THE LOST PLATE FLEET OF VIGO
No treasure yarn is the real thing unless it glitters with ducats,
ingots, and pieces of eight, which means that in the brave days when
riches were quickest won with cutlass, boarding pike, and carronade, it
was Spain that furnished the best hunting afloat. For three centuries
her galleons and treasure fleets were harried and despoiled of wealth
that staggers the imagination, and their wreckage littered every ocean.
English sea rovers captured many millions of gold and silver, and
pirates took their fat shares in the West Indies, along the coasts of
America from the Spanish Main to Lima and Panama, and across the
Pacific to Manila. And to-day, the quests of the treasure seekers are
mostly inspired by hopes of finding some of the vanished wealth of
Spain that was hidden or sunk in the age of the Conquistadores and the
Viceroys.
Of all the argosies of Spain, the richest were those plate fleets which
each year carried to Cadiz and Seville the cargoes of bullion from the
mines of Peru, and Mexico, and the greatest treasure ever lost since
the world began was that which filled the holds of the fleet of
galleons that sailed from Cartagena, Porto Bello, and Vera Cruz in the
year 1702. What distinguishes this treasure story from all others is
that it is not befogged in legend and confused by mystery and
uncertainty. And while ships' companies are roaming the Seven Seas to
find what small pickings the pirates and buccaneers may have lifted in
their time, the most marvelous Spanish treasure of them all is no
farther away than a harbor on the other side of the Atlantic.
At the bottom of Vigo Bay, on the coast of Spain, lies that fleet of
galleons and one hundred millions of dollars in gold ingots and silver
bars. This estimate is smaller than the documentary evidence vouches
for. In fact, twenty-eight million pounds sterling is the accepted
amount, but one hundred million dollars has a sufficiently large and
impressive sound, and it is wise to be conservative to the verge of
caution in dealing with lost treasure which has been made so much more
the theme of fiction than a question of veracity. After escaping the
perils of buccaneer and privateer and frigate, this treasure fleet went
down in a home port, amid smoke and flame and the thunder of guns
manned by English and Dutch tars under that doughty admiral of Queen
Anne, Sir George Rooke. It was the deadliest blow ever dealt the
mighty commerce of Spain during those centuries when her ruthless grasp
was squeezing the New World of its riches.
There, indeed, is the prize for the treasure seeker of to-day who
dreams of doubloons and pieces of eight. Nor could pirate hoard have a
more blood-stained, adventurous history than these millions upon
millions, lapped by the tides of Vigo Bay, which were won by the sword
and lost in battle. During these last two hundred years many efforts
have been made to recover the freightage of this fleet, but the bulk of
the treasure is still untouched, and it awaits the man with the cash
and the ingenuity to evolve the right salvage equipment. At work now
in Vigo Bay is the latest of these explorers, an Italian, Pino by name,
inventor of a submarine boat, a system of raising wreck, and a
wonderful machine called a hydroscope for seeing and working at the
bottom of the sea.
With Pino it is a business affair operated by means of a concession
from the Spanish government, but he is something more than an inventor.
He is a poet, he has the artistic temperament, and when he talks of his
plans it is in words like these:
"I have found means to disclose to human eyes the things hidden in the
being of the furious waves of the infinite ocean, and how to recover
them. Mine is the simple key with which to open to man the mysterious
virgin temples of the nymphs and sirens who, by their sweet singing,
draw men to see and to take their endless treasures."
This interesting Pino is no dreamer, however, and he has enlisted ample
capital with which to build costly machinery and charter yachts and
steamers. With him is associated Carlo L. Iberti, and there is an
ideal pattern of a treasure seeker for you, a man of immense
enthusiasm, of indefatigable industry, dreaming, thinking, living in
the story of the galleons of Vigo Bay. It was he who secured the
concession from Madrid, it was he who as he says, "was flying from
province to province, from country to country, from archives to
archives, from library to library, ever studying, copying, and
acquiring all documents relating to Vigo. I had made up my mind to
find out all that was to be known about the treasure. And I believe I
have succeeded."
Never was there such a prospectus as Iberti wrote to awaken the
interest of investors in the undertaking of Pino. It was a historical
work bristling with data, authorities, references, from French,
Spanish, and English sources. It was convincing, final, positively
superb. One blinked at reading it, as if dazzled by the sight of
mountains of gold, and moreover every word of it was true. As a text
for this narrative, his summary, the peroration, so to speak, fairly
hits one between the eyes:
"As the total quantity of treasure which arrived at Vigo in 1702
amounted to 126,470,600 pesos, or L27,493,609, there is not the least
doubt that the treasure in gold and silver still lying in the galleons
of Vigo Bay amounts to as much as 113,396,085 pieces of eight, or
L24,651,323, after deducting the treasure unloaded before the battle,
the booty taken by the victors, and that recovered by explorers. That
would have been the value of the treasure two hundred years ago.
To-day, its value would be greater, at a moderate estimate of
L28,000,000. Such is the sum which we who are interested in the
recovery of the treasure have set our hearts on winning from the sea."
======================================================================
[Illustration: Sir George Rooke, commanding the British fleet at the
battle of Vigo Bay.]
======================================================================
After this, the hoards of the most notorious and hard-working pirates
seem picayune, trifling, shabby, the small change of the age of buried
treasure. Why Signor Iberti is so cock-sure of his figures, and how
that wondrous treasure fleet was lost in Vigo Bay is a story worth
telling if there be any merit in high adventures, hard fighting, and
the tang of salty seas in the days when the world was young. No more
than nine years after the first voyage of Columbus, galleons laden with
treasure were winging it from the West Indies to Spain, and this golden
stream was flowing year by year until the time of the American
Revolution. The total was to be counted not in millions but in
billions, and this prodigious looting of the New World gave to Spain
such wealth and power that her centuries of greatness were literally
builded upon foundations of ingots and silver bars.
Before Sir Francis Drake sailed into the Caribbean, the Dutch and
English had been playing at the great game of galleon hunting, but
their exploits had been no more than vexations, and the security of the
plate fleets was not seriously menaced until "El Draque" spread terror
and destruction down one coast of the Americas and up the other, from
Nombre de Dios to Panama. Heaven alone knows how many great galleons
he shattered and plundered, but from the _San Felipe_ and the
_Cacafuego_ he took two million dollars in treasure, and he numbered
his other prizes by the score. Martin Frobisher carried the huge East
India galleon _Madre de Dios_ by boarding in the face of tremendous
odds, the blood running from her scuppers, and was rewarded with
$1,250,000 worth of precious stones, ebony, ivory, and Turkish carpets.
During the period of the English Commonwealth, Admiral Stayner pounded
to pieces a West Indian treasure fleet of eight sail, and from one of
them took two millions in silver, while Blake fought his way into the
harbor of Teneriffe and destroyed another splendid argosy under the
guns of the forts. It is recorded that thirty-eight wagons were
required to carry the gold and jewels thus obtained from Portsmouth to
London. The records of the British Admiralty have preserved a
memorandum of the prize money distributed to the officers and men of
the _Active_ and _Favorite_ from the treasures taken in the _Hermione_
galleon off Cadiz in 1762, and it is a document to make a modern
mariner sigh for the days of his forefathers. Here is treasure finding
as it used to flourish:
The Admiral and the Commander of the Fleet.... $324,815
The Captain of the _Active_................... 332,265
Each of three Commissioned Officers........... 65,000
" " Eight Warrant Officers................ 21,600
" " Twenty Officers....................... 9,030
" " 150 Seamen and Marines................ 2,425
The Captain of the _Favorite_................. 324,360
Each of 2 Commissioned Officers............... 64,870
" " 77 Warrant Officers................... 30,268
" " 15 Petty Officers..................... 9,000
" " 100 Seamen and Marines................ 2,420
In 1702 it happened that no treasure fleet had returned to Spain for
three years, and the gold and silver and costly merchandise were piling
up at Cartagena and Porto Bello and Vera Cruz waiting for shipment.
Spain was torn with strife over the royal succession, and inasmuch as
the king claimed as his own one-fifth of all the treasure coming from
the New World, the West India Company and the officials of the treasury
kept the galleons away until it should be known who had the better
right to the cargoes. Moreover, the high seas were perilous for the
passage of treasure ships, what with the havoc wrought by the cursed
English men-of-war and privateers, not to mention the buccaneers of San
Domingo and the Windward Islands who had a trick of storming aboard a
galleon from any crazy little craft that would float a handful of them.
Timidly the galleons delayed until a fleet of French men-of-war was
sent out to convey them home, and at length this richest argosy that
ever furrowed blue water, freighted with three years' treasure from the
mines, made its leisurely way into mid-ocean by way of the Azores,
bound to the home port of Cadiz. There were forty sail in all,
seventeen of the plate fleet, under Don Manuel de Velasco, and
twenty-three French ships-of-the-line and frigates obeying the
Admiral's pennant of the Count of Chateaurenaud.
The news came to Queen Anne that this fleet had departed from the
Spanish Main, and a squadron of twenty-seven British war vessels,
commanded by the famous Sir Cloudesley Shovel, was fitted out to
intercept and attack it. The manoeuvres of the hunted galleons and
their convoy wear an aspect grimly humorous as pictured in the letters
and narratives of that time. One of these explains that "the fleet was
performing its voyage always with the fear that the enemy was lying in
wait for it; the King of France also was in continual anxiety on the
same account, and urged by these forebodings he sent dispatches in
different vessels so that the fleet might avoid the threatened danger.
One of the dispatch boats met it on the open sea, and gave it notice of
the enemy's armada being over against Cadiz, upon which warning the
commander called a council of war in the ship _Capitana_ to consider
and fix upon the port which they ought to make for. At this meeting
various views were expressed, for the French held that the fleet would
be more secure in the ports of France, and especially in that of
Rochelle. Of the same opinion were many of the Spaniards, who were
looking not to the interests of individuals, but to the public good.
"And yet there were also seen the ill-consequences that might arise
from the treasure not being conveyed to its proper destination and the
possibility of the Most Christian King's finding some pretext which
would endanger its safety."
Which is to say that if "His Most Christian Majesty," Louis XIV of
France, who was safe-guarding the treasure, should once entice it into
one of his own ports, he was likely to keep it there. And so the
courteous Spanish captains and the equally polite French captains eyed
one another suspiciously in the cabin of the galleon and held council
until it was decided to seek refuge in Vigo Bay on the coast of
Gallicia, thereby both dodging the English and remaining at a
sufficient distance from France to spoil any designs which might be
prompted by the greed of "His Most Christian Majesty."
======================================================================
[Illustration: The Royal Sovereign, one of Admiral Sir George Rooke's
line-of-battle ships, engaged at Vigo Bay.]
======================================================================
Without mishap, the treasure fleet and the convoy anchored in the
sheltered, narrow stretch of Vigo harbor, and preparations for standing
off an English attack were begun at once. The forts were manned, the
militia called out, and a great chain boom stretched across the
entrance of the inner roadstead. This was all very well in its way,
but so incredible a comedy of blundering, stupid delay ensued that
although for one whole month the galleons lay unmolested, the treasure
was not unloaded and carried to safety ashore. In a letter from
Brussels, printed in the _London Postman_ of November 10, 1702, the
grave results of this Spanish procrastination were indicated in these
words:
"The last advices from Spain and Paris have caused great consternation
here. The treasure and other goods brought by the said fleet are of
such consequence to Spain, and in particular to this province, that
most of our traders are ruined if this fleet is taken and destroyed."
While the English and their allies, the Dutch, were making ready to
take this treasure fleet bottled up in Vigo Bay, the officials of Spain
were so entangled in red tape that there seemed to be no way of
unloading the galleons. A Spanish writer of that era thus describes
the lamentable state of affairs:
"The commerce of Cadiz maintained that nothing could be disembarked in
Gallicia,--that to unload the fleet was their privilege, and that the
ships ought to be kept safe in the harbor of Vigo, without discharging
their cargoes, till the enemies were gone away. In addition to this,
the settlement of the matter in the Council of the Indies was not so
speedy as the emergency demanded,--both through the slowness and
prudence natural to the Spaniard, and through the diversity of opinions
on the subject."
Don Modesto Lafuento, a later Spanish historian, gravely explains that
"as the arrival of the fleet at this port was unexpected and contrary
to the usual custom, there was no officer to be found who could examine
merchandise for the payment of duties, without which no disembarkation
could be lawfully made. When notice of this was at length sent to the
Court, much discussion arose there as to who should be sent. They
fixed upon Don Juan de Larrea, but this councillor was in no hurry
about setting out on his journey, and spent a long time in making it,
and when he arrived he occupied himself with discussion about the
disposition of the goods that had come in the fleet. This gave the
opportunity for the Anglo-Dutch fleet, which had notice of everything,
to set out and arrive in the waters of Vigo before the disembarkation
was effected."
Surely never was so much treasure so foolishly endangered, and although
a small part of it was taken ashore, notwithstanding the asinine
proceedings of the government and Don Juan de Larrea, the English
_Post_ newspaper of November 2, asserted that "the Spaniards, being
informed that the enemy's fleet was returned home, sent aboard a great
quantity of their plate which they had carried to land for fear of
them."
Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovel had missed finding the treasure fleet at
sea, but a lucky chance favored another sterling English commander, Sir
George Rooke. He was homeward bound from a disastrous attempt to take
Cadiz, in which affair the Duke of Ormond had led the troops engaged.
One of his ships, the _Pembroke_, was detached from the fleet and while
calling at Lagos Bay for water, the chaplain became friendly with a
gentleman of the port who passed him word that the galleons and the
French fleet were safe at Vigo. This talkative informant proved to be
a messenger from Lisbon, sent by the German minister with dispatches
for the treasure fleet which he had first sought in vain at Cadiz.
The chaplain carried the rare tidings to Captain Hardy of the
_Pembroke_ who instantly made sail to find Sir George Rooke and the
English fleet, which was jogging along toward England. The admiral was
"extream glad," says an old account, and "imparted the same immediately
to the Dutch Admiral, declaring it his opinion that they should go
directly to Vigo." The Dutchman and his tars joyfully agreed, and
Dalrymple, in his memoirs, relates that "at the sound of treasure from
the South Seas, dejection and animosity ceased, and those who a few
days before would not speak when they met, now embraced and felicitated
each other, etc. All the difficulties that had appeared to be
mountainous at Cadiz, dwindled into mole-hills at Vigo.
"The gunners agreed that their bombs would reach the town and the
shipping; the engineers, that lodgments and works could easily be made;
the soldiers, that there was no danger in landing; the seamen that the
passage of the Narrows could easily be forced, notwithstanding all the
defenses and obstructions; and the pilots, that the depth of water was
everywhere sufficient, and the anchorage safe. Rooke's gout incommoded
him no longer; he went from ship to ship, even in the night time, and
became civil,--and the Duke of Ormond, with his father's generosity,
his brother's and his own, forgot all that was past."
These were the sentiments of men who had no more rations left aboard
ship than two biscuits per day, whose fleet was leaky, battered, and
unseaworthy after the hard fighting at Cadiz, and who were going to
attack a powerful array of French vessels, protected by numerous forts
and obstructions, and supported by the seventeen galleons which in
armament and crews were as formidable as men-of-war. At a council of
flag officers called by Sir George Rooke, it was resolved:
"That, considering the attempting and destroying these ships would be
of the greatest advantage and honor to her Majesty and her allies, and
very much tend to the reducing of the power of France, the fleet should
make the best of its way to the port of Vigo, and insult them
immediately with the whole line in case there was room enough for it,
and if not, by such detachment as might render the attack most
effective."
In naval history no swifter and more deadly "insult" was ever
administered than that which befell when Sir George Rooke, his gout
forgotten, appeared before Vigo and lost no time in coming to close
quarters. He called a council of the general land and sea officers who
concluded that "in regard the whole fleet could not without being in
danger of being in a huddle, attempt the ships and galleons where they
were, a detachment of fifteen English and ten Dutch ships of the line
of battle with all the fire ships should be sent to use their best
endeavors to take or destroy the aforesaid ships of the enemy, and the
frigates and bomb vessels should follow the rear of the fleet, and the
great ships move after them to go in if there should be occasion."
Next morning the Duke of Ormond landed two thousand British infantry to
take the forts and destroy the landward end of the boom, made of chain
cables and spars which blocked the channel. These errands were
accomplished with so much spirit and determination that the Grenadiers
fairly chased the Spanish garrisons out of their works. Rooke did not
wait for the finish of this task, but flew the signal to get under way,
Vice Admiral Hopson leading in the _Torbay_. British and Dutch
together, the wind blowing half a gale behind them, surged toward the
inner harbor, stopped not for the boom but cut a way through it, and
became engaged with the French men-of-war at close range. The hostile
fleets were so jammed together that it was not a battle of broadsides.
A Spanish chronicler related that "they fought with fires of inhuman
contrivance, hand grenades, fire-balls, and lumps of burning pitch."
Within one-half hour after the English and Dutch had gained entrance to
the bay, its surface was an inferno of blazing galleons and men-of-war.
Some of the French ships were carried with the cutlass and boarding
pike, but fire was the chief weapon used by both sides. The flaming
vessels drifted against each other, some of them set purposely alight
and filled with explosives. When the galleons tried to move further up
the bay, British troops on shore raked them with musketry, and
prevented the attempts to put some of the treasure on land. The lofty
treasure ships, their huge citadels rising fore and aft, and gay with
carving and gilt, burned like so much tinder.
The English had no desire to destroy these golden prizes, and as soon
as the French fleet had been annihilated, every ship burned, sunk,
captured, or driven ashore, heroic efforts were made to save the
galleons still unharmed, "whereupon Don Manuel de Velasco, who was not
wanting in courage, but only in good fortune, ordered them to be set on
fire.... The enemy saw the greater part of the treasure sunk in the
sea. Many perished seeking for riches in the middle of the flames;
these, with those who fell in the battle, were 800 English and Dutch;
500 were wounded, and one English three-decker was burnt.
Nevertheless, they took thirteen French and Spanish ships, seven of
which were men-of-war, and six merchantmen, besides some others much
damaged and half-burnt. There fell 2000 Spaniards and French, few
escaped unwounded.
"The day after the bloody battle, they sent down into the water a great
many divers, but with little result, for the artillery of the city
hindered them. So setting to work to embark their people, and covering
their masts with flags and streamers, they celebrated their victory
with flutes and fifes. Thus they steered for their own ports, leaving
that country full of sadness and terror."
It was a prodigiously destructive naval engagement, the costliest in
point of material losses that history records. The victors got much
booty to take home to England and the Netherlands, and were handsomely
rewarded for their pains. Sir George Rooke carried to London the
galleon _Tauro_ which had escaped burning, and she had a mighty freight
of bullion in her hold. Of this ship the _Post Boy_ newspaper made
mention, January 19, 1703:
"There was found in the galleon unloaded last week abundance of wrought
plate, pieces of eight, and other valuable commodities, and so much
that 'tis computed the whole cargo is worth L200,000."
All records of that time and event agree, however, that the treasure
saved by the allied fleet was no more than a small part of what was
lost by the wholesale destruction of the galleons, and chiefly
interesting to the present day are the most reliable estimates of the
amount of gold and silver that still rests embedded in the tidal silt
of Vigo Bay. There were sunk in water too deep to be explored by the
engineers of that century eleven French men-of-war, and at least a
round dozen of treasure laden galleons. The French fleet carried no
small amount of gold and silver which had been entrusted to the Admiral
and his officers by merchants of the West Indies. As for the galleons,
the English _Post_ of November 13,1702, stated:
"Three Spanish officers belonging to the galleons, one of whom was the
Admiral of the Assogna ships, are brought over who report that the
effects that were on board amounted to nine millions sterling, and that
the Spaniards, for want of mules to carry the plate into the country,
had broke the bulk of very few ships before the English forced the
boom."
The amount of the treasure is greatly underestimated in the foregoing
assertion, for the annual voyage of the plate fleet had carried to
Spain an average lading worth from thirty to forty million dollars, and
this doomed flota bore the accumulated treasure of three years. Not
more than ten million dollars in bullion and merchandise could have
been looted by the Dutch and English victors, according to the most
reliable official records. Our enthusiastic friend, Signor Don Carlos
Iberti, he who had been "flying from province to province," in behalf
of the latest treasure company of Vigo Bay, dug deep into the musty
records of the "Account Books of the Ministry of Finance, of the
Colonies, of the Royal Treasury, of the Commercio of Cadiz, of the
Council of the West Indies," and so on, and can tell you to the last
peso how much gold and silver was sent from the mines of America in the
treasure fleets, and precisely the value of the shipments entrusted to
the magnificent flota of 1702. A score of English authorities might be
quoted to confirm what has been said of the vastness of this lost
treasure. The event was the sensation of the time in Europe, and many
pens were busy chronicling in divers tongues the details of the
catastrophe and the results thereof. In a letter from Madrid which
reached England a few days after the event, the writer lamented:
"Yesterday an express arrived from Vigo with the melancholy news that
the English and Dutch fleets came before that place the 22nd past and
having made themselves masters of the mouth of the river, in less than
two hours took and burnt all the French men-of-war and galleons in the
harbour. We have much greater reason to deplore our misfortune in
silence and tears than to give you a particular account of this
unspeakable loss, which will hasten the utter ruin of this our monarchy.
"The inhabitants of this place, not being able to re-collect themselves
from their consternation, have shut up their houses and shops for fear
of being plundered by the common people who exclaim publicly against
the government, and particularly against Cardinal Porto Carrero and
others of the Council, who not being content with the free gift of
three millions offered to the king out of the galleons, besides an
_indulto_ of two millions, hindered the landing of the plate at Vigo
before the enemy arrived there. But the Cardinal laid the blame upon
the Consultat of Seville, who, mistrusting the French, would not suffer
them to carry the galleons to Brest or Port Lewis, but gave orders that
they should sail back from Vigo to Cadiz after the English and Dutch
fleets were returned home. 'Tis said that only three of the galleons
put their cargo ashore before the arrival of the enemy."
The news was a most bitter pill for His Christian Majesty, Louis XIV of
France, and put him and his court "into a mighty consternation." He
was quoted as saying that "there was not one-tenth part of the plate
and merchandise landed from on board the fleet. This is the most
facetious piece of news that could come to the enemies of France and
Spain."
All the records lay stress on the immense value of the treasure lost,
one that "the Spanish galleons were coming from Mexico overladen with
riches," another that "vast wealth in gold, silver, and merchandise was
lost in that terrible battle of Vigo," a third that "this was the
richest flota that ever came into Europe." It is extraordinary that
most of this treasure has remained untouched for more than two
centuries at the bottom of Vigo Bay. The records of the Spanish
government contain almost complete memoranda of every concession
granted to searching parties, and of the valuables recovered, which
total to date is no more than a million and a half of dollars.
Soon after the battle, Spain began to fish for her lost galleons and in
that same year of 1702, the official newspaper of Madrid recorded that
"we are instructed from Vigo that they are proceeding with success in
the raising of the precious burden belonging to the _Capitana_, and
_Almiranta_ of the Flota." For some reason or other, the task was
shortly abandoned, and the work turned over to private enterprise and
companies which were granted special charters, the Crown demanding as
much as ninety-five per cent. of all the treasure recovered. During
the half century following the loss of the fleet, as many as thirty of
these concessions were granted, but most of them accomplished nothing.
The first treasure hunter to achieve results worth mention was a
Frenchman, Alexandre Goubert, who went to work in 1728, and after
prodigious exertion succeeded in dragging almost ashore a hulk which
turned put to be no galleon but one of the men-of-war of his own
country, at which there was much merriment in "perfidious Albion."
This disgusted M. Goubert and he was heard of no more.
An Englishman, William Evans, tried a diving bell of his own invention
in the same century, and raised many plates of silver, but a Spanish
concessionaire, jealous of this good fortune, persuaded his government
that it was in bad taste to let history repeat itself by giving the
English another fling at the treasure. In 1825, time having softened
these poignant memories, a Scotchman was permitted to work in the bay,
and local tradition affirms that he found much gold and silver,
outwitting the officials at Madrid who demanded eighty per cent. of his
findings. The inspectors posted to keep watch of his operations he
made comfortably drunk, bundled them ashore, clapped sail on his
brigantine, and vanished with his booty. Later a castle was built near
Perth in Scotland, and given the name of Dollar House. Here the
Scotchman aforesaid "lived happily ever afterwards" for all that is
known to the contrary.
Through the eighteenth century French, English, and Spanish exploring
parties were intriguing, quarreling, buying one another out, now and
then finding some treasure, and locating the positions of most of the
galleons. In 1822, American treasure hunters invaded the bay,
organized as the International Submarine Company, and hailing from
Philadelphia. Nothing worth mention was done until these adventurous
gentlemen after a good deal of bickering, made a fresh start under the
name of the Vigo Bay Treasure Company. Their affairs dragged along for
a half century or so, during which they lifted one galleon from the
bottom but the weight of mud in her hull broke her to small bits. A
Spanish war-vessel watched the operations, by night and day, the
government being somewhat sensitive and suspicious ever since the
flight of that Scotchman and his brigantine.
At last the American company was unable to get a renewal of its long
drawn out concession, and for some time the galleons were left alone.
It was in 1904, that Signor Don Carlos Iberti obtained the "Royal
Decree of Concession" for the Pino Company, Limited, of Genoa, and now
indeed there was to be treasure seeking in earnest.
"Until recently the search for the treasure in the Bay of Vigo seemed
only an Utopian mania," cried Iberti. "Those who set about the arduous
enterprise were taken for mad scientists, rascals, or deceivers of
innocent speculators. But for my part I shall always admire those
bands of adventurers who sought to recover this treasure, from the
first day after the battle until the present time."
======================================================================
[Illustration: Framework of an "elevator" devised by Pino for raising
the galleons in Vigo Bay.]
An "elevator" with air bags inflated. Photographed in Vigo Bay.
(_By permission of The World's Work, London._)
======================================================================
Pino's first invention was a submarine boat which was tested with
brilliant success before putting it into service at Vigo Bay. For the
preliminary work of treasure finding, he perfected his hydroscope, a
kind of sea telescope consisting of a floating platform from which
depend a series of tubes ending in a chamber equipped with electric
lamps, lenses and reflectors, like so many gigantic eyes through which
the observer is able to view the illuminated bottom of bay or ocean.
To lift the galleons bodily is Pino's plan, and he has devised what he
calls "elevators" or clusters of great bags of waterproofed canvas each
capable of raising forty tons in the water when pumped full of air.
These are placed in the hull of the sunken ship or attached outside,
and when made buoyant by means of powerful air pumps, exert a lifting
force easily comprehended. In addition, this ingenious Italian
engineer, who has made a science of treasure seeking, makes use of
metal arms capable of embracing a rotting, flimsy hull, huge tongs
which are operated by a floating equipment of sufficient engine power
to lift whatever is made fast to. The Japanese government successfully
employed his submarine inventions in raising the Russian war ships sunk
at Port Arthur.
Already one of the Spanish galleons has been brought to the surface of
Vigo Bay, but she happened to have been laden with costly merchandise
instead of plate, and her cargo was long since ruined by water and
corrosion. The list of articles recovered during the searches of
recent years is a fascinating catalogue to show that the story of the
lost fleet is a true romance of history. I quote Iberti who dwells
with so much joyous enthusiasm over "the anchors, including that of the
_Misericordia_, of Santa Cruz, guns of different caliber, wood of
various kinds, thirty gun carriages, wheels, mortars, silver spoons,
mariner's compasses, enormous cables, innumerable balls and bombs,
statuettes of inlaid gold, magnificently engraved pipe holders, Mexican
porcelain, tortas, or plates of silver, some weighing as much as eighty
pounds; gold pieces stamped by the Royal Mint of Mexico and ingots from
Peru."
======================================================================
[Illustration: Cannon of the treasure galleons recovered by Pino from
the bottom of Vigo Bay.]
Hydroscope invented by Pino for exploring the sea bottom and
successfully used in finding the galleons of Vigo Bay.
(_By permission of The World's Work, London._)
======================================================================
The latest of the concession held by Pino and his company whose
shareholders have invested large sums of real money, is an unusual
document in that bona-fide treasure seeking seems so incongruous an
industry in this twentieth century. It bears the signature of His
Excellency Don Jose Ferrandiz, Minister of the Royal Navy, and was
granted on August 24, 1907, to be in force until 1915. The wording
runs thus:
"With this date, I say to the Director General of the Mercantile Marine
as follows:
"Most Excellent Sir,--Having taken into consideration the petition
presented by the Italian subject, Don Carlos Iberti, representing Cav.
Don Jose Pino, inventor of the hydroscope apparatus for seeing,
photographing, and recovering objects sunk to the bottom of the sea, in
which petition he explains that he obtained a Concession for the term
of eight years to exploit what there is in the Bay of Vigo appertaining
to the galleons which came from America, which Concession was published
in the _Gaceta Official_ of the 5th of January, 1904; that he was at
the Bay of Vigo from the month of April until the end of the said year,
carrying on dredging operations; but unforeseen difficulties prevented
them from effecting a real and direct exploitation, so that the work
accomplished was only preliminary, as that of seeing, examining, and
studying the difficulties of the submarine bed, and the conditions in
which the submerged galleons are; that having obtained all these data
necessary for undertaking the work for recovery, in accord with the
Commander of the Marine at Vigo, and other gentlemen who constitute the
Council of Inspection, they suspended the operations in order to study
and construct new apparatus, more powerful and more adapted to this
kind of operation, and they returned to Italy with the intention of
going again to Vigo as soon as they had finished the new appliances
with which to complete the work of recovery; that they have already
spent large sums there, the greater part of which have gone to benefit
the inhabitants of Vigo; that in view of all this that has been put
forward he prays for an extension on the same terms in which the
Concession was granted:
"Considering, that by granting him the solicited extension, the State
interests would not be prejudiced, on the condition of its receiving 20
per cent. of all that is recovered, irrespective of the artistic and
historic value of the objects recovered:
"_His Majesty the King_ in accord with what has been proposed by the
Council of Ministers, has deigned to grant the solicited extension on
the same conditions which were already put in the concession, which
are:--
"First,--The Concessionaire shall utilize for all manual labor which
shall be necessary, the small craft of the locality and sailors of the
maritime department.
"Second,--The work once commenced shall be carried on without
interruption unless there shall be justifiable cause to hinder it.
"Third,--He undertakes to give to the State 20 per cent. of the value
of the objects recovered.
"Fourth,--In fulfilment of what has been established by Art. 351 of the
Civil Code, if any objects of interest to science or art or of any
historic value should be extracted, they shall be given to the State,
if it requires, and the State will pay the fair price, which will be
fixed by experts, taking into account the expenses of their recovery.
"Which by Royal Decree I have the pleasure to announce to you for your
knowledge and satisfaction. May God preserve you for many years."
This long-winded proclamation seems faintly to echo of another and far
distant day "appertaining to the galleons which came from America,"
that day on which the news of the catastrophe was received in the
palace of Madrid. Gabriel de Savoy, the child queen, then only
fourteen years old and wed to Philip V, heard the tidings of the battle
of Vigo Bay, "on the day and hour which was fixed upon for her to go in
public to give thanks to the Virgin of Atocha for the triumphs of the
king, and to place in that temple the banners captured from the enemy
in Italy. This wise lady lamented bitterly such fatal news, but not
wishing to discourage and afflict her people, she put on courage, and
resolving to go forth presented herself with so serene a countenance as
to impose upon all, who were astonished at her courage, and the
ceremony was performed as if nothing had happened."
Vigo to-day is a pretty and thriving town of 30,000 people, with a
large trade by sea, and fertile fields stretching between bay and
mountain. Round about are the ancient forts and castles which were
stormed and battered by the grenadiers of the Duke of Ormond and the
guns of the British and Dutch ships under Sir George Rooke. Vigo won a
melancholy renown on that terrific day so long ago, and its blue waters
have a haunting interest even now, recalling the glory of the age of
the galleons and the wild romance of their voyaging from the Spanish
Main. Perhaps the ingenious Don Jose Pino, with his modern machinery,
may find the greatest treasure ever lost, certain as he is that "in dim
green depths rot ingot-laden ships, with gold doubloons that from the
drowned hand fell." At any rate, there is treasure-trove in the very
story of that fight in Vigo Bay, in the contrast between the timid,
blundering, procrastinating Spanish, afraid to leave their gold and
silver in the galleons, yet afraid to unload it; and the instant
decision of the English admiral who cared not a rap for the odds. His
business it was to smash the French fleet and destroy the plate ships,
and he went about it like the ready, indomitable sea dog that he was.
Among the English state papers is the manuscript log-book of the
captain of the Torbay, flag ship of Vice Admiral Hopson who led the
attack. This is how a fighting seaman of the old school disposed of so
momentous and severe a naval action as that of Vigo Bay, as if it were
no more than a common-place item in the day's work:
"This 24 hours little wind, the latter part much rain and dirty
weather. Yesterday about 3 in the afternoon we anchored before Vigo
Town in 15 fathoms water. This morning Vice Admiral Hopson hoisted the
red flag at our fore-topmast head in order to go ahead of the fleet to
defeat the French and Spanish galleons which lay up the river. About
noon we weighed, having sent our soldiers on there to engage the forts
which opposed our coming. We being come near, the forts fired at us.
"About one o'clock, coming across the forts which were on each side the
harbor, they fired smartly at us, and we fired our guns at both sides
of them again, and went past and broke the boom which crossed the river
to hinder our passage so that 4 and 5 men-of-war engaged us at once,
but soon deserted, firing and burnt their ships. They sent a fireship
which set us on fire."
It was a very simple business, to hear the captain of the _Torbay_ tell
it, but the golden empire of Spain was shaken from Cadiz to Panama, and
gouty, dauntless Sir George Rooke helped mightily to hasten the end
which was finally brought about by another admiral, George Dewey by
name, in that Manila Bay whence the treasure galleons of the East
Indies _flota_ had crossed the Pacific to add their wealth to the
glittering cargoes gathered by the Viceroys of Mexico and Peru.