

81 Double Louis d'or.

138 Single Louis d'or.

4 English guineas.

At the end of the year 1801 the fishermen quit their task, thinking they had found all the treasure. For a dozen years the Dutch forgot the melancholy fragments of the _Lutine_, while the sailors of the desolate islands guarding the Zuyder Zee began to weave superst.i.tious legends around the "gold wreck." In the midst of the crowded events of the great war against Napoleon, England found no time to remember the _Lutine_, and her memory was kept alive only by the kinfolk of the drowned officers and sailors.

After Napoleon had been finally disposed of, the treasure was recalled to public notice by an ingenious gentleman of the Netherlands, Pierre Eschauzier, a sort of lord of the manor under the government, holding the post of "Opper Strand vonder," or "Upper Strand finder," who lived at Tersch.e.l.ling and took a lively interest in the wreck. After a great deal of investigation and cogitation, he arrived at the conclusion that the greater part of the treasure dispatched from England in the _Lutine_ was still hidden among her timbers. His argument was based on the fact that the bars of silver and gold already recovered were stamped with certain numbers and letters indicating series or sequences, and that thus far these were very incomplete.

For instance, among the gold bars previously found, were thirteen marked with the letters _NB_, in three separate lots; the first numbered from 58 to 64; the second from 86 to 90; and the third from 87 to 89. Other gold bars with different letters and a variety of numbers went to prove that there were a hundred numbers to each letter, which would yield a total of six hundred gold bars, of which only thirty-one had been recovered in the years 1800 and 1801.

The government of the Netherlands was duly impressed by the calculations of Mr. Eschauzier who had proved himself such an astute "Upper Strand finder," and he was granted a sum by royal decree from the public exchequer to equip a salvage expedition. Alas, the pretty theory was thwarted by the implacable sands which had buried the wreck.

For seven years this indefatigable treasure seeker dredged and dug, and found no more than a few gold coin. Then he decided to try a diving bell, King Willem I having bestowed upon him a more favorable privilege by the terms of which the salvage company was to have one-half of the treasure recovered.

The diving bell was no luckier than the dredges had been. In fact, by this time the unstable sands had so concealed the wreck that it could not be found. After vainly groping for several months, the luckless "Upper Strand finder" confessed himself beaten, and there was nothing to show for an expenditure of five thousand pounds sterling. These operations had made some noise in London, however, and the underwriters of Lloyd's remembered that they had an interest in the wreck of the _Lutine_ frigate. If there was still treasure to be sought for, it belonged to them, and the government of the Netherlands had no claim upon it, either in law or equity.