The Book of Buried Treasure Part 27

Now, this make-s.h.i.+ft diving bell of his had to be suspended from something in order to be raised and lowered, but neither his own s.h.i.+p, the Lightning, nor any of the other vessels of the salvage fleet could be anch.o.r.ed in the cove to serve the purpose because of the grave danger of being caught on a lee sh.o.r.e. At first Captain d.i.c.kinson planned to stretch a cable between the cliffs on either side of the cove but this was found to be impracticable. Thereupon he proceeded to fas.h.i.+on a huge derrick from which the diving bell should hang like a sinker at the end of a fis.h.i.+ng-rod. There was no timber on the cape that was fit to be worked up by the s.h.i.+p carpenters, but these worthies, Mr. Batt of the _Warspite_ and Mr. Daniel Jones of the _Lightning_, were not to be daunted by such a trifling matter as this.

If a derrick was needed, they were the men to make it out of nothing.

What they did was to a.s.semble the broken masts and spars that had drifted ash.o.r.e from the wreck of the _Thetis_ and patch them together into one immense derrick arm which with its gear weighed as much as forty tons. It was a masterpiece of ingenuity and seamans.h.i.+p of the old-fas.h.i.+oned school, such as can no longer be found in navies. This breed of handy man at sea belonged with the vanished age of masts and canvas and "wooden walls."

"Our encampment and the adjacent parts of the island now presented a bustling, and, I flattered myself, a rather interesting scene," wrote the commander. "There were parties of carpenters building the derrick, making, carrying to the selected situations, and placing the securities for supporting and working it. Riggers were preparing the gear for it, sawyers cutting wood for various purposes, rope-makers making las.h.i.+ng and seizing stuff from the pieces of cable crept[2] up from the bottom, and two sets of blacksmiths at their forges; those of the _Warspite_ making hoops, bolts, and nails, from various articles which had been crept up; and those of the _Lightning_ reducing the large diving bell and constructing a smaller one; five gangs of excavators leveling platforms on the heights above the cove, cutting roads to lead to them, and fixing bolts in numerous parts of the faces of the cliffs; some were employed in felling trees and cutting gra.s.s for the huts while others were building and thatching them; water carriers were pa.s.sing to and from the pool with breakers of water; and the officers were attending to the different parties a.s.signed to them for their immediate guidance."

When ready to be placed in position, this derrick, built of odds and ends, was an enormous spar one hundred and fifty-eight feet long. To support it over the water, elaborate devices had to be rigged from the cliff overhead, and the whole story of this achievement, as related by Captain d.i.c.kinson, reads like such a masterful, almost t.i.tanic battle against odds that it seems worth while quoting at some length:

"We had by this time taken off thirteen feet of the peak of the northeast cliff, and thereby made a platform of eighty feet by sixty.

On this was placed the _Lightning's_ capstan and four crabs[3] formed of the heels of the _Thetis's_ topmasts, the _Lightning's_ bower and stream anchors, and the store anchor, to which was shackled the chain splicing-tails and several lengths of the _Thetis's_ chain stream cable which we had recovered, extending several fathoms over the cliff to attach the standing parts of the topping-lifts and guy-topping-lifts to, and preserve them from chafing against the rocks. There were also eight large bollards[4] placed in proper positions for other securities. Four other platforms, each large enough for working a crab, were made at appropriate parts for using the guys and guy-topping lifts. The roads and paths had been cut, extending from our encampment to those platforms, and from the one to the other of them together amounted to the length of nearly a mile and a half. The zig-zag path down the cliff was finished, and at those parts of the main cliff which were inaccessible in this manner, rope-ladders were subst.i.tuted, and thus a communication was formed with the cove at the point where the derrick was to be stepped.

"All this being done, the large hawsers were rove through the blocks, their purchases lashed to them, and partially overhauled over the cliffs. The getting the before-mentioned heavy articles up was most distressingly laborious, for they were obliged to be carried a greater part of the distance where the surface was covered with a deep loose sand, and to this cause may be mainly attributed a complaint of the heart which subsequently attacked several of the people.

"The derrick, which was now composed of twenty-two pieces united by a great number of dowels and bolts, thirty-four hoops, and numerous wooldings[5] of four-inch ropes, was finished on the evening of the 7th, and the clothing fitted on, and I now had arrived at a point which required much foresight and pre-arrangement, namely, the preparation for erecting it; and it was necessary to weigh with coolness and circ.u.mspection the mode by which this was to be done.

"A party of about sixty of our best hands were employed in getting the _Lightning's_ chain and hempen stream cables and large hawsers pa.s.sed over and around the faces of the cliffs, and the purchases were sufficiently overhauled to admit of their reaching the derrick, and the falls brought to the capstan and crabs, ready for heaving it up. All who are well acquainted with the character and manners of sailors know that it is no easy matter to rid them of their habitual heedlessness.

I endeavored to impress them with the need of caution, and the almost universal answer I got was 'Never fear, sir,' which from the fearless and careless manner in which it was expressed, was by no means calculated to remove my apprehensions for their safety.

"The task we had now in hand was one of much danger. The parties working over the cliffs were some of them slung in bights of rope, some supported by man-ropes, some a.s.sisting each other by joining hands, and others holding by the uncertain tenure of a tuft of gra.s.s or a twig, while loose fragments of rock, being disturbed by the gear and by the men who were working on the upper part, were precipitated amidst those below, while the sharp crags lacerated the hands and feet and rendered dodging these dangers extremely difficult. However, by great attention on the part of the officers, and by prompt.i.tude in giving aid when required, this very arduous part of our work was performed, which I sincerely believe could not have been accomplished by any men in the world but British seamen; the only accidents being some cuts in the hands and feet, and bruises from falling stones.

"All the gear being prepared, in the evening I arranged the distribution of my officers with their particular parties at the capstan, crabs, purchases, etc. The smallness of the number of hands sent from the _Warspite_ rendered it necessary that I should have every working man from the _Lightning_; and on this occasion she was left with only a few convalescents to take care of her, and even the young gentlemen[6] were obliged to give their aid at the capstan. On the morning of the 9th, the derrick was launched without casualty, and while the boats were towing it to the cove, all gear was got ready to be attached to it the moment it arrived at the proper position, according to the plan I had given.

"It had to be towed for a distance of about a mile, subject to the influence of a strong current running westward through the gut, at once exposing us to the two-fold danger of being driven to sea or against the rocks. In apprehension of accident from one or the other of these causes, I had taken the precaution of placing bolts at several points of the rocks, so that in case of necessity a warp might be made fast.

However, the derrick reached the cove without disaster, and as everything depended on prompt.i.tude of action, I had all the gear fitted to go with toggles, which so much facilitated the rigging that in one hour and a half after its arrival, everything was in place and the _Lightning's_ chain stream cable being made fast to the heel of the derrick, ready for heaving up, I left the further management in the cove to Mr. Chatfield, and placed myself upon the main cliff.

"I then gave the order to heave round, and everyone was on the alert; but we had scarcely brought any considerable strain on the gear when a report came to me that the heel of the derrick was displaced and driven into a chasm at the foot of the cliff, an accident which for this time put an end to further efforts. I had no alternative but to cast everything off in a hurry, and if possible return to the harbor with the derrick; but this had become exceedingly doubtful, for the wind was much increased since morning, and the current more rapid. We repeatedly succeeded in towing the derrick into the gut, and were as often driven back; till at length we were compelled to make it fast to the rock outside until a small anchor and some grapnels were laid out, by which means it was finally warped into the harbor, and by half-past eleven at night moored near the _Adelaide_. Undismayed by this failure, by seven o'clock of the following morning, we were again in the cove with the derrick.

"The vast weight, the great height of the purchases, the number of them, and the great distances they were apart, made united effort impossible, but at the close of the day I had the satisfaction of seeing this huge spar in the place a.s.signed for it, and the head of it hove ten feet above the water. On the 11th, we were again at our purchases, and the head of the derrick was raised to the angle I had intended, being about fifty feet above the surface of the sea.

"During the operation of erecting the derrick, it showed great pliability, the result of being composed of so many pieces, which obliged us to get numerous additional guys on; and having thus secured it, we returned to our encampment, all hands greatly fatigued by three days of the most hara.s.sing exertion, from half-past four in the morning until late at night. On looking down from the precipice on this enormous machine, with all its necessary rigging, it became a matter of astonishment to myself, and I believe to everyone else who saw it, that with the small means we had, we could have succeeded in such a situation. It has been my lot to witness many circ.u.mstances in which there was cause for great solicitude, but never one wherein such general anxiety was manifested as on this occasion. If any one thing had given way, it must have been fatal to the whole--a general crash would have been inevitable."

Meanwhile, Captain d.i.c.kinson had found time to devise a small diving bell, made from another water tank, which could be operated from spars and tackle set up on board a launch. This was employed for exploring the bottom of the cove in order to find where the treasure was. The bell held two men, and there were plenty of volunteers to risk their lives in the first descent in this little iron pot. The trip was disastrous, and the commander described it as follows:

"The water happened to be particularly clear, which gave me an indistinct sight of the bell at the depth of eight fathoms, and I had been watching it with breathless anxiety for a long time, when suddenly a small line of air bubbles rose from about the middle of the hose. I instantly gave the word to the men in the launch to make ready to haul away, but the two men in the bell made no signal to be pulled up. The agitation of the sea became greater every minute, and there was a rise and fall of eight or ten feet of surf against the cliffs. The danger was increasing, and I was about to order the bell to be raised when an immense column of air came bursting up from it. It had been driven violently against the rocks, thrown on its side, and filled with water.

"The next moment I saw the two men emerge from the bell and swim to the surface. Heans had been entangled in the signal line, but he managed to release himself, and Dewar bobbed up a few seconds later. They were too exhausted to say much, but Heans called to his partner, 'Never mind, mate, we haven't done with the d.a.m.n thing yet.'"

These plucky seamen went down again and discovered considerable wreckage of the lost frigate. A Brazilian colonel, with a gang of native Indian divers now appeared on the scene with a great deal of brag about their ability to find the treasure without any apparatus.

They proved to be pestering nuisances who accomplished nothing and were sent about their business after several futile attempts under water.

They furnished one jest, however, which helped to lighten the toil.

The bell was being lowered when one of these natives, or _caboclos_, slid over the side of the boat and disappeared in the green depths. In a few seconds, the signal came from the bell to hoist up. Fearing trouble, the helpers hoisted l.u.s.tily, and as the bell approached the surface, something of a brownish hue was seen hanging to its bottom which was presently discovered to be the _caboclo_ who had tried to enter the bell. The men mistook him for an evil spirit or some kind of a sea monster and kicked him back into the water outside, and he could only hang on by the foot-rail, with his head inside the bell.

The first encouraging tidings was signaled from the small diving bell on March 27th, when a bit of board floated up from the submerged men with these words written upon it: "Be careful in lowering the bell to a foot, for we are now over some dollars." Soon they came up, from seven fathoms down, with their caps full of silver dollars and some gold.

Captain d.i.c.kinson decided to push the search night and day, and the boats were therefore equipped with torches. It was a spirited and romantic scene as he describes it.

"Thetis Cove would have supplied a fine subject for an artist. The red glare cast from the torches on every projection of the stupendous cliffs rendered the deep shadows of their fissures and indentations more conspicuous. The rus.h.i.+ng of roaring sea into the deep chasms produced a succession of reports like those of cannon; and the a.s.sembled boats, flas.h.i.+ng in and out of the gloom were kept in constant motion by the long swell. The experiment succeeded to admiration, and we continued taking up treasure until two o'clock of the morning of the first of April, when we were glad to retire; having obtained in the whole by this attempt, 6326 dollars, 36 pounds, 10 ounces of Plata pina, 5 pounds, 4 ounces of old silver, 243 pounds, 8 ounces of silver in bars, and 4 pounds, 8 ounces of gold. After a little rest we were again at our employment by half-past five, and proceeded very prosperously for some hours, and then had to desist because of a dangerous s.h.i.+ft of wind."

As soon as the larger bell and the giant derrick could be put in service, the happy task of fis.h.i.+ng up treasure was carried on at a great pace. Unlike many other such expeditions, nothing was done at haphazard. The toilers under water "were first to go to the outermost dollar, or other article of gold they could discover, and to place a pig of ballast, with a bright tally board fast to it, against and on the inner side of the nearest fixed rock they could find. From this they were then to proceed to take up all that lay immediately on the surface of the bottom, but not to remove anything else until all that was visible was obtained. This being done, they were to return to the place first searched and pa.s.sing over the same ground, remove the small rocks and other articles, one by one, and progressively take up what might be recovered by such removal, but not on any account to dig without express orders from me."

Life in the camp on Cape Frio had no holiday flavor, and while there was continual danger afloat, there were troubles and hards.h.i.+ps on sh.o.r.e. "In addition to our sufferings from the wind and rain penetrating our flimsy huts, we were attacked by myriads of tormentors in the shape of ants, mosquitoes, fleas, and worst of all, jiggers.

Many of the people frequently had their eyes entirely closed from the stings of the mosquitoes. At night swarms of fleas a.s.sailed us in our beds, while by day it afforded a kind of amus.e.m.e.nt to pull up the leg of one's trousers and see them take flight like a flock of sparrows from a corn-stack, while there might be a hundred congregated inside the stocking. Those little insidious devils, the jiggers, penetrated the skin in almost all parts of the body, forming a round ball and causing sores which, being irritated by the sand, became most painful and troublesome ulcers, and produced lameness to half of our number at a time.

"Snakes were so numerous that the thatching and almost every nook of our huts was infested with them. They were often found in the peoples'

hammocks and clothes, and several were caught on board the s.h.i.+p. On one occasion, my clerk's a.s.sistant was writing in his hut when a rustling in the overhanging growth caused him to look up and discover a huge snake, its head extending several feet inside the hole that served as a window. He alarmed the camp, and muskets, cutla.s.ses, sticks, and every other weapon were caught up. The snake escaped, but I received numerous reports of his extraordinary dimensions. My steward insisted that it was as big around as his thigh, the sentry said it was as big as the _Lightning's_ bower cable, and as to length the statements varied between twenty and thirty feet. At another time, Mr. b.u.t.ton, the boatswain, went into the store, in which there was no window, to get a piece of rope. Going in from the glare of the sun, the place appeared dark to him, and he laid hold of what he thought was a length of rope, pulled l.u.s.tily at it, and was not undeceived until it was dragged out into the light. Then he was horror-struck to find he had hold of a large snake."

In May, Captain d.i.c.kinson was able to send to England in H.M.S. _Eden_, treasure to the handsome amount of $130,000 in bullion and specie, and had every promise of recovering most of the remainder of the precious cargo. Then a terrific storm swept the cove, totally demolished the derrick, carried the large diving bell to the bottom, and made hash of the whole equipment devised with such immense toil and pains. Was he discouraged? Not a bit of it. He straightway set his men at work to construct new apparatus with which he fetched up more gold and silver, to the value of half a million dollars before he forsook the task.

First let him tell you in his own words of that tragic storm and its results.

"At one o'clock of the morning of May 19th, it blew a perfect gale, the cove was in a far more disturbed state than I had ever seen it before, the seas rolled up the cliff to an astonis.h.i.+ng height, and by daylight the cove was in a state of awful commotion. The spray was driven so wildly that while standing on the main platform, at an elevation of 155 feet, I was completely wet and could scarcely resist it. The waves struck the derrick with steadily increasing force, and I watched it with all the distressing feelings that a father would evince toward a favorite child when in a situation of great danger. By six o'clock the wind threw the waves obliquely against the southeast cliff, and caused them to sweep along its whole length until opposed by the opposite cliff from which as each wave recoiled it was met by the following one, and thus acc.u.mulated, they rose in one vast heap under the derrick stage, beat it from under the bell, and washed away the air-pump, air-hoses, and semaph.o.r.e. The stage was suspended at a height of thirty-eight feet above the surface of the sea in ordinary weather, from which circ.u.mstances an idea may be formed of the furious agitation of the cove.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Thetis Cove in calm weather, showing salvage operations.]

Thetis Cove during the storm which wrecked the salvage equipment.

(From lithographs made in 1836.)

"Nine o'clock arrived, and I had been watching for fourteen hours. The constant concussions had caused the gear of the derrick to stretch, and every blow from the sea caused it to swing and buckle to an alarming degree. Nothing more could possibly be done to save it, and I saw plainly that unless the gale soon ceased its destruction was inevitable. I therefore left an officer on watch, and quitted the cliff to go to my hut and arrange my parties for the work to be put in hand after the catastrophe. Presently he came down to meet me, and reported that a stupendous roller had struck the derrick on its side, and broke it off twenty feet from the heel. Thus in one crash was destroyed the child of my hopes, and in a very short time the derrick was dashed into six pieces, forming, with the complicated gear, one confused ma.s.s of wreckage."

Before the storm had subsided, the indefatigable seamen, blacksmiths, and carpenters were solving the problem afresh, just as if there had not been a clean sweep of their weary months of effort. This time it was a new scheme for a suspension cable that had occurred to Captain d.i.c.kinson. While this work was in progress he made another diving bell from a water-tank, and succeeded in finding his air pump at the bottom of the cove. Two men were drowned in the surf at this stage of operations, the only fatalities suffered by the heroic company. The diving bell was successfully slung from the suspended cable after a vast deal of ingenious and daring engineering, and by means of it much treasure was recovered, although the contrivance yawed fearfully under water and more than once capsized and spilled its crew who fought their gasping way to the surface.

After fourteen months of incessant toil, the men and officers worn to the bone and ravaged by fever and dysentery, they had found almost six hundred thousand dollars in bullion and specie, or three-fourths of the total amount lost in the _Thetis_. It had been magnificently successful salvage, achieved in the face of odds that would have disheartened a less resourceful and courageous commander than Captain Thomas d.i.c.kinson. He appears to have been the man in a thousand for the undertaking. Then occurred an inexplicable sort of a disappointment, an act of such gross injustice to him that it can be explained only on the theory of favoritism at naval headquarters.

Captain d.i.c.kinson had a grievance and he describes the beginning of his troubles in this fas.h.i.+on:

"On the 7th and 8th of March, some more treasure was found in a part from which we had removed several guns, and here I had determined to have a thorough examination by digging, feeling a.s.sured that here would be found all the remaining treasure that could be obtained. Our labors were drawing to a close, but while I was enjoying the pleasing antic.i.p.ation of a speedy and successful termination of the enterprise, on the 6th I was surprised by the arrival of His Majesty's sloop _Algerine_, with orders from the Commander-in-Chief to me to resign the charge to Commander the Honorable J. F. F. de Roos of that sloop. It appears that the Admiralty had been led to think that no more property could be rescued, and therefore ordered my removal. I could not but feel this a most mortifying circ.u.mstance. I had been the only person who had come forward to attempt the recovery of the large property which was considered to be irretrievably lost; I had devised the whole of the methods by which a very large portion of it was recovered; I had endured peril, sickness, toil, and privation during more than a year; and the work was now reduced to a mere plaything compared with what it had been, and yet I was not allowed to put the finis.h.i.+ng hand to it.

Notwithstanding this, the deep interest I felt in the undertaking remained unabated, and I was determined that nothing should be wanting on my part to ensure a successful termination of it."

Quite courteously, Captain d.i.c.kinson explained in detail to Commander the Honorable J. F. F. de Roos the plant and the operations, and even left for him to fish up a large quant.i.ty of treasure already located and which could be scooped up from the diving bell without difficulty.

"With a feeling which I thought would be appreciated by a brother officer, I did not attempt to bring up this treasure, but left it for the benefit of our successors, observing at the time that the world should not say that I had left them nothing to do but the labor of removing rocks and rubbish."

The amount subsequently recovered by the _Algerine_ was $161,500, so that by Captain d.i.c.kinson's efforts, and the use of his plans and equipment, all but one-sixteenth of the lost treasure was restored to its owners, and of this he himself had raised by far the greater part.

When he returned to England and learned that salvage was to be awarded to the officers and men who had been engaged in the work, he naturally regarded himself as the princ.i.p.al salvor. The Admiralty, in its inscrutable wisdom, chose to think otherwise, and the underwriters of Lloyd's, taking their cue from this exalted quarter, regarded poor Captain d.i.c.kinson with the cold and fishy eye of disfavor. The case was argued in the Court of Admiralty, and the agents of Admiral Baker, he who had been in command of the squadron at Rio, set up the claim that he was the princ.i.p.al salvor, although the fact was plain that he had nothing whatever to do with recovering the treasure from the _Thetis_, and not even visited Cape Frio during the year of active operations.

The judge could not stomach such a high-handed claim as this, and his decision set aside the admiral in favor of Captain d.i.c.kinson and the crew of the _Lightning_. The salvage award, however, amounting to 17,000, was decreed as due also to the company of the _Algerine_, numbering almost four hundred men, which left small pickings for Captain d.i.c.kinson and his heroes. This was so obviously unfair that he appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which increased the award by the sum of 12,000, in which Commander the Honorable J. F. F. de Roos and his belated treasure seekers were not ent.i.tled to share. The influential committee of Lloyd's thought that Captain d.i.c.kinson should not have been so b.u.mptious in defending his rights, and because he disagreed with their opinions, they ignored him in a set of resolutions which speak for themselves:

"1st. A vote of thanks to Admiral Sir Thomas Baker, for his zeal and exertions.

"2nd. The same to Captain de Roos, of the _Algerine_, and a grant of 2,000 to himself, his officers, and crew, being the amount they would have received had they been parties to the appeal.

"3rd. To mark the sense of the meeting of Captain de Roos's conduct, they further voted to this officer a piece of plate to the value of one hundred guineas."

In other words, an unimportant naval captain deserved this censure because he had not been content to take what was graciously flung at him by Lloyd's and the Admiralty, but had stood up for his rights as long as he had a shot in the locker. There is something almost comic in the figure cut by Commander the Honorable J. F. F de Roos, who reaped the reward of another man's labors and received the formal thanks of Lloyd's as the chief treasure finder of the _Thetis_ frigate.

Captain Thomas d.i.c.kinson was a dogged and aggressive sort of person, not in the least afraid of giving offense in high places, and had he not been of this stamp of man he would never have fought that winning fight against obstacles amid the hostile cliffs and waters of desolate Cape Frio. He shows his mettle in a fine outburst of protest, the provocation for which was a sentence in a letter published in a London newspaper while his case was under discussion: "Had Captain d.i.c.kinson relied on the liberality of Lloyd's Coffee House, _he would not have been a poorer man_."

This was like a spark in a magazine, and the captain of the _Lightning_ flings back in retort: