Coin Machine Review (& Pacific ...)

We Found
TREASURE
This is a true and remarkable out-of-the-
industry story of an expedition which, with
Diesel schooner and special undersea ultra-
modern robot, recovered treasure from the
ocean 's bottom; showing the pictorial account
of a battle on the sea-bed with a huge octopus.
by
Lieut. Harry E. Rieseberq
I
T WA S LATE in March and th e air
was clear and sharp. The scene was
San Francisco's waterfront. A lon g way
off a troll ey bell clanged; so mew here an
automobil e horn sounded. These distant
sounds passed unheedingly th e group on
board th e proud four ·masted schooner lyin g
idly in th e harbor. Beyond lay other ships
on every side-fine ships, rotten ships, oil
burners, schooners, tramps. The schooner
was th e Hispaniola, outward bound and
off to seek sunken treasure-a royal trai-
tor's hoard that had rested in Davy Jones'
keep in g for nearly three hundred years.
The record of the treasure our ex pedi-
tion was sailing to seek was obtained
from th e musty files of the Spanish State
Archives of Madrid and the Museum of
Lima, in Peru. -
The scene goes back to the year 1680,
when the so n of Kin g Charles I of Eng-
land lost a vast treasure of some thirty-
million pieces of eight, together with a
large consignment of gold and silver bul-
lion, in the treacherous waters off the
coast of Ecuador.
To make a temporary peace with her
form er enemy more lasting, the king of
Spain ordered th e merchants of Lima to
consign to King Charl es' son some "thirty
million pieces 0/ eight" togeth er with a
vast quantity of silver plate and gold bul-
lion, as a present of goo d will and to aid
hi s father's ca use in his war with the
people of England. The craft chosen to
transport this princely treasure from Lima
to Panama, where it would be carried
overland and then shipped by an armed
convoy to England, was th e Santa Cruz, a
stately gall eon of th e Dons eq uipped with
seven ty guns
Hardly out of sight of th e Peruvian
coast the galleon struck a terrific storm
and was first stranded on the Los Ahorca-
dos reefs in the Bay of Manta; she then
went to pieces and carried down to th e
bottom her officers, crew and the Spanish
silver and gold.
The location of the ill fated gall eon's
sinking, as given in th e musty archives of
ancient date, ci tes the following:
". . . 3 leagues from Solango are 2
rocks call ed Los Ahorcados, they
appear both hi gh and dark ... besi des
these, N. N. E. from Point St. Helena,
is a hi gh rock which to windward
thereof runs sho aling for the s pace of
one-half mile under water . . _ it i3
a distance abo ut 8 leagues from the
said point and is call ed Chand uy ...
at this place and upon thi s rock was
lost the ship . . . the rock lies 2
leagues distant from the main"
Thus, from these records, it appeared
that th e wreck lay about nine miles ofT-
shore from Point Saint H elena. In thi>
particular area the coast is ringed around
by the sides of a mountain which descends
very near the shore, and the winds and
tides are extremely difficult for salvaging
operations. However, even at this late
date, after heavy storms at sea, the na-
tives often gather from the sands of these
nearby beaches numerous pieces of eight,
sometimes a gold peso or doubloon.
It was th e findin g of these ancient coins
that en ticed and decided us to make tJ'e
attempted search fo r th e balance, if any.
of this vast fortun e in Spanish treasu r~.
A treasure which was once consigned by
a Spanish monarch to an English kin g
to war upon his own subjects.
The events taking place on our passage
en route to th e waters of Manta Bay, will
be omitted h ere, th e interven tion of storms,
and th e many fruitless descen ts to ascer-
tain the contour of the sea bed therea-
bouts b efore we felt that we had fin ally
located th e spot which might prove to
b e the possible loca tion we sought.
Th e hulk of th e famou s gall eon had of
t::o urse been deteriorated by th e elements
Lieutenant Harry E. Rieseberg
is recognized internationally as
the world's foremost authority
on deep-sea treas ure salvage and
sunken treasure ships, and is
holder of the world-record for
depth- salvage in an all-metal
ultra - modern d eep-sea diving
robot.
This is the first of three ex-
clusive fea tures of Lieutenant
Rieseberg's experiences to ap-
p ear in THE REVIEW.
A close-up of the dead creature showing
the comparison of the tentacles with the body
of Lieutenant Rieseberg. Its giant suction-
cups, like huge leeches, each has a power of
approximately nineteen pounds. The octopus
itself, the largest ever photographed in action
and at such depths, measured twenty-four
feet from tip of tentacle to tip of tentacle-
truly one of the ocean's most dreaded den i-
zens of the deeper depths!
•
and salt water long years ago and most
of it, no doubt, had washed away, piece
by piece, out to sea. But th e treasure,
due to its weight, we believed must still
rest on the spo t where th e galleo n went
down.
Sea rchin g for th e restin g place of the
Santa Cruz was a problem that had baffled
the fin est navi ga tors and seamen for years.
We found many wrecks by the draggin g-
kedge anchors and the loca tion finders, but
none was the particular hulk we were in
search of. Finally, on th e tenth day, we
were over the spot where we had decided
to make our ex plorations.
At last the day ca me for our actual
und erwater operations. It was bright, with
a cloudless sky and th e sea with scarcely a
ripple on its surface. So translucent was
the water that the bottom at six or eight
fathoms appeared to be within reach of
one's outstretched hand, every detail stand-
ing out sharply. To our treas ure seeking
eyes, the sea played strange tricks; great
fin gers of formations see med to be the
timb ers and gaunt ribs of sunken wrecks,
stran ge sea growths appeared much. like
buried kegs or rounded chests.
Then suddenly came Capta in Loesche's
shrill co mm an d, " Drop anchor!" Th e
schoo ner ceased to move on the water's
surface.
The robot was made ready for th e descent
to the bottom for exploratory purposes.
This ultra-modern typ e of diving sphere
was a stran ge device, a mass of cold iron,
with a set of nine-foot toggle-joi nted arms,
and too , three powerful electri c searchligh ts
which throws a beam about a hundred or
COIN
1.IA CHINE
REYIEW
15
FOR
JULY
1941