Millions of dollars worth of property has been recovered from the ocean’s depths by divers. One of the greatest achievements in this line was by the famous English diver Lambert, who recovered vast treasure from the Alfonso XII, a Spanish mail steamer belonging to the Lopez Line, which sank off Point Gando, Grand Canary, in 26½ fathoms of water. The salvage party was dispatched by the underwriters in May, 1885, the vessel having £100,000 in specie on board. For nearly six months the operations were persevered in, before the divers could reach the treasure-room beneath the three decks. Two divers lost their lives in the vain attempt, the pressure of water being fatal. Mr. Gorman recovered £90,000 from the wreck, and got £4,500 for doing it.

One of the most difficult operations ever performed by a diver, was the recovering of the treasure sunk in the steamship Malabar off Galle. On this occasion the large iron plates, half an inch thick, had to be cut away from the mail room, and then the diver had to work through nine feet of sand. The whole of the specie on board this vessel—upward of $1,500,000—was saved, as much as $80,000 having been got out in one day.

It is an interesting fact that from time to time expeditions have been fitted out, and companies formed, with the sole intention of searching for buried treasure beneath the sea. Again and again have expeditions left New York and San Francisco in the certainty of recovering tons of bullion sunk off the Brazilian coast, or lying undisturbed in the mud of the Rio de la Plata.

At the end of 1885, the large steamer Indus, belonging to the P. & O. Co., sank off Trincomalee, having on board a very valuable East India cargo, together with a large amount of specie. This was another case of a fortune found in the sea, for a very large amount of treasure was recovered.

Another wreck, from which a large sum of gold coin and bullion was recovered by divers, was that of the French ship L’Orient. She is stated to have had on board specie of the value of no less than $3,000,000, besides other treasure.

A parallel case to L’Orient is that of the Lutine, a warship of thirty-two guns, wrecked off the coast of Holland. This vessel sailed from the Yarmouth Roads, with an immense quantity of treasure for the Texel. In the course of the day it came on to blow a heavy gale; the vessel was lost and went to pieces. Salving operations by divers, during eighteen months, resulted in the recovery of $400,000 in specie.

Another remarkable case of recovery of specie is recorded, when sixty-two chests of dollars, amounting to the value of about $350,000, were recovered from the Abergavenny, sunk some years previously at Weymouth, England.

A very notable case—not only for the amount of treasure on board, but also for the big “windfall” for the salvors—is that of the Thetis, a British frigate, wrecked off the coast of Brazil, with $800,000 in bullion on board. The hull went to pieces, leaving the treasure at the bottom in five or six fathoms of water. The admiral of the Brazil station, and the captains and crews of four sloops-of-war, were engaged for eighteen months with divers in recovering the treasure. The service was attended with great skill, labor and danger, and four divers’ lives were lost.

A remarkable case of money having been recovered deserves a passing notice. It was that of the finding of 3,800 sovereigns under a pier at Melbourne, part of 5,000 missing from the steamer Iberia.

Some Danish speculators are reaping a harvest of golden grain from the depths of the sea which washes the coast of Jutland. Some years ago, the British steamship Helen, laden with copper, foundered. All her cargo has been recovered. The steamer Westdale, laden with 2,000 tons of iron, went down off the Danish coast in 1888. Nearly the whole cargo, her machinery, and a great part of her fittings, have been saved by Jutland divers.

Dredging operations carried on at Santander, Spain, resulted in the discovery of the well-preserved wreck of a warship of the fifteenth or sixteenth century. She must have been in her present position for four hundred years, and was partly covered by a deposit of sand and mud. Divers brought up guns which bore the united arms of Castile and Aragon, the scroll of Isabella, or the crown and initial of Ferdinand. The ship was probably employed as a transport, and inasmuch as some of the arms are of French and Italian make, it is supposed she formed part of the fortunate expedition against Naples under Gonzalo de Cordoba.