'Treasure Cruise' - The book

TREASURE CRUISE

THE VOYAGE OF THE "VIGILANT" TO

COCOS ISLAND

By

COMMANDER JAMES PLUMPTON, R.D.,R.N.R.

(HER SKIPPER)

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

ADMIRAL A. V. CAMPBELL, C.M.G.,D.S.O.,M.V.O.,R.N.

WlTH PLATES AND A MAP

H. F. &-G. WITHERBY

326 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C.

Treasure Cruise

Cdr. J. Plumpton

FOREWORD

THE Author of this story of adventure was an old shipmate of mine during the earlier part of the War, and I take pleasure in recording here that he served me gallantly and well in the Dardanelles Campaign and elsewhere.

I had not read his book when he asked me to write a Foreword for it, and now that I have done so can only say with what reluctance I put it down.

The book deals generally with an attempt to locate the hidden treasure on Cocos and other Islands. It reads, however, as the plain, unvarnished yarn of a seaman who won through in the face of adverse conditions whenever they presented themselves, and whose grit and modesty are apparent in the reading.

A novel can be written round imaginary adventure with a romantic setting-here we get absolute truth which requires no stretch of imagination in its conception.

A true story that makes one rejoice that Britain can still produce adventurers ready as of old to do and to dare and to stick it out.

Readers will regret that this little crew rang down the curtain on disappointment and not on success-their hopes will be with them as they follow their enterprise, and their sympathies will be with them in their failure.

5

The, existence or non-existence of the treasure must remain a problem soluble only on its discovery, but opinions on the subject can be formed when the pros and cons of the Author have been studied.

Treasure hunters of the future will, no doubt, sail for Cocos and they would do well to profit by the experience and advice which this book contains.

A. V. CAMPBELL (Admiral).

6

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I HAVE written this small volume chiefly to make sure that there may be a record of the· events. of the thirteen months covered by that which is set down.

Looking back through the years to 1897 when I first went to sea in a full-rigged ship, one of the wool clippers in which my four years of apprenticeship were served, it is a matter of deep regret to me that little remains but memories. A few notes, and still fewer photographs, represent the sum total of what is left of those hard but happy days. And thereafter it was much the same; even the happenings of the war-days are mostly lost, and they certainly were not without interest. All of which is a great pity.

Another reason I have for committing our adventures to paper is the hope that our experiences may afford passable reading to some who either have been, or propose to be voyagers; and to the latter the final chapter should be of some little assistance if they care to be guided by my recommendations.

My literary ability being somewhere in the region of " low water, springs " mark, any pecuniary benefit from the effort will be a matter of surprise to me, and of course pleasure.

At all events what I have written is true, and I hope. in plain language.

J.P.

7

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. THE IDEA AND THE CRAFT ....................13

II. WE FIT OUT ..............................................18

III. WE DEPART ..............................................3I

IV. BOUND FOR PANAMA............................ 58

V. COCOS ISLAND ....................................... 73

VI. WE FIND PARTNERS .............................. 79

VII. TREASURE SEEKING ..............................93

VIII. PUNT ARENAS .......................................98

IX. WE TRY AGAIN FOR TREASURE ........ 106

X. FAREWELL TO COCOS ......................... 111

XI. WE DISPERSE .................................... 143

XII. GOOD-BYE "VIGILANT" ...................... 149

XIII. FACT AND SURMISE ...........................170

XIV. TIPS FOR TREASURE SEEKERS ......... 180

XV. CONCLUSION ................................... 187

9

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATES.

THE "VIGILANT" FLYING THE SIGNAL HPZ

(" GOOD-BYE ") ON LEAVING BRIXHAM ...................Fontispiece

THE " VIGILANT'S" CREW . ......................................Facing page 20

TRACEY AND HOWE.................................................... " " 20

WAFER BAY WITH MORGAN POINT & CASCARA ISLAND 84

THE " MARY DEAR " IN Tow ...................................." " 84

COLLECTING EGGS AT BIRD ROCK ......................." " 90

CANO ISLAND, "VIGILANT", LAYING OFF ............." " 90

TREASURE CREEK DIGGINGS .................................." " 94

TWO OTHER POSITIONS WHERE EXCAVATIONS WERE MADE ; SHOWING DIFFICULT NATURE OF COUNTRY......................... 94

NUEZ ISLAND ..........................................................Facing page 132

N.W. POINT OF Cocos ISLAND ................................." 132

MAPS.

CAPT. BELCHER's MAP OF Cocos lsLAND, 1838 - Facing page 13

SKETCH MAP SHOWING VIGILANT's COURSE TO COCOS ISLAND 40

11

"This little book is dedicated to the memory of my wife, whose self-sacrifice alone made it possible for me to go, and who sailed on the last great voyage before my return. " J.P

CHAPTER. I

THE IDEA AND THE CRAFT

IT was somewhere around Midsummer of 1930 when the idea of making a cruise in search of buried treasure was first suggested to me, and the definite objective we had in mind was Cocos Island in the Pacific, roughly 550 miles west and slightly south of Panama. We also hoped to make a call at Grand Piton Island, one of the small group called Salvage Islands, lying 180 miles nearly due south of Madeira,- where it is generally supposed that a large quantity of silver specie was buried in the year 1804.

The history of this latter treasure is somewhat obscure, and in any case, owing to weather conditions, we were not able to make search for it, but I have thought it worth while to mention that it entered into our original calculations. As to the Cocos Island treasure or rather treasures, for there were certainly at least three authenticated ones, enough has been written to fill a library; and having now been to the island, I am able to say that the number of expeditions to that delightful spot in the endeavour to recover it must have been legion. There exist evidences of clearing and digging in every apparently possible place, likewise in what would appear to be quite impossible spots, and blasting

13

TREASURE CRUISE

operations on quite a big scale have also been carried out. As far as is known up to the present time all efforts have proved fruitless. As far as I recollect now, there were to have been seven of us in the party, each one of whom would contribute to the cost of the expedition, and in addition it was proposed to take a paid skipper, a paid cook and, possibly, a couple of hands. Arrangements progressed to the extent of holding several conferences on board the yacht ( at Southwick in Sussex) in which it was intended to make the voyage, and an agreement was drawn up which was provisionally approved by all of us. It was then circulated for individual perusal, and much time was wasted over suggested alterations and additions. So much so that eventually it was found to be impossible to sail before Christmas, and owing to this delay, together with other reasons, interest in the venture began to dwindle, and it was finally abandoned for the time being. Of the people originally concerned four retained interest, and these four, together with others chosen later, instituted, organized and sailed on the expedition. They were Stratford D. Jolly of Bourne End, Major G. F. Phillips of Southwick, Sussex, Frank Cooper of Yeovil, Somerset, and myself, James Plumpton of Cullompton, Devon.

I remember giving an opinion at one of our meetings at Southwick , that a Brixham trawler would be the most suitable craft for a voyage such as we intended, and this wasn't forgotten. On the 7th August, 1931,

14

'THE IDEA AND THE CRAFT

I received a letter from Cooper saying that he had been in touch with Jolly and Phillips, who had asked him to write me to say that a Brixham trawler was advertised to be sold by auction at Brixham on August 13th; and further to ask if I ·would go as skipper on a trip as originally intended, if it should be possible to buy this craft and fit her out. It is hardly necessary to say that I replied saying that I would be delighted, and on August 12th Jolly and Cooper called for me and we motored down to Brixham. On the following day Jolly bought the ship. The "Vigilant" was a ketch-rigged trawler built by Uphams at Brixham in 1906, fifty tons gross and thirty-seven tons net register, the purchase price being about £250. Jolly, Phillips and Cooper took up residence on board a few days later, and started work on her almost at once. She was stripped entirely inside, and the twenty-seven tons of iron ballast were landed, cleaned, hoisted on board again ( except three tons) and redistributed. By the new arrangement of ballast we were able to lower the fish-hold floor nine inches, so giving six feet two inches headroom, and this subsequently became our saloon. Then followed the building up of five cabins, four of which were two berth and one single, a galley abaft the saloon, lavatory, lamp-room, etc. No main timbers were in any way interfered with except one beam (originally in the boiler-room) which had become badly scorched by the constant heat and needed attention. About seven feet of it were cut out and a new piece spliced in.

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TREASURE CRUISE

In those early days it was hoped to get away by the end of October, and personally I thought that ,with good luck we might manage to sail before Christmas. Actually our final sailing date was March 2nd, 1932., and in the light of information regarding other vessels that have been converted and fitted out, coupled with the fact that all the work of reconstruction, the installation of electric light plant, a four-cylinder Diesel engine and the countless other jobs done by Phillips and Cooper with casual labour hired from the shore, it was, to my mind, no mean achievement to have been ready so soon. All the same, if we had pushed matters we could have got off before, for we were to all intents and purposes ready for sea by the end of the year, and we did in fact sail up Channel to Shoreham, in Sussex, on the 20th December. But this was only in the nature of a trial trip, and we took with us her late owner, Mr. George Pollyblanks, who was of very great assistance to me, for he put me wise to various peculiarities in the rig and behaviour of these particular vessels. On this trip we rounded Brixham breakwater at 2 p.m., set course with a moderate N.W. wind which held throughout, and at 10.30 next morning we were off the entrance to Shoreham harbour, where we had to wait until 3 p.m. for sufficient water. Our intention as to stay there three or four days, but this drifted into three weeks before we returned again to Brixham; the return journey being made without incident of any note.

16

THE IDEA AND THE CRAFT

From the outset it had been intended to replace the tiller by wheel steering-gear, and we tried over a period 0f three months to find and buy a suitable gear secondhand, but without success, until just before we sailed we were lucky enough to get in touch with a set. This was duly installed and proved most satisfactory.

17

CHAPTER II

WE FIT OUT

THE six months occupied at Brixham with the conversion and fitting out of the boat was a period of extreme interest to all of us, and I must say at once that we met with a great deal of kindly advice and assistance from nearly everyone with whom we came into· contact. We were, it is true, looked upon for a while with a certain amount of suspicion, particularly owing, no doubt, to the fact that we were dispensing, more or less, with experienced help. This move was of course entirely on account of financial reasons; and during our evening visits to the local hostelries, where we soon became well known, we gathered the general opinion was that we should not go far with the "Vigilant". But this was in the early days, and such ideas had certainly disappeared long before we sailed. We spent a very happy time there and were sorry to leave. I believe, too, that our many friends also regretted our departure. In any case it was resolved that Brixham should be the port of our home-coming.

The work on board progressed steadily and satisfactorily if not quite so fast as we had hoped; and thanks chiefly to the efforts of Phillips and Cooper the cabins were soon completed, so that it became possible for the remaining members, as they joined up, to live on board.

For myself, I had little to do with the earlier stages

18

WE FIT OUT

of the fitting out, and my home being only forty miles away my efforts were confined to occasional visits of two or three days at a time.

We decided to give her a complete new set of running gear, but the standing rigging being sound was not renewed. Her two suits of sails, too, were in good order, and only needed minor repairs and tanning. But the main-gaff was defective for about five feet from the peak, so, after a good deal of talk about splicing, we decided to condemn it, and it was replaced by a new spar purchased in Plymouth. We needed, amongst other things, a saloon skylight, also a companion-hatch and ladder, as well as an additional bower anchor with fifty or sixty fathoms of cable. We secured all these items by buying the "Lynx", another trawler, for £25, which had, some time before, been partly converted into a yacht, and for reasons unknown never completed. She had subsequently been left on the hands of the harbour master for disposal. Since it did not appear feasible to install anything in the nature of a power capstan, we had certain alterations made to the existing winch, and by means of additional gearing we got sufficient power for hoisting sail and working cables by hand.

Towards the end of September, C. D. Milbourne, Lieut.-Commdr., R.N. (retired) of Guernsey joined up, and on October Ist Commander F. C. Finnis, R.N. (retired) of Dover came. They were two very welcome additions, especially as Milbourne, in a weak moment, was persuaded to act as cook and caterer. Shortly after this A. H. Sheffield of Bournemouth,

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TREASURE CRUISE

Guy D. Tracey of London, and last of all Percy Howe of Manchester, the youngest member of the crowd, joined the ship. This made the full complement of nine in all.

It had been proposed, when the ship was first bought, to sheath her with copper as a protection against the marine insects which do so much damage to wooden hulls in tropical waters, particularly the worst enemy of all, the teredo worm. The "Vigilant" was iron-fastened, however, and the fear of galvanic action ruled this out; so the question arose as to the best preparation for coating the bottom.

At a rough guess I should say we were told of between forty and fifty mixtures, and each one it was claimed would be the best for the purpose. During the period of fitting-out we had the ship on the hard several times, and on each of these occasions took the opportunity of giving her a coat of some sort. We finally selected a recipe that came from an old sailorman in the East Indies. He said he had used it with good results for a period of over forty years. Here it is. One gallon bitumen, three pounds red lead, one pint zinc driers. I doubt very much whether this preparation can be improved upon. It is also reasonably cheap and simple to prepare. It worked well with us .

The question of stores for the voyage caused more brainwork and discussion than any other, for we each gave our individual views as to requirements for nine months and then took a sort of mean of the whole.

As always happens in these cases, we over-estimated

20

WE FIT OUT

upon some of the items and fell short in others, but on the whole there was not much wrong. By courtesy of the Customs authorities we were allowed to take all dutiable stores from Bond free of duty. This meant a big saving, particularly as regards whisky, for by so doing its cost was 3s. 6d. a bottle instead of I 2s. 6d. I would here register the fact that we fell very far short of our needs in the wine and spirit department for we ran clean dry before we had been two months out. But we shall know better next time, if there is to be a next time; and; anyway, we arrived at Port-of-Spain shortly after we had finished our cellar, to find there, and thereafter, good rum obtainable at an absurdly low figure. This became our standard drink, as, in fact, it is of everybody in the West Indies and the Central American States. In spite of the heat this appears to be the correct beverage, and I never remember hearing of any ill effects from the consumption of rum in moderation. We all thrived on it at any rate. I say all for there were no abstainers. We applied to the Board of Trade for re-survey after the main items of our reconstruction were completed, and succeeded in getting our net register tonnage reduced from 37 to 33. Having installed an engine, allowance was made for that space, but on the other hand the deduction for sail-locker space was not allowed as before. We wished to get our tonnage reduced as much as possible, because harbour dues are invariably charged at so much per ton, and we had our eye chiefly on the fees for the passage of the Panama Canal. As it turned out we need not have worried

21

TREASURE CRUISE

unduly about this, for the Canal authorities were very lenient to us. Actually the Canal dues amounted to only a few shillings over £5, a much smaller sum than we had expected.

The installation of our engine was completed early in December, and we then ran trials in Torbay over a measured four-mile course, getting a result of 5. 9 knots, which was a bit in excess of anticipations. The engine was a 38-44 horsepower Ruston Lister, four-cylinder full Diesel, and I believe I am right in saying that it was more or less an experimental one, also the first of its kind to be installed for service afloat. From the beginning I had endeavoured to persuade everybody that we must have our propeller in the amidships line, and there would have been no difficulty in so fitting her. She was already bored for the shaft in this position, having during the war been supplied by the Admiralty with an engine, also a gun. It would, of course, have been necessary to cut away a piece of the rudder for the screw-space, and to add a corresponding amount to the after side of the rudder. Quite a simple matter, but, for reasons which are lost to me now, the objections to this method were multiplied out of all proportion to reality, and the result was that she was bored through the starboard quarter. The natural effect of this was that she carried an appreciable amount of port helm when using the engine, and I estimate that owing to this we suffered a loss or one-third of a knot in speed. In addition it naturally followed that the ship was not nearly so handy, being very slow in turning to starboard with headway.

22

WE FIT OUT

These points have no very great value when in open waters, except for the loss of speed, but they matter a lot when going alongside a wharf, or when manoeuvring with little room for turning.

Messrs. Ruston Lister's representative, Mr. Trickey, was on board during the installation of the engine, and at the trials with which he was highly pleased, as were we all.

Prior to these events Cooper had wired the ship for electric light, and this proved a great boon to us throughout our wanderings. In the saloon there were three lights, and each cabin had a main light with a reading lamp over each bunk. The steering compass was also fitted with an electric lamp, and this saved us endless relightings of binnacle-lamps in wet and windy weather. A separate one-and-a-half horse-power engine was used for charging up the batteries, our voltage being twenty-five.

We had been in communication with Messrs. Marconi regarding wireless, and they very kindly lent us a receiving set capable of taking in Morse signals at very long distances. For purposes of ascertaining longitude it is necessary lo know the exact Greenwich time when an observation is taken; for an error of one minute in time will give an error of fifteen miles in longitude if on the Equator, and quite enough to cause a decent-sized island to be missed altogether, especially in misty or rainy weather.

Previous to the days of wireless, chronometers were at all times carried on board, these being specially balanced watches with a known daily gaining or losing

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TREASURE CRUISE

rate. They are, however, expensive articles, or a good chronometer costs £40 or more. Nowadays any good, ordinary watch will answer the purpose provided you have wireless reception on board, for its error can be found by means of the time-signals sent out from various stations at stated times.

In addition to the Marconi set we were presented by Messrs. Stratton of Birmingham with an Eddystone four-valve, all-wave set with loud speaker, and we shall always feel deeply indebted to that firm for the wonderful results given by their instrument. Actually these notes are being made at anchor in Chatham Bay, Cocos Island, and at 6 p.m. each day (midnight in England), we get the news on the loud speaker direct from England by the special night broadcast to the Colonies. The joy of this can only be understood by those similarly placed to ourselves. For the reasons given, an expensive timepiece was not needed and we bought instead a Swiss watch for 50s. ( Omega was the make) and a highly-efficient watch it was, keeping a steady losing rate of two to three seconds a day for weeks on end; and I should have been quite happy as far as navigation was concerned, even without the time signals by wireless, when once I had found out our watch's habits.

The story of preparation for a voyage is seldom of much more than passing interest excepting to those actually concerned, so I will try to cut it as short as possible.

We became acquainted with various dealers and second-hand stores and so were able to pick up certain

24

WE FIT OUT

absolutely necessary articles at a very low figure. For instance, we bought our lifeboat with nearly all gear , for £6 10s., our dinghy for £3, a steering compass with binnacle for £3, and the steering gear complete for £5. All good stuff which did what was required in actual practice, so leaving no room for complaint. "Vigilant" was registered with the Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club, and the Admiralty granted us a Warrant entitling us to fly the Blue Ensign. We applied also to Lloyds asking them to allocate ship's numbers to us. I well remember opening the letter in which they acknowledged receipt of the fee and said that numbers had been allotted to us. When this was done one of the party asked what they were. I read them out-L.H.M.N. Almost before the letters were out of my mouth someone remarked, "Lord help me navigate, I suppose". Our dis-tinguishing flags, or ship's numbers as they are called, were always easily remembered from this remark.

Insurance was another matter that gave us a certain amount of trouble, but in the end she was insured against all risks, for nine months, in the sum of £1,200; the premium of £110 I thought a bit steep, and still think so.

We had an interesting little ceremony on board shortly before we sailed. This was when a Torquay lady, interested in us and our venture, presented us with a house-flag. A green flag with a white goose (in flight) painted on it. We were given to understand that it was capable of two interpretations, either " the goose that lays the golden egg ", or " the wild

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TREASURE CRUISE

goose chase". We naturally hoped that the former would turn out to be the correct one. Coming through the fish market Milbourne one morning p1cked up a young tabby cat that was wandering about, and brought it on board. It made no attempt to leave us, so, after a few days it was christened " Brixy" and became a great pet. Finnis also received from a sister in London a present in the shape of a Siamese cat, which, after a lot of discussion was labelled " Dwong ". She was a lady-cat, "Brixy" being of the rougher sex.

With the arrival of a good medical outfit and a quantity of gelignite, we were pretty well fitted out; for in addition we were well supplied with fishing tackle of various kinds, including a liberal supply of shark hooks, and also a mixed collection of guns, rifles and revolvers, with their ammunition. About half-a-dozen cameras were on board and a cinema camera belonging to Jolly.

As I have already mentioned we returned from our trial trip to Shoreham on January 22nd, and we then anticipated that about another three weeks would be sufficient to complete. Before January was out the wind came away from the N .E. and it stayed there, so that day after day our friends and seafaring acquaintances would remark that it was a pity we were not ready to sail with such a fair wind. There was no need to worry, however, for the wind held in the E. and N.E. until we finally got away, and I believe it stayed there till about a fortnight after we had left.

On February I 5th news reached us about a set of

26

WE FIT OUT

steering gear in a wrecked craft lying in Torbay, which, on account of the spring tides, would be getatable in a few days time. It was salved, bought by us for £5, and in less than forty-eight hours installed on board. As I remarked before, it answered well.

A week later, whilst at home for the week-end ( the final one as it turned out), I was in conversation with a friend who, amongst other activities, was agent for the Electrolux company. I had discussed before with him the' possibility of a refrigerator for " Vigilant ", but the models on the market were not suitable, either from the point of view of cost, or from the fact that electric current was needed to operate them. Our small electric plant was not man enough for the job. But on this occasion he told me that , he had that day heard of a new type worked with an ordinary paraffin flame and at a low cost, though he was uncertain whether it was yet on the market. He then communicated with the makers who made a big effort and, three days later, despatched one to us from their works at Luton. It duly arrived, was fixed, and proved a great asset to us in the hot weather. We should have derived much more benefit from it than we actually did had the watch on deck at times not forgotten to keep filled the small cask of water used for cooling the plant. As long as this was not forgotten it was possible at any time to get ice and, better still, keep our butter, milk and tinned stuff cold. The machine consumed only one gallon of paraffin per week.

And now, in the last week of February, we found ourselves to all intents and purposes ready. Our best

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TREASURE CRUISE

suit of sails bent; running gear (all new) rove off with the old stuff stowed as spares in the forepeak. A good set of charts, mostly presented to us by our various friends: likewise sailing directions for those parts we proposed to visit; sextant, nautical almanac navigation tables, and all the odds and ends we required, including a complete set of flags with signal book.

We chose Sunday, March 28th, as our sailing day, and, for the last few days, moved out of the little, inner harbour and were moored to a buoy close to the breakwater. Wind still continued cold and easterly, with occasional snow and sleet-squalls. We were now putting finishing touches here and there, paying bills, getting our clearance papers and bill of health, and generally preparing for departure. As a matter of interest I would like to add a word or two about the financial side of the undertaking. Jolly bought the "Vigilant" for £250 and the remaining eight of us subscribed £1,100 in amounts that varied from £100 to £200. Actually, the whole of this was not paid up before sailing, and as it afterwards turned out this was a good thing, for, at our earlier ports of call ( Madeira and Las Palmas ), we were inclined to be extravagant, so that, by the time we reached the West Indies, money began to be tight, but as there remained still some due we were able to get along, but with a stricter regard to expenditure.

As to the expedition itself, many people wondered whether we had any hope of success when so many previous attempts had ended in failure. The answer

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WE FIT OUT

is that we looked upon Cooper as our great asset, for he is what is known as a "Diviner" ; that is to say, he claimed to be able to feel the presence of either gold or silver as a number of people ( and Cooper is one of them) can locate water-springs. He uses a piece of old gramophone spring in lieu of the usual hazel twig, and his gift in this direction is, to say the least of it, uncanny. We had opportunities of seeing repeated demonstrations with hidden gold and silver coins, and other articles, and in nearly every case he was successful. So we considered that we were not faced with the prospect of going to an island, roughly four miles square and practically impenetrable, to dig haphazard in so-called, likely spots, or to follow the countless alleged clues which exist, and which claim to give the exact spots beneath which untold wealth lies secreted. All this has been done before, and many times, with, as I have said, no good result as far as is known; and although it has been suggested that the treasure caches were, at some unknown time, removed, it is extremely improbable that the hoards of these old pirates have been, or ever will be, found without the whole world knowing about it.

We slipped from our buoy at 9 a.m. on Sunday, February 28th, and went alongside the jetty to fill water-tanks. A number of friends came to pay us a farewell visit, and we opened a case of champagne in celebration of the occasion. The weather was bitterly cold with the wind still E.N .E. and freshening, and it was obvious, long before we had finished taking our

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TREASURE CRUISE

water on board, that it would be no day on which to start our voyage.

After we had filled the tanks we returned to the buoy with the visitors still on board, but first of all we took a little trip out beyond the breakwater to show them what the weather was like. There was a pretty useful sea running and they were quickly satisfied.

It blew a gale on Monday and Tuesday, but during the night of Tuesday it moderated, and Wednesday morning broke with an easy wind and fine sky. After breakfast we ran alongside the jetty and once more filled the tanks, paid a hurried farewell to our three or four usual houses-of-call, went back on board, cast off from the jetty and returned to the buoy. At I I a.m. we started to hoist sail under the critical eyes of most of the Brixham trawler skippers and hands who lined the sea-wall, the majority of the fishing fleet being in harbour owing to the weather. There was no hitch in the proceedings as far as I remember, and at noon we hauled down the Blue Peter, hoisted in its place the international code flags H.P.Z. (good-bye), slipped &om the buoy and slid quietly out of harbour.

30

CHAPTER III

WE DEPART

AND so our voyage started. Quite unique in its way and quite in keeping with these hard matter-of-fact days when there is little or no romance left in the world; or, if it does still exist, there is no time to give to it. My own feelings were that I had suddenly gone back about twenty years. What the others felt I do not know, but I believe we were all very lighthearted and rather wondering what the future had in store for us. Jolly, Cooper, Phillips and myself were the only married men on board, and we, of course, were leaving behind us certain ties and responsibilities, but except for this there could be no regret at leaving England, for it may be remembered that at that particular time a period of great flatness and depression existed, with practically everything at a standstill; whilst the best brains of all nations were endeavouring to find some solution to the apparently insoluble financial and industrial troubles, without making any appreciable headway.

At departure I put the ship's company into two watches, but forty-eight hours later, when we were well into the Bay of Biscay, I set three watches as follows: --

In my own watch I took Milbourne and Howe.

No. 2 watch. Major Phillips (Mate), Jolly, Sheffield.

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TREASURE CRUISE

No. 3 watch. Finnis (Bos'n), Tracey.

Cooper did not keep watch owing to his dutles as engineer, attention to electric light plant, And various odd jobs of which there were a plenty and which no one but Cooper could do. Milbourne, although he was nominally in my watch, did very little watch-keeping, Since he was acting as cook, and he was assisted in the galley by the watch on deck in such matters as laying table and washing up.

The cook's billet is not an easy one to fill, especially in the case of amateurs, for, in addition to having a rotten job, he is generally looked upon as a fair target for everybody's witticisms, and I must say that, all things taken into account, Milbourne took everything in good part and carried on with considerable success, but it was always with the understanding that we would engage a black cook to relieve him as soon as we reached the West Indies.

Our watch arrangements worked smoothly and the watches below were seldom called upon to assist.

When we left, the wind was E.N .E., force 4, and falling light, but it freshened up again when we passed Start Point, about 4 p.m., and shaped a course for ten miles west of Ushant.

Our mainsail was single-reefed with the topsail set over it and with this canvas we sailed during a fine night but with little sea. At daybreak the wind fell away to nothing, so we started the engine and kept it going till 5 p.m. when the breeze sprang up again from the same quarter. By dead reckoning Ushant was then abeam, but visibility was very poor and nothing could be seen

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WE DEPART

of the land, so, after keeping the same course for another hour, we set course across the Bay. The wind then freshened to force 6, whereupon we took in the topsail, and put a single reef in the mizzen, under which canvas we ran till daylight, Saturday, March 5th, when, the wind having eased to a moderate breeze, we shook out the reefs and set topsail again. We sighted Estacia Point light (north coast of Spain) at 9 p.m. just about in accordance with our reckoning, having had good sights of the sun during the day. On nearing the land the wind became very light, and sometimes there was insufficient to fill the· sails, at which times we used the engine. We came up to, and passed, Cape Finisterre at 2 p.m. on Sunday and coasted down to the Burlings Islands in very fine weather, reaching there at 9.30 p.m. on Monday, when we stood away for Madeira.

From the time of sailing we had seen very little shipping, even along the Portuguese coast, due no doubt to the depressed state of the shipping industry, but in the forenoon of this day a liner came up astern and passed fairly close to us. She was one of the latest additions to the P. & O. fleet, and made a fine picture as she swept majestically past, and it was only natural that we should compare our lot in the little vessel we were sailing in, with that of the people in the magnificent ship now rapidly leaving us behind.

The sight of her brought back memories of many happy voyages in the P. & 0. Company's ships, for I have travelled extensively in them, and have always found what I can only describe as " an atmosphere " of

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comfort and homeliness, combined with efficiency such as I have never experienced elsewhere.

Nothing of note happened until the following Wednesday when the wind dropped and then shifted to the S. W. About 5 p.m. there came a heavy south-west swell and a falling glass, so we housed the topmast, single-reefed foresail, mainsail and mizzen and bent storm jib. The wind was now freshening and S.W., and it kept so till Friday night during which we were hove to with a moderate gale blowing, and with a considerable sea running. But the ship was very dry and riding easily. Here, too, a wild pigeon settled on board, which we caught after dark and kept until nearing Madeira when we released him.

The wind moderated at dawn on Saturday so we made sail again, and at 9 a.m. on Monday sighted the island of Porto Santo (45 miles from Madeira) at a big distance. By degrees we closed the land until after sunset when it fell calm. Early next morning a hard squall came from the north-east, with torrential rain, and this took us in to Funchal, where we dropped anchor at 10 a.m. in the Small Pontinha harbour.

Just under thirteen days from Brixham. Not a bad start to our long trip, very fortunate in the weather, and we were highly pleased with the ship's behaviour. Several cables were despatched home to tell of our arrival, which was sooner than most of the recipients had been told to expect.

Beyond mentioning the filling of the tanks I have omitted to say anything about our fresh water supply though one of the most, in fact the most, important

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item of all, but there was good reason to remember it at this point. Abaft the saloon, on either side, a cask was built in to the shape of the ship, each with a capacity of 180 gallons. They dated back I believe to 1906 when the " Vigilant " was built. When about half-way to Madeira it was reported that the starboard cask, from which we had been drawing, was empty, whereas it should still have been half full. Shortly after we got in we stripped down the bulkhead covering it and discovered several defective staves. It was obvious, therefore, that most of the water from this cask had gone into the bilges.

Of course this cask had to be condemned and in its place we fitted two galvanized iron tanks, each holding 110 gallons. We had also ideas about treating the port side in a similar manner, but this cask appeared still to be sound, so we let it remain and hoped for the best. Madeira was just about at its best during our week's stay there; quite pleasantly hot, with a cooling breeze generally from the eastward; but the season was nearly at an end, and we heard that most of the visitors would be leaving the island about a fortnight later. Amongst the many notabilities there at the time was Admiral Jellico, who would have paid our little ship a visit but for the fact that he was not very well at the time. On Thursday, March 17th, the Cunard liner "Franconia" ' making one of the much advertised yachting trips, arrived and anchored in the bay. A Dr. Mellows, who had, in 1928, been on an expedition to Sacambaya, away in Equador, of which Jolly was also a member was acting as assistant surgeon on board. He came over to

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see us, accompanied by two brothers named Hewetson who were making the trip in " Franconia ", and after they had seen our ship several of us accepted their invitation to lunch with them in the " Franconia ". The change from our menu in the " Vigilant " was marked and we made the most of it.

I went to High Mass at the Cathedral on Sunday (Palm Sunday) and was much struck by the mixed nature of the congregation; for it seemed as if every nation was represented there. The Cathedral itself is very beautiful inside, and I spent an enjoyable hour on Monday looking over it. The outstanding feature seems to be the magnificently-carved woodwork in the Sacristy. The building dates back to the 16th century. We weighed anchor again on Tuesday, March 22nd, to find the wind outside the harbour light and variable, but in the evening it settled down in the N .E., and this proved to be the beginning of the N.E. Trades.

We then put the ship on a south-by-east course for the Salvage Islands and at breakfast-time on Monday, March 24th, we sighted Burt Peak, the highest point of Great Salvage Island. At midday we had anchored in twelve fathoms off the south end of the island, and close in.

Our information regarding the treasure said to be buried here relates more particularly to Grand Piton Island, ten miles to the south-west, but we had also been told that some opinions favoured the idea of its concealment on Great Salvage, and we thought it worth while at least to have a look at it. Before anchoring we cruised along the east side hoping to find a landing

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place off a well-defined gorge marked on the chart as Green Gully, but there was a considerable amount of swell running in from the north-east, and the chart gave the bottom as being bad holding ground, so we made no serious attempt to stay there.

Great Salvage is roughly square and measures about a mile each way, the surface is undulating and is mostly composed of lava with little soil in it. The coastline, too, is generally steep, with vertical cliffs from 150 to 250 feet high, and rising inland to Burt Peak with an altitude of 515 feet. It is as a rule uninhabited but visited in July and August each year by fishermen from the Canary Islands, who fish and shoot birds, a kind of tern, which are there in great numbers. They sun dry these birds, which are edible, and are said to take away many thousands each year. Rabbits are numerous but there is no fresh water, so that on the whole, it is a rather desolate spot.

About 3 p.m. five of our party, of whom Cooper was one, managed with some difficulty to land almost abreast of the spot we were anchored in, and Cooper had a good walk over such ground as appeared to be likely or possible burying places for treasure. He also included a number of caves, but without getting any re-action to his spring. Next day, there being a fresh wind and a good deal of sea, we remained at anchor, but the following morning three others with myself tried again to land; the swell, however, had become too heavy close in and we had to abandon the attempt. So we returned to the ship, weighed anchor and arrived off Grand Piton Island at 12.30 p.m., where

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we dropped it again off the south end of the island in ten fathoms of water, with rocks and reefs just beyond swinging distance on each side of us. After lunch we had a shot at landing, but again surf made the attempt quite impossible, and this increased so much during the afternoon that we decided it would be unsafe to stay there. We therefore got under weigh at 4 p.m., and stood off-and-on during the night under jib, foresail and mizzen, hoping for more favourable conditions next day. It was as bad as ever in the morning, however (Easter Sunday by the way), nor did there appear to be any prospect of change of weather, so after breakfast we kept her away for Las Palmas, our object in going there being mainly for the purpose of filling our oil-fuel tanks, having been unable to procure this at Madeira.

With the wind steady at N.E., and weather fine, we made good going and arrived at Las Palmas-early on Tuesday morning, March 29th. The pilot boarded and took us to the inner harbour, where we made fast to buoys.

Our stay at Las Palmas lasted six days; six very enjoyable and lazy days in perfect weather, a good deal of which time we spent on shore. This place, a Spanish possession, is, I think, in every way a more pleasant and desirable spot than Madeira, and everything appeared to be both cheap and good. The people, too, were more cheerful and affable, and ready to do anything to help us.

On Saturday, H.M.S. "Endeavour", which had for some months been doing survey work off the Gold

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Coast, arrived to coal. Her skipper, Commander W. V. Rice, was an old contemporary of Finnis so we went on board and took "one or more" with a cheery crowd who returned our visit, and were very interested in our ship and venture. We touched them for a few stores in the way of rope and paint, and also a deck log-book. We hoped they would remain in harbour over the weekend, but they were in a hurry and sailed in the late afternoon. Apropos of our attempts to persuade them to stay another day or two, we had an amusing interchange of signals when she was leaving, though, to appreciate it fully, it would ·be necessary to know the limitations of the International Code Signal book. After a hurried look we hoisted E.P.D. which means "Endeavour to come alongside", in reply to which they gave us instantly E.X.H., which means, " It was arranged that I should not ". I think "Endeavour " scored in this little encounter. On Sunday morning I went to the Cathedral, another very fine building, but found High Mass over. It appears that since the late revolution in Spain religion, as in Spain itself, is, at any rate for the time being, relegated to the background.

Finnis and I thereupon went by bus, rather a ramshackle affair, out to a village some miles away in the hills named Santa Brigida, where we had an enjoyable lunch. It was quite cold up there compared with the port, and the place is much frequented by the townspeople, especially on Sundays, who run out there in their cars for either lunch or dinner. We returned on board in the late evening after dining under the trees in the

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square outside one of the many hotel-restaurants.

At 3 p.m. next day, April 4th, we watered, took on board a good stock of fruit and vegetables, then hove up anchor and went alongside the Mole. At 4 p.m., after taking in our oil, we sailed under engine-power, for there was not a breath of wind. We went by way of the north side of the island, for we were more or less inclined to have another shot at the Salvages if the weather appeared to be at all favourable. But as soon as we got clear of the harbour the same old heavy north-east swell was met and we knew that it would only be a further waste of time, so the idea was abandoned to the possibility of another try when homeward bound, unless we were by then so full of treasure that there would be no room for more! So we headed for Trinidad, 2,200 miles away.

It was a perfect night but flat calm until about 4 in the morning when a faint breeze came from E.N.E., and I was thinking of rousing some of the lads to get some canvas on her when the engine sounded as if it were not running quite smoothly, and a few minutes later it stopped. After a hasty look round Cooper reported that the reduction gear was stripped, and this meant that the engine was now out of action until such time as the damaged part could be replaced. At this date we had proposed to stay in Trinidad long enough for a good rest and to see whatever might be worth while, but we were now rather concerned at the thought that we would have to stay there at least a month whilst the new gear was being sent out from· England. After we had talked the matter over, how-

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ever, the difficulty was overcome by our decision to sail down to St. Vincent, in the Cape Verde Islands ( about 800 miles distant, but only adding about 200 miles to our distance to Trinidad) and send cabled instructions from there for the new parts. By doing this we estimated that they would reach Trinidad at about the same time as ourselves.

So we put her on a south-west by south course for St. Vincent, and the wind being dead astern furled mainsail, hoisted our yard and set the squaresail for the first time. We found this sail very useful to us; its size was 20 feet across and 18 feet deep, with an additional strip 5 feet deep which laced on to the foot of the squaresail. Added to this we, at times, stretched a tarpaulin across to fill some of the space between the foot of the sail and the deck, and under this rig she made very good speed. A fishing-line with spinner had been kept towing astern since we left the Bay of Biscay, and two days after sailing from Las Palmas we caught our first fish a ten-pound dolphin, which made excellent eating. During the next few days we bagged several other fish mostly a rather ugly-looking brand of the eel tribe, but did not care to risk eating them, though the cats had no objection. The results of our fishing on the outward voyage on the whole did not come up to expectations; we got fish from time to time, but many were undoubtedly lost owing to not being pulled in when they were hooked. The wind was keeping steadily to the N.E., the weather was beautiful, the nights in particular being perfect, and through it all we pushed steadily along.

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San Antonio light was sighted at 4 a.m. Wednesday, April 13th, and we dropped anchor in Porto Grande harbour at 8 a.m. The Port authorities boarded and as we had no Portuguese bill of health ( not having intended calling here when we left Las Palmas) an official was left on board as quarantine guard. That is what they called him but what his duties were exactly could not be discovered, for we went to and from the shore as we wished, and were visited by several of the British community, who extended the usual courtesies and hospitality to us. There are about sixty British at St. Vincent, and I fancy they have a pretty dull time of it, for the facilities for enjoyment are decidedly limited; in fact, rather a dreary spot when compared with either Las Palmas or Madeira.

Our cable was duly despatched asking for a new reduction gear to be sent at once to Trinidad, and it occurred to me that this would be a good opportunity for setting up the rigging-lanyards which had worked slack. I took the serving off one of them to make sure that they were in good condition, but, far from being so, found that they were absolutely perished, and why they had not carried away as a result of the rolling in the following seas we had experienced for some days will always remain a mystery to me. Fortunately, we had in our stores a coil of 3½-inch manila rope reinforced with wire strands, and from this Finnis and I made new lanyards which were rove off and set up with good results. Finnis was particularly apt at the Matthew Walker knots for the lanyards. The day after our arrival broke with a

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strong N.E. wind which increased very much, and about noon, although more cable was veered, she started to drag. A Portuguese gunboat, the " Bengo ", lying quite near us, kindly sent a boat and took the end of one of our hawsers to her forecastle-head as a precautionary measure, but in the meantime we had dropped our second anchor and this held her.

As a rule, at the commencement of a voyage, there will be some item of outstanding interest which is discussed more frequently than any other, and round which there is more argument and difference of opinion than about any of the many topics of interest that may be current at the time. Our trip was no exception to the rule, and the matter that came in for particular attention was the teredo worm. There was certainly every excuse, for this was of deep importance to us. According to some authorities it would not be possible for a wooden ship, unprotected by copper or some other sheathing, to remain more than a very short time in tropical waters without becoming riddled by this pest. I am afraid that we held very divided opinions on the subject, and, although I had personally a wholesome dread of the animal, I could not bring myself to believe it necessary to get our hull cleaned and painted every few weeks; neither would it have been possible to find the facilities for doing so in the part of the world to which we were bound, to say nothing about the financial part of the question.

It had been arranged, there being nothing to hold us here at St. Vincent, and nothing much of interest to see, to sail on Friday afternoon, April 15th, after

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a two days stay, and by 3.30 p.m. on that day we had hoisted sail and shortened-in cable ready for weighing, whilst awaiting the return of three of our party who were with friends on shore. They duly arrived and it seemed that there had been much conversation regarding our pet the teredo worm; in fact there arose more than a suggestion that we should postpone our departure, haul up on a slipway that was ready ( and which, as a matter of fact, was the property of one of our friends) and do her bottom.

The usual charges were to be very much reduced in our case as a special concession, and it was a toss of the coin as to whether we should take advantage of this offer or not. But the fact that we were ready for sea decided against staying and we got under weigh and were towed out of the harbour by a tug, which was kindly placed at our disposal, as it was flat calm. It was perhaps a pity to have missed this chance of cleaning, but, on the other hand, we were as yet but six weeks out from home.

We lay becalmed all night in the channel between St. Vincent and San Antonio Island, but just before sunrise the welcome ripple on the water foreran a nice little breeze from the eastward, which soon took us clear of the land, and after breakfast we hoisted our topsail to a smart E.N.E. wind.

The following morning we bent our large jib and balloon foresail, the trade wind being very light and very easterly, so much so that we had to steer rather to the north ward of our actual course to enable all our canvas to draw. And thus our trip across the Atlantic

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commenced and continued with one day very much like another; enjoyable, lazy days with pleasantly warm and cloudless nights during which one was able to turn out and go straight up for the watch on deck in pyjamas.

Just about this time, April 19th to be exact, first attempts at bread-making were made, and they were comic. Tracey was the first baker, and the stuff he turned out was quite fit to eat, but unfortunately he set fire to the galley-stove, and very nearly the ship as well. All the joints of the Lathom cooker were melted off and Cooper had a full day's work soldering up again. I need hardly say that this work was accompanied by suitable remarks. After this, on succeeding days, everybody had a shot at making bread ( I should have said everyone but myself) and we soon produced bread up to shore standard. But the arguments as to how it should be done, and the quantities of the different ingredients, especially in the matter of yeast, were terrific. Each one had his own pet theory, and, although I do not think the discussion ever came to an end, no one was ever persuaded from his original ideas. Anyway we got bread-sometimes good.

I find the following entry in my log against the date April 23rd. " Rum finished, gin finished ", and another for the next day, "Tracey and Cooper each produced half a bottle of whisky which they had somehow managed to keep ". Well, that was the last of that till Trinidad.

On Monday, April 25th, the wind veered slightly, and this change brought it almost dead astern, so that

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we were compelled to furl mainsail and set the square-sail, under which canvas we sailed the remainder of the way across. Flying fish flew aboard on most nights, but the Trades were very light, and there was never enough to provide a good breakfast of these delightful fish; consequently the cats had a royal time.

Galera Point light at the north-east extreme of Trinidad Island was sighted at 2 a.m. on May 5th, and the sunrise that morning was one of the finest I have ever seen. As we gradually closed the land the wind fell light and variable, and the whole of the next day was spent in doing the forty miles along the north coast of the island, but we reached the Bocas, the entrance to the bay in which Port-of-Spain lies, in the late afternoon. Shortly after sunset the breeze came along from the east and we sailed through the western-most channel, then beat up to the harbour where we anchored off the jetty at 5 a.m. of the morning of May the 7th. We had been up most of the night so turned in for a few hours' sleep, but boatmen of all kinds came to have a look at us as soon as it was daylight, also fruit merchants and laundry ladies. They appeared to know all about us, from the newspapers, I suppose, and had been looking out for our arrival. We had a late breakfast at about ten o'clock and then went on shore to call upon the harbour-master and other officials, also to stretch our legs. The information that alligators were to be found in the Caroni river and swamp, a few miles down the coast from Port-of-Spain, fired the imagination of Cooper and Howe,

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neither of whom had ever been in tropical waters before and after lunch they set off in our dinghy, which, had been fitted with a twenty-year-old Evinrude motor. The motor sometimes worked but generally did not, and had, in fact, rested in the garden ash-heap at Jolly's place for some years prior to being brought aboard "Vigilant". The hunters got back to the ship after dark and, sure enough, brought with them a 7-foot alligator of which we did not think a lot, but it appears that this size is about the largest found in this particular district. Howe skinned it and afterwards had the skin cured for taking home. The day after our arrival Milbourne, Cooper and I lunched at the Union Club whose committee had made us all honorary members for the period of our stay.

Two days later, Finnis, Cooper and myself called upon Father English, Principal of St. Mary's College, chiefly to find out whether he could recommend a black cook who would be prepared to sail with us until we called again at Trinidad homeward bound. The reverend gentleman, whose charm of manner captured us at once, promised to look about for a suitable one. He then showed us over the College, and afterwards accompanied us to a very beautiful spot called Blue Basin, a few miles out of the town. A deep pool of extremely blue water, fed by a fall about fifty feet high, set amongst trees and tropical growth, which we were told was a favourite place for picnics. Back in the town we dined at the Union Club, but Father English to our regret was not able to join us.

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Cooper fitted the new reduction gear next day, for it had, as we had hoped, arrived by steamer at about the same time as ourselves, and as we had been told that we ought to visit the Pitch Lake at La Brea, about twenty-four miles down the coast, we made the trip in order to give the new gear a run, steaming down and dropping anchor off the Trinidad Asphalt Company's pier at seven in the evening.

In the morning, after breakfast, we all landed, and after calling at the Company's offices, where we were received with the true hospitality of these parts, went to see the lake about a quarter of a mile away. This was a rough, uneven, greyish-black stretch of ground about 114 acres in extent, on which gangs of blacks were engaged in digging out huge chunks of pitch - These lumps weighed from forty to fifty pounds apiece and were carried to cablecar-trolleys near by, upon which they were pulled up the hill to the works for refining and packing for shipment. Contrary to expectation, it is possible to walk anywhere on the lake, although if you stood in any one spot for a time you would settle down about half an inch, but there is no danger of going any deeper. Very large quantities are removed every day, and in twenty-four hours the holes have levelled up again. The popular view is that an unending supply down below is ready to replace whatever may be taken out, and up to a point this must be so. Actually, however, during the last fifty years, about five million tons of pitch have been taken away, and in this time the, surface of the lake has dropped roughly twenty feet;

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but, since a recent survey shows that the lake is about 280 feet deep, there would not seem to be much fear of the pitch giving out for many a long day. In the afternoon we returned to our anchorage at Port-of-Spain, the engine having worked without a fault. Before we left England rumours had reached us about an expedition that was being organised in Vancouver, British Colombia, to seek for the Cocos Island treasure, but we had not paid much attention to it. Newspaper accounts now showed us, however, that this had actually arrived at the island in March and that they had obtained a concession for three years from the Costa Rican government. This came rather as a shock to us, but for the time being we did not seriously consider our future action there. This was because since our arrival, we had been flooded with information about various batches of hidden treasure in Trinidad itself and the many adjacent islands, so proposed to give our minds to some of these and leave Cocos till later on. We therefore, got under weight at 10 a.m., next day, and steamed down to Gasparee Island, about eight miles distant, for we had brought with us from England certain clues as to the whereabouts of a treasure said to have been buried there. These referred to Bombshell Bay, a gun-site ( the gun having been mounted there during the late war, but never used, and long since dismantled), a paved path leading to a cave, with a banyan tree and clumps of banana trees.

For the most part this island, about 1½ miles from

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east to west and a ¼-mile from north to south, is covered with dense undergrowth, through which, in the endeavour to find the clues, paths had to be cut with machetes. These knives, a heavy single-handled knife about two feet long, are used throughout the West Indies and the Central American States, and it would be nearly impossible to conduct any exploration work on such ground without them, or something similar. About a week was spent here, Bombshell Bay and the gun-site being easily found, but the remainder of the clues defied all our efforts; so Gasparee had to be written off the list.

On Saturday, May 14th, we returned to Port-of-Spain, and were visited on Sunday afternoon by Father English and about thirty of his Sea Scouts, and a fine lot of lads they were. They, naturally enough, were very much taken with our little ship, and hardly a day passed during the remainder of our time there without some of these boys coming on board. They also did many odd jobs for us, such, for instance, as taking our lifeboat in to the beach and giving her a good scrape and a coat of paint. We also engaged a black boy as cook, whose only name , appeared to be "Windy", and by this name he was always known. As a makeshift he did fairly well, but he was far from being a definite success, though we kept him for about four months, and then sent him back from Panama by German steamer when we returned there from Cocos for stores. But by that time we had taken on another fellow, a Mexican whom we picked up at Puntarenas and he was a great improvement. '

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On Whit Monday we again went down to Gasparee where we put four of the party on shore, then took the others further on to Monos Island, where a Mr. Sieghert had ideas about buried treasure on property belonging to him. This gentleman is the owner and manufacturer of the famous Angostura bitters; his factory, which we looked over, being at Port-of-Spain. Cooper walked over the ground and met with very decided reactions in two places, so digging operations were carried out here for the next few days. After a considerable amount of excavation had been done Cooper failed to get any further response, and it was then found that the original indications had been caused by gold-bearing quartz, but the quantity of gold was insufficient to pay for working in the ordinary way.

We paid still another visit to Gasparee to see some very fine caves there, and in one of these Howe captured a bat with which these caves swarmed. Howe was a keen naturalist, and he took this animal on board, fed it and kept it for some days during which time he was bitten two or three times. I was dining a little later with a Doctor Masson, the chief medical officer of Trinidad, who had, strangely enough, a few years previously, resided with his wife at my home-town in Devonshire, and I happened to relate the bat incident to him. To my surprise he was greatly concerned, for he explained that, just at this time, bats that carried some deadly infection had been discovered at Trinidad and on other West Indian islands. He begged me to have this particular bat sent at once to the hospital for examination, for almost certain death occurs in about

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three weeks should the bite be from one that is so infected. Howe seemed naturally rather keen to know where he stood in the matter and it was taken to hospital, but fortunately found to be free from infection.

We had arrived at Trinidad only a day or two before the rainy season started, and were now getting all the rain we wanted, and rather more, but, generally speaking, the evenings were fine. On many occasions I went for car-drives with friends before dinner, and this was well worth doing if only to see the fire-flies.

Our diggings in the various places we attempted were by no means all joy, for the weather was intensely hot, and the diggers suffered a good deal from mosquito and other bites, though without any bad results beyond discomfort.

During all this time we were constantly getting letters and verbal messages relating to supposed buried treasure, and many of them were investigated by Cooper; but in no single instance did we obtain any tangible result.

One very promising place, about which we had been told, was in a quarry belonging to a Mr. Lee Lum, a Chinaman (and a good Chinaman), the position having formerly been a Spanish fort, remains of which are still strongly in evidence. From time to time so Lee Lum informed us, coins had been picked up by the quarrymen in the ordinary course of their work but a very careful scrutiny by Cooper failed to find any indications, so this time we were saved any excavation.

Our doings in and about Port-of-Spain created quite

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a lot of interest in the island, and scarcely a day passed without some reference, as a rule humorous, appearing in the local papers about either the ship or her crew. Our next and final attempt to recover treasure at Trinidad was of a different character to the others. In the year 1786, England being then at war with Spain, the Naval Commander-in-Chief in the West Indies received despatches in which he was ordered to proceed from his station at Jamaica to Trinidad, and to endeavour to capture or destroy certain craft that were harrying British shipping to and from the West Indies.

A considerable fleet, commanded by Admiral Harvey, accordingly sailed and arrived off the Bocas on February 17th, 1797, passed through them the same day, and found anchored in Chaguaramus Bay four Spanish war-ships under the command of Admiral Alvocar. Harvey's vessels took up position off the two entrances to the bay in the late afternoon, the intention being to attack the enemy at daylight; but during the night the Spaniards set fire to and sank their ships, escaping to the shore in their boats. The British naval forces landed next day and marched upon Port-of-Spain, which they captured with little or no resistance. In this manner Trinidad became a British possession. It has been handed down that the Spanish ships contained vast treasure, though no specified reason has ever been given for having it on board, neither would it appear likely that ships-of-war would, in the ordinary way, carry money or valuables to any great value. On the other hand a small

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Spanish galleon which, shortly before this event had been taken in the Caribbean Sea by a British frigate; carried specie on board to the value of £15,000. Of course, war-ships of those days invariably carried a good deal of coin for the payment of their crews, and this is understandable because they were absent from home for years at a time. It is said, too, that money was also carried for the purpose of negotiation in any new territories they might come across.

Crossing this bay one afternoon, on a fishing expedition, Cooper had tried his spring and found definite gold reactions in three different places, fairly close together. As a result we made up our minds to see whether anything could be done to prove the galleons to be still there.

Consequently, with Jolly, I called upon the Colonial Secretary, on the 4th of June, to ask for permission to carry out such search as we might be capable of, and, what was equally important, to find out the share we should be entitled to did anything accrue as an out-come of our efforts. After consulting with the Solicitor-General, the Colonial Secretary, who I thought was much more amused than impressed, said there was no objection, but that the question of division of spoils would have to be considered when there was anything to show for it.

Finnis and I had been to the races at the Savannah the previous day and had lost all the money we had, nor were we expecting more from home for some time, so we felt in the mood to make serious efforts to find something.

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WE DEPART

We therefore left Port-of-Spain again on Monday, June 6th, and went down to Chaguaramus Bay, where we anchored near the spot indicated by Cooper as giving the best indications. Shortly afterwards we got to work in two boats, used a drag-sweep over a considerable area, but met with no obstructions of note.

We discovered, however, that our ship was anchored over a patch which was elevated about two fathoms above the surrounding bottom, and naturally thought that this might easily be one of the sunken ships, doubtless with many hundreds of tons of silt over her. After a lapse of 130 years this would be expected, but the position is very favourable for recovering anything that might lie there, for the bay is practically landlocked, the weather generally fine with smooth water, the rise and fall of tide only about three feet, and, most important of all, the depth is only about thirty-five feet. We decided to borrow, if possible, a hand-boring set, to see whether anything could be gathered from efforts by this means, and Cooper got in touch with some of his oilfield friends, who said they would gladly lend us the necessary outfit. By invitation from a Mr. Mackenzie we explored a cave on a small island called Cronstadt. This cave was about forty feet above sea-level and we had some difficulty in getting up to it. Inside we found the finest collection of bats I have ever come across, but beyond this nothing, so we hove-up anchor and returned to Port-of-Spain. The promised gear arrived on June I Ith and two

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TREASURE CRUISE

days later we returned to Chaguaramus Bay. There we held a discussion and decided to construct a raft, which was done with twenty-feet planks, and a number of fifty-gallon oil-drums, kindly lent to us for the purpose and sent down by road. Boring operations were then carried out, but we learnt little from the small bits the worm brought up, our tackle not being very suitable for the job. At daylight, next day, we discovered that during the night a strong tide had caused our raft to drag, and this had carried away the bottom length of our boring-rod left down the night before. We did our best to recover this but without success, and the effort was thereupon abandoned, the raft dismantled, and we returned to our anchorage at Port-of-Spain.

At this date Major Phillips, who had lately been suffering from stomach trouble of some kind, announced his intention not to go on with us unless his health improved, but to return to England. Cooper, Finnis and myself dined, on June 20th, with a Mr. Deane who is very largely interested in one of the big oil concerns in Trinidad, and who had been of great assistance to us in many ways. Whether we dined too well, or oysters were responsible, I cannot say, but Cooper and I were hors-de-combat for two subsequent days. The attack (fever and dysentry) passed off as quickly as it had come and we were luckily none the worse for it.

We now realized that it was about time we made a move, so held a meeting to discuss ways and means, and also to fix our future programme. General opinion

56

WE DEPART

favoured going straight on to Cocos, even though, in reply to a cable sent to Vancouver, we were told that the expedition already mentioned was still on the island. This was a change from our original plans, for we had proposed going to Jamaica and also to British Honduras after Trinidad, whereas now we decided to sail straight to Cocos via Panama.

On June 24th we hired divers to scrape our bottom; this in the absence of any facilities for docking or beaching, and they made a fairly good I job of it, but there was, of course, no opportunity for giving her a coat of paint, which, by this time, was no doubt needed, though an expert in these matters, who carefully examined her hull, said that he could discover no trace of teredo worm. We, therefore, prepared for sea after our seven weeks spell at Trinidad. Before sailing we were presented by Mr. Mackenzie, already referred to, with a chart in colours of a small island on which treasure was said to have been concealed. The whereabouts of this island was not definitely known but it was supposed to be one of a small group called the Testigoes; only about 110 miles from Trinidad, and more or less in our track on the way to Colon. At about two o'clock on the morning of Saturday, June 25th, a huge fire broke out on shore and this proved to be the Bonded Stores. The building was burnt to the ground and 15,000 barrels of rum ( approximately one and a half million gallons) destroyed. A most regrettable business but a wonderful sight.

57

CHAPTER IV

BOUND FOR PANAMA

SHORTLY after noon on the following day we picked up our anchor and set our course to Colon, Major Phillips having decided at the last minute that he would not accompany us. He returned to England some weeks later, and we heard later that he had completely recovered. After passing through the Bocas we encountered a heavy, easterly swell, and the wind being light we rolled badly for a few hours, but in spite of this it was good to be at sea again. Almost as soon as the sun went down the north-east wind sprang up and we carried this to the Testigo Islands which we sighted early next morning. At 1.30 p.m. we anchored about 1oo yards from the shore on the west side of Testigo Grande, the largest of the group. About an hour before arrival a fairly stiff squall struck us in which we lost our jib, only the bolt-ropes remaining. It is only fair to say that this was a very old sail, only fit for use in the finest weather, and it was not surprising therefore that it blew to pieces. This group of islands is ordinarily uninhabited, but used in the months of June, July and August each year, by a crowd of Venezuelan fishermen from the main-land. We found them in residence on our arrival,

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with quite a little fleet of fishing vessels, and as soon as we were anchored two boatloads of them came alongside. About as murderous-looking a gang as it would be possible to meet anywhere, but they appeared to be friendly enough, though obviously full of curiosity as to the reason for our visit. A lusty lot of fellows wearing miles of moustache, straw hats about the size of an army bell-tent, and carrying fearsome looking knives stuck in their belts. As far as the difficulties of language would allow we told them we were hoping to get a shipload of turtle to take back to Trinidad, for want of a better story. This went down pretty well, for they told us that this would be easy enough in the right season, but that the turtle were not now coming in to the beaches to lay their eggs. We landed next morning some distance away from their camp and shot four wild goats which are plentiful here, then returned on board and had goat-chops for our midday meal. Not at all bad and rather like mutton. Soon after lunch a deputation came off, and the chief of the brigands tried to explain that he was, for the time being, Governor of the island, and that on no account must we shoot any goats, which were protected. We did our best to assure him that nothing was further from our thoughts, but that we wanted permission to shoot rabbits and pigeons. But before these people had come on board, Sheffield and Howe, neither of whom had landed in the morning, had gone to try their hand, and it was distinctly unfortunate that whilst the argument was in full swing a perfect fusillade broke out on shore.

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TREASURE CRUISE

But we pacified them somehow, and presented them with some odds and ends of worn-out rope, the remains of the damaged jib, and allowed them to listen to the wireless, which by some happy chance was rendering some Spanish stuff from a station in Mexico. This last gave them intense amusement. Later in the day we gave them a couple of pounds of Capstan tobacco, and when they finally left us, a boat came off again after dark, with a quantity of fish.

We moved off at daylight to search for our island, the group consisting of Testigo Grande, the largest, four or five smaller ones, and a few others, which were not more than glorified rocks. We cruised about and had a good look at the nearest three, but as they bore no resemblance to our picture we went back to our former anchorage in the evening, having caught a 28-pound barracuda and a 15-pound cavalla, both very tasty fish.

We pushed out under engine alone on the following day, making towards the most distant island to the north-east, and when viewed from a considerable distance it was at once evident beyond all doubt that this was the subject of the drawing we carried, and executed so long ago by unknown hands.

Having no chart of these islands beyond a very small scale one, which was valueless for purposes of navigation, we approached with some caution, and found anchorage off the west side of the island in six fathoms, with apparently good holding ground. We then landed and explored, but the markings on our map could not be found. This did not surprise us for

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BOUND FOR PANAMA

there had been huge falls of cliff in the positions we wanted. The whole island is less than half a mile in length, and only about 3oo yards wide; it was, therefore, easy enough for Cooper to cover such ground as might be at all possible. We boarded the ship again before dark with the intention of landing in the morning, armed with picks and shovels, to dig at a spot marked by Cooper, who was, however, only lukewarm as to the workings of his spring. This we did, and dug through the greater part of the day, gingering up our efforts with some sticks of dynamite. But, after getting down a reasonable distance without finding any indications of a change of soil, we gave it up, went back on board, and at 6 p.m. weighed and set sail for Colon with a good N.E. wind blowing. This wind held throughout our 1,100 mile run there, sometimes fresh and squally with a fairly high sea, and we crept at last through the breakwater-entrance at midnight, Sunday, July 10th, and dropped anchor.

The Port Doctor arrived alongside at 7 a.m. and granted us pratique. An official measurer boarded to fix our Canal tonnage as the ship had not been through before, and after breakfast, we called at the Port Captain's offices and paid our dues. We then had a wander round the town, having arranged for the Pilot to come off at six o'clock next morning to take us through the Canal. Our passage through this wonderful place was made without any incident worth recording and we finally came to an anchorage off the yacht club at Balboa, the port at the Pacific end of the Canal and adjoining Panama.

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TREASURE CRUISE

Much as we liked this place our stay was cut down to three days, for the Cocos Island fever was now strong upon us, and increased because rumours that the Vancouver people had unearthed a vast treasure had come through only a few days previously. There had not been any official confirmation of this, and just before we left it was denied by a wireless message from the island itself. We met many friends at Balboa, and in particular I must mention Commander Nichols of the United States Navy (in charge of the Naval wireless station at Balboa) who told us to let him know if at any time we found ourselves in difficulty, for he promised that, as far as possible, he would help us. As it afterwards turned out this was by no means an idle promise. Another very helpful friend was a Mr. Whaler, who holds a position of trust with the Panama Canal Company, and in whose employ he has been for nearly thirty years. He was a great authority on deep-sea fishing at which he spends a good deal of his spare time in the Gulf of Panama, and especially round about the Pearl Islands. Before we sailed he presented us with a magnificent outfit of fishing gear, of which I fear we did not make full use.

An American, Taylor by name, who paid us one or two visits, gave us certain information to do with treasure at Montuoso Island, off the coast of Panama, and distant 250 miles; also tales about another place, Cano Island, 150 miles north of Montuoso, belonging to Costa· Rica; the attraction at the latter island being old Indian graves. He had spent a few days there about a year previously with a fellow explorer, but

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BOUND FOR PANAMA

they had failed to do more than scratch about, and gave the job up owing to the heavy rains which made digging well-nigh impossible. As it only meant an addition of roughly 200 miles to our course to Cocos we made up our minds to have a look at these two places, and arranged for Taylor to come along with us.

This decision made, we filled our fresh-water-tanks, took in stores of all kinds and sailed from Balboa in the evening of Friday, July 15th, and picking up a pleasant sailing breeze as soon as we had passed the last of the Canal buoys. By 3 p.m. next day we had passed Cape Mala (Bad Cape) 100 miles from Panama, after which the wind became light and variable, finally falling away altogether to becalm us for twenty-four hours. But we did not use the engine for we were in no violent hurry and wished to hold on to our oil fuel for the return journey in a few days' time ( as we then thought) from Cocos. We then met with heavy thunderstorms on the 18th, and rain continued more or less all the time till we arrived off Montuoso about noon on Tuesday the 19th. There are rocks and off-lying reefs practically all round this island, but we cruised about and in the end picked up a good billet on the north-east ·side, close in-shore. In this berth we were also clear of the heavy surf that was breaking elswhere. Montuoso is roughly one mile long by half a mile wide, 500 feet high and densely wooded from summit to water's edge. Some of the party landed, but most of us waited till next day when we went onshore in force, hoping to get a wild pig or

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TREASURE CRUISE

two, some having been seen the day before. We got no sight of them, however, though we completely circled the island; for it was possible to do this at or near low water. We could not penetrate inland at all owing to the dense undergrowth, which consisted almost entirely of prickly stuff. For many days afterwards I was pulling spikes out of my legs and body, and some of the others made an even better collection than I did judging by their language. The trees are practically all coconut palms, and nuts and fallen trees lay about in thousands.

Iguanas were here in great numbers, and we had been told that they were a great delicacy, but we did not experiment, nor did we kill any. Parrots, too, of many kinds, and lots of birds whose names I did not know. Quite a number of turtles were seen also, but there was no good beach where we might expect to catch them napping at night time.

After a good look round we went off to the ship for lunch minus Howe, who had somehow managed to work inland and so had become separated from the rest of the party. As there was no sign of him on the beach by 4 p.m. we landed again to make search, and after going completely round the island once more found him at the landing-place just before dark. He had been trying to get birds' eggs of some kind and had found difficulty in getting back again to the beach. Our remarks to him had better not be recorded; but we had been worried, for we quite thought he had met with an accident of some kind, and had been unable to travel. It would have been the devil's own job to

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BOUND FOR PANAMA

find anyone who got adrift in this place and it was a relief when he turned up in good order. We then pushed off to the ship, very tired, at 7 p.m. I should have mentioned that orchids and many varieties of begonia abound here, and that we found no place that could possibly conceal treasure. Shortly after daylight we headed for Cano Island, using the engine in the absence of wind. It was now very clear weather and in the evening Mount Chiriqui ( volcanic), distant seventy-five miles, was plainly visible.

We arrived off Cano Island at noon on Saturday, July 23rd, and again found a good, sheltered anchorage on the north-east side. Cano is slightly bigger than Montuoso and very like it in appearance, but about one hundred feet less in height.

On landing we found a newly-constructed hut of some size close to a beautiful little lagoon fed by a waterfall just behind it. Here we had an enjoyable bathe and then made our way inland, but at starting we had to climb about a hundred feet of fairly easy going, and, strangely enough, prickly stuff such as had been met with on Montuoso was entirely absent.

On the highest part of the island, which is flat and of considerable extent, amongst very lofty trees of the rubber tribe, we came across large stone-slabs, evidently laid with some regard to regularity, and which Taylor and Jolly said were old graves. They were all over the place. Moreover, we found some which had been dug out but by whom we did not know. On our way back to the beach we were surprised to

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TREASURE CRUISE

see a small motor vessel nosing its way round the north-east point. She came along and made her into a position just inside "Vigilant" and anchored. Almost immediately after a number of pigs were hurled over the side to the accompaniment of considerable pig-music. They swam ashore safely enough, and Taylor, who spoke Spanish fluently, held conversation with the leading man of the party. The mystery of the hut was now solved, for these people ( Costa Ricans) had obtained permission from their government to try their hands at breeding pigs on the island, and one would expect that they would flourish there, for nuts and roots of all kinds are in great quantity. But how they propose to round the animals up when required I do not know. They in any case turned them loose, all except one sow which gave birth to a fine litter next day, the event no doubt hastened by the swim from the ship to the beach.

We heard from the British Consul at San Jose ( capital of Costa Rica), when we put in to Puntarenas some weeks later from Cocos for stores, that a Government vessel had been· sent across to Cano to find out our business there, acting no doubt on information supplied by the pig-merchants. Lat we had sailed for Cocos the day before, and thus probably saved a lot of unnecessary trouble.

The following morning the diggers got busy. The story is that these ancient tribes usually buried such wealth as the deceased might have with him or her, and invariably placed a piece of gold in the mouth. The result of much , labour, two days of it in fact,

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BOUND FOR PANAMA

brought to light a lot of pottery, but not of much value the experts said, neither did it look it, and I suppose the graves were of such antiquity that even the skulls and bones had disappeared. Truly some age, but I hope I may be forgiven for being somewhat sceptical about this business. It seemed to me that these places had been camping sites in times long gone by, for the pieces of pottery we discovered were nearly all such as would have been used as cooking utensils, and I could not see that a corpse would be able to put them to any practical use. In any case, I did not enter into the spirit of the thing at all, for the idea of disturbing the remains of an ancestor, even if a thousand generations back, would be distasteful to me, and if they were graves at all, which I doubt, they belonged to some-body's forebears. Taylor told us that the island had the reputation of being either haunted, and either blessed or cursed, I forget which, owing to its use as an ancient burial ground, and it certainly was true that there were no birds there. I remember going up on deck in the middle of the first night we were there, and it was as quiet as the grave; the nearest approach to perfect silence~ I have ever experienced. Another peculiar thing happened. Seeing big numbers of fish in the water alongside, we exploded two sticks of dynamite which brought about half a boatload to the surface, but there was not an edible fish amongst them, for all were of the poisonous species. I don't suppose there was anything much in all this, but, for some unexplainable reason, I was glad to get away from the place.

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TREASURE CRUISE

In any case, two days of it were enough, even for the enthusiasts, and early on Tuesday morning , July 26th, we got under weigh and stood for Cocos in fine weather with a light southerly wind, to sight it at 3.30 a.m. on Saturday, July 30th. Both from writings and hearsay Cocos Island bears the reputation of being very difficult to find, and the surrounding waters are stated to be subject to strong currents that have no regular direction. In· the six times I have had to make the island (in each case making allowance for a moderate set to the north-east, and as the sailing directions recommend) it was done without difficulty, though on two of these occasions, owing to heavy rain, we were within ten miles ·before picking it up. In ordinary weather it is usually sighted at a distance of forty miles or more. It is a fact that in early days many shipmasters, who were sent by their respective governments to prospect, failed to find it. Amongst these definitely on record are:- Olivier Van Noort in 1600.

Joris Van Speilbergen in 1615.

William Ambrose Cowley in 1684.

Ravenau de Lassan in 1687.

Also, writing in the year 1684, William Dampier, who was then serving in "Bachelor's delight", quotes much interesting information about Cocos Island, "from hearsay, having failed to find the island" Lionel Wafer, the famous buccaneer-surgeon, was also in this ship, but he did visit Cocos in the following year. One of the only two possible anchorages

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BOUND FOR PANAMA

is named Wafer Bay after this stout fellow.

It must be remembered, however, that, until well on in the 19th century, vessels had no mechanical power, and were entirely dependent upon sail, and this would account largely for their failures in a part of the world where light, baffiing winds, calms and unknown tricky currents, are the order of the day. As an instance, during the period of our stay there, a yacht, with sail only, wallowed about for fifteen days in sight of the island before she was able to make anchorage; and she was a smart sailer, well equipped. We were fortunate in having a good little engine, even though only of low power, for it would be out of the question to cruise in these waters without one, unless time happened to be of no consequence.

At sunrise, by which time we were beginning to close the land, we could appreciate the beauty of this spot for which we had left England nearly five months earlier, and the weather being fine with a smooth sea there was nothing to spoil the effect. The whole island is high, the cliffs rising abruptly from the sea to a height of from 200 to 600 feet. The highest peak, which is rather to the south-west of the island's centre, is 2,800 feet high.

There are only two landing places, Chatham Bay and Wafer Bay. At the latter, which is the larger of the two, there is a good stretch of sandy beach about a quarter of a mile long, with flat ground at the back to a depth of about 100 yards, and this was the position we chose for our encampment. In Chatham Bay, too, there is a small sandy beach, but the ground rose to a

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TREASURE CRUISE

great height close at the back of it, and nowhere in this bay was there a spot upon which a camp could have I been made.

Against this, Chatham Bay was the better anchorage, being open to the north and sheltered from the winds which are here almost always between south and west. Wafer Bay, which faces due west, is, therefore, a lee shore, and is seldom without a heavy swell and surf. For these reasons the ship was invariably anchored in Chatham Bay ( though we sometimes took her round to Wafer Bay for the day) whilst the camp was pitched in Wafer Bay.

Cocos is thickly wooded everywhere: the trees for the most part are balsa, that light but very tough wood which was, and no doubt still is, largely used in the construction of aeroplanes and light boats. There are also, in smaller quantities, various kinds of hard woods, mahogany and so forth, but the soil is not deep and the roots in consequence have not much holding ground. It does not take, therefore, a lot of wind, when the ground is sodden with heavy rains, to blow them down. It is probably for this reason that there are no trees of any age on the island .

Water pours out of the faces of the cliffs, in many places several hundreds of feet up, and this wonderful supply of fresh water was undoubtedly one of the big attractions in olden times for the whalers and buccaneers who visited it. The sea appeared to be alive with fish and countless birds were catching them. The majority of the latter were gannets, boobies, frigate-birds, gulls and terns of many kinds.

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Gradually we opened up Chatham Bay and saw there a vessel at anchor. She was the" Silver Wave", the ship in which the Vancouver party had come, and, when required, ran to the mainland for fresh supplies. She usually went to Puntarenas in Costa Rica, that being the nearest port and distant about 300 miles. Unlike "Vigilant" she was a motor vessel, though she could set a small amount of canvas for the purpose of steadying her in bad weather; but she was entirely dependent upon her engine, and was slightly bigger than our craft.

As we neared the anchorage a boat shot out from behind Conic Island, making for the "Silver Wave". Six men were in her and they appeared to have been fishing. They waved to us as we passed them, and were, I thought, as tough-looking a lot as I ever clapped eyes on. It seems, however, that that was exactly the opinion they formed of us, and perhaps there was little to choose between the two gangs in this respect. We had long since ceased to shave, and sported a variety of rig; mostly shorts, with shirts and caps of all colours, some with seaboots, others bare-foot, and all carrying a knife in the belt. Our gang would have delighted the eye of a movie-man, but it all seemed quite in order with Cocos as a setting. The bottom close inshore is foul owing to detached rocks and coral formation, but we crept in till the water shoaled to six fathoms and then dropped hook. A better spot would have been hard to find. As soon as we were comfortably moored we got the dinghy over the side and together with Jolly and

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Finnis, I boarded the" Silver Wave". They gave us a hearty welcome, rum included, and we learnt that most of the members of the expedition were on shore at Wafer Bay where a camp had been laid out, and where operations were in progress. Colonel Leckie in charge of the expedition, and Robert Cross, business manager, were likewise at Wafer, and so far knew nothing about our arrival. We returned to " Vigilant" with part of a wild pig and plenty of fish, and after lunch Jolly, Milbourne and Tracey landed to go over to Wafer Bay, by the trail which had been cut over the hills. It took them just four hours to get there, for though the distance as the crow flies is exactly a mile, they were new to the trail, and the beginning of the journey is a climb of 700 feet to the top of the ridge between the two bays. It takes a good man to do it under an hour, and generally, if the weather was fine, communication between Wafer and Chatham was made by boat.

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CHAPTER. V

COCOS ISLAND

THE Cocos Island Treasure Company, members of which we had just run up against, was formed in Vancouver, British Colombia, and had obtained a con-cession from Costa Rica entitling it to search for treasure on the island for a period of three years. This party left Vancouver in February, 1932, on board "Silver Wave", arriving at the island on March 21st, and it was constituted as follows: -

Crew of "Silver Wave":

Captain Hansen, Engineer McDowell, and one hand named MacDonald.

Landing party:

Colonel Leckie, in charge of expedition.

Robert Cross, business manager.

E. G. Davidson, in charge of stores.

Tom Sather.

Bill Johnson.

Vic. Nelson.

J. Murray-Ure.

Al. Turgeon.

Edward Decker.

Geoffrey Hosken.

Mike Barton, cook.

Tom Young, wireless operator.

*Bob Adams, in charge of working operations.

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TREASURE CRUISE

*Jerry Warner.

*Harry Teitel.

*John Plocar.

*Bill Dann.

*Burton.

*McMillan.

*Rudd.

*Hannigan.

*Martin.

*Tom Cameron.

* Abel Muller.

*Taylor.

Of this very mixed crowd those marked with an asterisk left the island in the "Silver Wave" on September 5th to return to Vancouver, but the others remained to the end. In addition, there were, watching on behalf of the Costa Rican Government, one Colonel, one Commandant or Major, and two privates of the Costa Rican army.

Cocos Island first appears on a French map dated 1541. Before the close of that century the island seems to have been sighted by a shipmaster who either had not previously heard of it or had miscalculated his position, for he bestowed the name of Isla de la Santa Cruz upon the land he saw, believing it to be a new discovery. Reports of this discovery also reached Europe, for two separate islands are shown on the map published by Cornelius Wytfliet in 1605. One of them is marked Ys de Cocos, and the other, to the eastward where no land exists, Ys S. Cruz.

This lead· was followed by Gerald Mercator in his

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COCOS ISLAND

Atlas minor of 1607; but after this date the name Santa Cruz fell into disuse, and that of Cocos has clung to the island; and this in spite of the fact that its groves of palms, owing to ruthless felling for the sake of the nuts by buccaneers and the crews of whaling vessels, are at the present time considerably thinned out.

The first reliable account of any human being having lived there is by Betagh. He served in Captain Clipperton's ship the " Success , and when that vessel called there in 1720, to refresh her crew, the invalids remained on shore for a whole month. When the ship sailed again three white men and eight negroes were, at their own wish, left behind.

H.M. Ships '' Centurion " and "Gloucester", in light and baffling winds during Christmas week 1741, were for five days in sight of Cocos, but no attempt appears to have been made to land on this occasion.

Fifty years after this a Spanish Con1mander, Don Jose de Bustamente of the sloop ''Atrevida" was detached by his Commodore in the Pacific to determine the true

position of the island. He sighted it at a distance of sixty miles but did not land, though he cruised around for some days.

With the decline of buccaneering the South Sea whaling industry began to develop, and it was in their interests that Captain James Colnett, R.N., was sent in H. M. S. " Rattler ", in 1793, to prospect and report upon the best methods of extending the whaling industry; he being recommended to pursue his researches no further north than Cocos Island. It was Colnett who left a pair of goats there, also a boar and

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sow, and in addition he planted many fruit and vegetable seeds: Colnett's description of the island is a very full one, though neither he nor Captain Vancouver who, two years later, followed with H.M. ships " Chatham " and " Discovery ", ever explored the broken and rugged interior, covered everywhere as it is with dense forest and bush.

Unlike other navigators, Colnett considered Wafer Bay to be a better anchorage than Chatham Bay, but in this respect he is alone, and it can only be assumed that exceptionally favourable winds prevailed during the time he spent on and about the island. If these conditions occurred he would no doubt have been influenced by the fact that Wafer Bay, with its long sandy beach, beautiful stream of fresh water which never fails to run in to it, and stretch of low lying ground extending for some distance back from high water mark, makes this bay an ideal camping place; whereas, and as already mentioned, Chatham Bay's cliffs rise sheer, and its narrow strip of beach is covered at high water. The conditions during the six months of our stay were such that I never anchored the ship for a single night in Wafer Bay, preferring always to return to Chatham Bay where there is security at all times.

Ships of the British and North American whale trade now began to make Cocos Island a place of call, and from the close of the middle of the eighteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century, whilst whaling in those seas was a profitable enterprise, their visits were fairly frequent, for they

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COCOS ISLAND

could obtain here the fresh water and rest they needed.

Except for these calls, following Colnett and Vancouver, the island appears to have lapsed into a period of oblivion. Advantage was taken of this in the year 1818 or 1819 by a notorious pirate known as Benito, to secrete here a vast plunder he had obtained by rifling certain churches in Peru. A few years afterwards, it is said, Benito deposited a fresh quantity of gold bars and specie worth eleven million dollars. Benito's history, even for those days, is certainly amazing.

It has been said that his real name was Bennett Graham, a British naval officer who had served with distinction under Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar. He had been sent to the South Pacific in command of H.M.S. "Devonshire" to conduct a survey of the coast between Cape Horn and Panama, but soon adopted a policy of piracy, and carried on with great success. In due course complaint was made to the British Government, and a warship was sent out to deal with him and his pirate crew. Instead of capturing the pirates however, the warship was captured by them, and the survivors were given the option of either joining the pirates or walking the plank. They became pirates. As the " Devonshire " had suffered heavily in this action, Graham transferred his equipment and augmented crew to a Spanish vessel he had captured, and continued his career until the authorities at home, realizing with whom they had to deal, despatched three warships to effect his capture.

He was eventually cornered in Bonaventura Bay, an

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action fought and his ship sunk. Those who had not been killed in the engagement were then taken to England, where Graham and his officers were executed and the crew transported to Tasmania for life. Amongst those transported was a young woman who had accompanied Graham on his many adventures, but she was liberated after serving twenty years, married and, when quite old, went to the United States, where she tried to interest people in her history with a view of going to Cocos to recover the treasure.

According to the tale she told, a tunnel had been made and a huge chamber excavated at the end of it. Into this all the booty had been stored. When captured, Graham had given into his mistress's care a chart showing the bearings of this cave. An attempt was made to find the stuff, but owing to the lapse of time certain trees and other leading marks had disappeared, and the search was unsuccessful. Her story, however, was not disbelieved by those who financed the expedition, for her description of the island, its plant and bird-life, and particularly the nature of the soil, which is uncommon, could only have been given by one who had intimate knowledge of the place. She claimed to have spent many long periods there nursing sick and wounded, whilst Graham and his crew were away on further exploits. Graham used Cocos Island as a base throughout his piratical career, and there the booty, said to comprise 350 tons of valuables and money, and estimated by some to be worth sixty million dollars was and very likely still is, concealed.

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IN the early morning of the day following our arrival, Sunday, July 31st, we went ashore to indulge in a welcome bathe in the fresh water of Chatham creek, and a considerable amount of badly-needed laundry work was carried out. Cooper thoroughly walked over the foreshore of the bay with his metal spring but without feeling any pull to indicate the presence of gold or silver.

Soon after midday Jolly, Milbourne and Tracey returned over the trail from Wafer Bay, having spent the night there, and announced that the Vancouver people wished us to co-operate with them, on a basis to be arranged, if we were desirous of joining forces with them. This, of course, was exactly what we had hoped for and we began to discuss the question of the terms we should propose.

The Canadians, at the time of our arrival, had already spent just over four months on the island, during which they had worked hard and carried out excavations of considerable extent. We subsequently learnt that our arrival had put new life into the enterprise, for actually the suggestion that they should give up and clear out had already been mooted among them. There were several reasons for this. First of all, the

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"Silver Wave" was held on charter at a charge of about £8 per day; secondly, with so large a party (twenty-five strong beside the crew of three in "Silver Wave") it was only natural that some had by this time been found either unsuitable for the work or dissatisfied with it; thirdly, their labours so far had produced no result. But we knew nothing of these troubles until later. Two days later an agreement between the two parties was drawn up and signed, the terms being something

like this: --

1. "Silver Wave's" charter to be terminated, and the ship to return to Vancouver, taking certain members back with her.

2. "Vigilant" to take her place and to be responsible for transport and all communications with the mainland, also for the final evacuation.

3. The two parties to co-operate in the work connected with the search for treasure; "Vigilant" to receive 40 per cent. of anything found ( this after one-third value of findings had been paid to the Government of Costa Rica; it had granted the concession on these terms).

These, then, were the main terms of agreement, but there were some additional details; for instance, all stores in "Vigilant " were to be thrown into the common pool and thereafter, the two parties to be maintained as one, and responsible also for oil fuel and such stores as might be required for the efficient working of the ship.

The outline of our agreement was wirelessed to

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Vancouver for approval, and it was considered advisable, pending a reply, to restrict our activities to prospecting and clearing trees and jungle from any sites that might be reported as likely ground to work upon.

In about forty-eight hours we received a reply saying that our draft agreement was not legally sound, and that, in any case, a meeting of shareholders would have to be called to agree to any arrangements that might be made; also that Mr. Turgeon (a director and secretary of the company) proposed to come by air to Puntarenas and, if necessary, to visit the island in order to fix up the matter on a proper basis. It was then decided that I should take " Vigilant " across to the mainland for this purpose and to get certain stores, as stocks had run low in some directions, and we made preparations to sail about three days later.

These discussions and negotiations descended upon us almost immediately upon dropping anchor so that little has so far been said about the island itself. I will do this now.

From the map it will be seen that, excepting for rather a big slice at the top left-hand side, the island is roughly square; just under four sea-miles in its greatest length, and slightly more from east to west.

Nearly everywhere, as already recorded, the cliffs rise abruptly from the sea to heights varying from 200 to 600 feet; but there are two notable exceptions to this in the two bays, and I have already explained that Wafer Bay is the ideal camping ground, though with

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indifferent anchorage, whereas Chatham Bay, though useless for camping purposes, affords perfect protection from the prevailing winds, and has good holding bottom.

Here, then, in Wafer Bay, the Canadians had established themselves, and they had made a pretty good job of it. Half a dozen wooden huts, covered for the most part with corrugated iron and weatherproofed by means of many coats of tar, paint and other compositions, served to accommodate everybody and his belongings.

The largest hut, as far as I can remember, was about forty feet by twenty. This was the mess-room, with galley and store-room attached. There was room for all hands without crowding. Another, smaller, hut was used as engine-room, for wireless had been installed both for reception and transmission; a short wave set which gave a little trouble at times but on the whole worked very well. Arrangements had previously been made with the naval radio-station at Balboa, and other places as well, for daily communication at stated times, and it is hardly necessary to say that this link with the outside world was a very useful and comforting one.

There were other huts as well, used as sleeping berths, store-rooms, etc., and still one more shack, about one hundred yards northward along the beach, in which the Costa Rican "army" was accommodated. The Colonel, Major and two privates, who were established there when we appeared upon the scene, stayed about two months, and we then took them

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across to Puntarenas, bringing others back in their place. They were good fellows, but as to watching duties, I believe we might have removed the whole island without any protest from them. Their chief occupations were eating and sleeping, and they were intensely bored with the whole business. Fed and paid out of Treasure Company's funds ( under agreement made when the concession to search was granted), the Costa Rican Government took this opportunity of maintaining a small fragment of their army at our expense. No Costa Rican I ever met had the slightest belief in the existence of treasure, and there is no doubt that our labours afforded them intense amusement.

The camp faced due west, and the collection of huts was set amid cocoanut palms, orange and lemon trees, and the usual varieties of tropical plants. Reasonably flat ground extended for about 75 to 100 yards back from high-water mark, and about twice this distance to the northward; at the back the hills rose to 800 feet, the bold ridge to the northward being the one that separated Wafer and Chatham Bays.

The south end of the encampment was bounded by the creek which carried a never-failing stream of fresh water from the hills into the sea, and when the rains

were heavy this was a raging torrent. Just abreast of the camp was a beautiful deep pool which made a fine bathing place; a constant source of joy. On the spring tides water from the sea reached up to this pool and generally brought with it lots of good fish which were easily netted. They were mostly red snapper, averaging about a pound and a half, but after a time they

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ceased to come, and we failed to find for this any explanation

Colonel Leckie, C.M.G., D.S.O. was the leader of the Canadian expedition; a very cheery veteran who had seen much service, first of all in the South African war, and of course n the late war. He was very popular both with his own people and with ourselves. It would take too long to make reference to each member of the band, but I am bound to mention three who stand out in my memory. They are Vic. Nelson, Tom Sather and Bill Johnson, who by profession were lumberjacks at which they had spent most of their lives in the Canadian forests, and I hardly know what the expedition would have done without them. They could clear a piece of ground of trees, jungle and brushwood in an incredibly short time, and they never seemed to tire. Bill Johnson in particular, at about 4 p.m., when everybody else was glad the day's work was over, usually took his gun and the Alsatian dog "Loco" they had brought with them, and started off up the hills after pig. He seldom returned without one. The boar and sow landed in 1793 from the "Rattler" had certainly multiplied, for we were never without fresh pork. We killed round about 250 during our stay and there are still plenty left, though, towards the end, they were much shyer and more difficult to come by.

The cook of the party was Mike Barton, and seventy years old. He had been Leckie's batman in the South African war, and I think I am right in saying that he had been attached to him more or less ever since.

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There is no doubt about it that he was an excellent cook, but we lost him at times for a day or two, especially when there was a good supply of rum about. He would then simply pack up work without warning, retire to one of the numerous caves and came back when he tired of it. But many of the others were good cooks too, so that on such occasions he was not so greatly missed.

Edward Decker, one of their number, was a very useful carpenter and had constructed a good boat, a copy of the long-boat carried in "Silver Wave"; flat-bottomed, quite seaworthy, and just the right type for use in Wafer bay. For about 70 yards seaward from high-water mark there was only a depth of from one to two fathoms, and often enough heavy surf would be breaking near the landing-place which made boat work a little exciting.

The boat was named "Mary Dear", presumably after the famous brig which brought, so it is said, at least one very big consignment of treasure to Cocos. The correct name of that ship, however, was "Mary Dier", but probably the Canadians thought that "Dear" sounded more homely. She was heavy and it was difficult to get much speed out of her even with five oars, but she was serviceable and capable of standing much rough handling, which was just as well for she got it.

Col. Leckie and some of his people pulled round from Wafer Bay in the early morning, two days after our arrival, and after breakfast in "Vigilant", Jolly, Cooper and myself went back with them to visit the

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camp. It was on this occasion that the preliminary agreement was signed.

The arm of land which stretches out to form the north boundary of Wafer Bay is named Morgan Point, but whether this has any connection with the famous pirate Henry Morgan, of Panama fame, I do, not know, for, as far as I am aware, no record exists of this gentleman ever having visited Cocos. About 300 yards inland from the sea-end of this point a remarkable tunnel runs clean through into Wafer Bay. The length of this tunnel is roughly 100 yards, about 20 feet wide and with the water at ordinary level, about 25 feet high, but the height and width vary considerably with the rise and fall of the tide. In smooth weather it was possible to go through in a boat, and this was taken advantage of whenever conditions were favourable, for it shortened the distance by sea from the one bay to, the other by about half a mile, also cutting out the worst bit of the journey which was around Morgan Point. For here, at all stages of the tide, currents ran very strongly. This natural passage is straight, and the exit is clearly visible from the entrance. Inside this tunnel influences were felt that were not apparent from the outside. Pulling along in the ordinary way the boat appeared at times to be stationary and then to go ahead at great speed for a short distance; the passage through, therefore, consisted of a series of short rushes and doubtless caused by the waters of either a rising or falling tide finding level in a very confined space. Some weeks later, when negotiating the tunnel, a rather heavy

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swell was running outside, and "Mary Dear" and her crew nearly met with disaster. The experience was so terrifying that the tunnel was never used again.

A sunken wreck lies east and west rather to the northward of the bay's centre, a ship of three or four thousand tons as far as could be judged, and, at low water, part of a deck-winch was sometimes visible. It is strange that, in spite of many enquiries and references to " Notices to Mariners ", the history of this wreck could not be found. Cocos Island is very little used and seldom sighted in the ordinary course of navigation; this accounts perhaps for no record of this disaster but it would have been interesting to know the true story.

On landing, the great number of birds living on or about the island became very noticeable. Land birds were confined to the ordinary house sparrow and canaries, and I do not know whether these are true canaries. Probably not, for they had little song, and in appearance did not seem to have so much yellow as the canary with which we are familiar; but they were jolly little chaps. Another striking-looking bird was I believe the fairy tern, but which had been christened Holy Ghost birds by the Canadians. They were about the size of an ordinary pigeon and pure white. The great point about them being their extreme tameness, for they would settle on your shoulders when you sat down to talk or smoke, and to the end of our visit they continued to be just as friendly, for we carefully avoided doing anything to frighten them.

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Animal life on the island consists only of wild cats of all colours, no doubt the descendants of domesticated cats landed from ships, rats, and the wild pigs already mentioned. The rats were not very plentiful, and possibly were kept down by the cats, for it is hard to see what the latter could live on other than rats and small birds.

The pigs, owing to the fact that they have to rely for their living entirely upon rooting, all possess tusks, though these are not developed to the size of those of the wild boars of France, Germany and India. It must be remembered, in the case of Cocos, that it is not much more than a century since the first pigs were landed, and they, of course, had no tusks.

The climate of the island is a pleasant one. It is hot, sometimes very hot, but there are few days in the year without a pleasant breeze between south and west, and I am unable to agree with Sir Malcolm Campbell's reference on this point in his interesting little book, " My Greatest Adventure". Nor did I ever find any graves or bleached bones during our six months there. Another thing that drew my attention when reading his book was his conviction that the island is haunted. He will forgive me, I know, for differing from him upon all these points, but then his visit was only a short one. Personally, I look upon Cocos Island as one of the most delightful spots it has ever been my good fortune to visit. A place where anyone who cares for an isolated life could live in great comfort. Bearing this out to some extent I would remind the reader that the German settler Geissler, who

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at one time was appointed governor of the island by the Costa Rican Government, lived there from 1880 till 1903, alone -except for his wife.

Small lizards of every colour exist there by the million, but I have also seen them a foot long or rather more. This short catalogue sums up the animal-life of the island, for there were no monkeys, nor did we ever see a snake, and we were proportionately glad. Water is in great quantity everywhere, for in addition to the many small creeks there are falls from the cliffs into the sea, in some cases with a sheer drop of hundreds of feet. These wonderful streams never fail, and although it is true that the rainfall is very heavy, it is difficult to believe that this is the only source of supply, for many millions of gallons pour from the island every day.

It is believed by many people that somewhere about the centre of the island, and at an altitude of 1,ooo feet or more, there is a huge lake, but none of us ever

penetrated far enough to find it. Cocos is unique in that there is no dry season, but from February to June there is much less rain than during the other months. It is unusual to get more than two days running without rainfall, and when it is raining it does it thoroughly.

The precipitation is often so heavy that it is quite impossible to do anything, and there were many days during our stay there when no operations could be carried out. Strange to say, the Galapagos group, 400 miles to the southward and the nearest of any importance, possess very little water, and some of these islands have none at all.

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Another very welcome feature is the vast quantity of fish, and it would be easy for anyone versed on the subject to write a book on this alone. Amongst the good eating fish found are Cavalla, Turel, Snapper, Tuna (generally called chicken of the sea, because when eaten cold the taste is much like chicken), and Rock Bass. We caught many of the last-named up to fifteen pounds, and they were the most appetising of all. None of them, however, have nearly so good a flavour as fish caught in colder waters. Tuna-fishing is carried on in these parts to a considerable extent in motor vessels mostly hailing from San Diego, the American naval base in South California. These boats frequently call at Chatham Bay for fresh water and a rest, so that if the tuna happen to be about they sometimes fish for a few days around the island. Tunafishing is both interesting and exciting, and probably my readers have seen a recent film in which this type of fishing is pictured very clearly and also very accurately. It would take too long to give a description of it here.

These San Diego boats have been known to get as much as forty tons of fish in a couple of hours. We found that fish were more plentiful in Chatham than in Wafer Bay, and fishing was one of our most indulged-in-sports. Captures were fairly easy and almost any kind of bait could be used, though tiny crabs were the most effective and a bucketful of these could be picked up at anytime and in a few minutes on the beach.

" Vigilant " was generally anchored in forty to fifty feet of water so crystal clear that the bottom, which

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mostly consisted of white coral and sand, and all that was taking place under water could clearly be seen. We spent hours watching the fish. Needless to say sharks

abounded, and shark-killing was the pastime in which everyone indulged when at a loose end for something to do. We must have killed several hundreds altogether, for they seem more plentiful here than in any other place in the world I have visited, and I judge some of them to have been well over thirty feet, though we never captured one of this size, apart from the fact that we should not have known what to do with it if we had. It was curious to see all the other fish, big and small, swimming about in close company with shark, the explanation being that the shark is much too slow in his movements to be able to catch the others; in fact, contrary to general belief, he is the slowest fish in the water; he is also handicapped in that, his jaws being underneath, he has to turn well over to take his prey.

When we needed a quantity of fish in a hurry we adopted the lazy method of dropping a stick or two of dynamite over the side, with a short piece of fuse to explode them about half-way to the bottom. This method usually produced enough for everybody, but naturally there was no sport in it.

There were, in addition to the fish I have mentioned, many varieties of non-edible fish such as parrot-fish and trigger-fish of countless kinds and many others with names I do not now recollect. It is strange that, generally speaking, the nicest-looking fish were the dangerous ones to eat, but we were well provided with

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good books on the subject, and were careful, if in doubt, to make sure that the fellow we proposed to eat was safe. We never experienced a single case of poisoning, but we threw away hundreds of fish we were loath to part with.

Lastly, there was the sail-fish; so called because he shows a big fin above water, triangular in shape like the shark but much larger and resembling a small sail. We had heard about this fish at Panama and other places, also his reputation for being a tremendous fighter, but, although he was sighted on a few belated occasions, we never succeeded in catching one.

Just off the north-east extreme of Chatham Bay is a flat-topped rock, one of the favourite nesting-places of the Noddy Tern. Someone read in one of our books that their eggs were edible, so we pulled over to the rock, landed without difficulty and took about a hundred eggs, nesting being then in full swing. It was quite true that they were good to eat, for they were not unlike plovers' eggs, but one soon got tired of them, though we continued to use them at intervals for cake-making and the like.

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CHAPTER VII

TREASURE SEEKING

WHEN our two parties had been able to foregather and talk things over we found that, like our own crowd, the Canadians had clues of all kinds, many similar to those we possessed, and pointing to the same positions, but they relied for closer location of treasure upon an electrical apparatus called the Metalophone. This was a long cable connected to a coil at each end, these coils being of either two, four or six feet in diameter, and constructed of a mass of fine wire wound in some intricate fashion. Electric current was passed through these coils, and it was alleged that sound would be given at the listening-end should these coils pass over hidden metal. The two-feet coils were reputed to act up to a depth of 25 feet and the six-feet ones up to 60 feet or more. Conclusive tests were said to have been carried out by the Metalophone Company, in which metal had been located on land at a depth of 50 feet and beneath water to a depth of over 100 feet. It would be out of place to speak disparagingly of this instrument, for it is possible that, like many another amazing inventions, it is still in its infancy, and still capable of being improved and developed until it will do what is claimed. Indeed, it appears that this is so, for another expedition, now being fitted out, will carry one or more of these improved

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machines, which have been thoroughly tried out.

The Metalophone used during our search had, during the four months spent there before our arrival, failed to produce anything, nor can I say that any of the subsequent tests at which I was present were in any way convincing. It was a cumbersome affair to handle; the coils, cables and complete outfit weighing well over a hundredweight, and requiring four men to operate them. In that country, where there is practically no flat land, and tremendously thick undergrowth everywhere, it was difficult to use it satisfactorily. Failures were generally attributed to damp, and the coils repeatedly had to be baked, though it is hard to understand why this should have been so for the whole apparatus was heavily insulated and, one would have thought, entirely waterproof.

The leader of the working party was Bob Adams, usually known as Wolf. I do not know where he acquired this title, but to us he was Wolf Adams, the hero of one of Rex Beach's novels. He had been in early days an officer in the Canadian Frontier Police, and afterwards, in quick succession, rancher, gold miner, lumberjack, prospector, and many other things off the beaten track. A huge built man with a flaw in one eye, and altogether rather a terrifying-looking piece of work, but his appearance belied him for he was one of the most genial and entertaining fellows I ever came across and one to whom we were never tired of listening . He had lots to tell, some of his exploits earlier life being perfectly amazing, and we much regretted that when "Silver Wave" shortly after

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returned to Vancouver for good, Bob sailed with her because of some form of stomach-trouble. He could certainly handle work and men, and on occasion rum, though in this respect he did not differ a lot from the rest of us.

Another character in their party was Davidson, who acted as storekeeper. Quite an old campaigner, who had spent many years of his life gold-mining in South Africa and Central America, he was also another who never tired.

This then, was the state of affairs when we joined forces, but we had more or less to mark time pending a final settlement of our agreement, and this could not be effected until we had met Mr. Turgeon.

Obviously, the first thing to be done was for Cooper to try over their various workings to see whether he could get any impressions which would substantiate the responses said to have been obtained from the Metalophone. So, for two or three days, he did this, accompanied for the most part by Tom Sather, who was best acquainted with those parts of the island they had been able to investigate. All the rest spent these days in exploring, fishing and pig-hunting.

We had now four boats in all, for we had cleared the lifeboat of all gear and put her into the water with the dinghy; besides these there were the "Silver Wave's" longboat and the "Mary Dear". These first few days, when everything was new to us, were very enjoyable, and we nosed in and out of all the little bays, caught innumerable fish, also poked around a good deal On shore and killed many pigs.

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As a result of Cooper's trials, he reported very definite pulls at only two of their workings, and these it was decided to work upon, abandoning the others, at least for the time being. In addition, on returning across the trail, and down from the high land above Chatham Creek to the bay, Cooper felt definite indications of gold at a spot not more than eighty yards from where we usually landed in that bay.

This site was added therefore to the others, and accordingly on the 5th and 6th of August all hands set-to, to clear a big patch of ground of trees and undergrowth. The place runs directly up from the side of the creek (from now on called Treasure Creek) at an angle of about forty-five degrees, and the space cleared was roughly one hundred feet each way.

The scheme was to tunnel in horizontally about fifteen feet above the creek-level, and this work was started at once. At starting there was a certain amount of trouble because the tunnel caved-in, but after the first ten feet the ground hardened and for a time we had no more difficulty of this kind. On the 8th and 9th it poured incessantly and there was no chance of working.

In the meantime we had prepared the ship, for sea to meet Mr. Turgeon, and a few days later we got up anchor and sailed for Puntarenas. There were on board of the "Vigilant" party, and besides myself, Finnis, Jolly and Cooper and of the others Col. Leckie, Vic. Nelson, Cross, Turgeon, son of the director we were going across to meet and MacDonald, who went as cook. Inc1dentally, it had not entered

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into our calculations to be sailing anywhere in this direction, the consequence being that there were no charts of the coast on board; we were, however, able to borrow what was required from "Silver Wave", met with nothing but fine weather on the way over and arrived at Puntarenas at 1 p.m. on Saturday, August 13th.

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CHAPTER VIII

PUNTARENAS

WE stayed six days at this strange little port. It stands on a sandy spit of land about three miles long and a quarter of a mile wide, running out due west from the mainland. On the north side of this spit is the inner harbour, with a pier where small ships can go alongside to load or discharge. The pier in the outer harbour is a fine piece of work, carried out, I believe, by a British firm, and it can accommodate ships of almost any tonnage. Its only drawback is that at times it cannot be used on account of heavy sea and swell from the south-west. When we arrived there was not sufficient water to allow of entering the inner harbour, but, after a wait of about two hours, during which time we had been boarded and examined by the harbour authorities, we hove-up anchor, and the local pilot, a German named Hannenkamp, took us in and berthed us at the pier.

When leaving Panama we had no intention of visiting any port in Costa Rica so had no papers on board, but there was not the slightest difficulty. We took in fresh water, landed oil drums for refilling, and then, for the sake of quietness, for it was a very noisy wharf , dropped away from from the pier and anchored in the stream. Hannenkamp was a youngish man who had only had the pilot's job for two years.

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He had succeeded an old fellow, now about eighty years old, named Vanderloos, who had been here a considerable time, and had sailed in these waters for about fifty years. An interesting old chap, spending the last of his days in retirement; an expert on herbs, claiming that nearly all complaints can be cured by plants that grow in Costa Rica.

The population of Puntarenas is about 6,000, and it is the only port in Costa Rica on the Pacific coast. There does not seem to be any particular industry, and, excepting for the loading and unloading of ships, no one appears to do much work. Up country coffee growing is the principal industry, and Costa Rican coffee is said to be the best in the world. This and bananas seem to embrace the whole of the State's trade, if we except lumber-work, for a certain amount of mahogany is still exported. But, generally speaking, they seem a tired lot, and there is never anything doing between 11 a.m. and I p.m., when even the banks and post offices close. But everybody has the appearance of being happy, and it is noticeable that the children are clean and well dressed.

When I joined my first sailing ship in 1897 she had just returned from a voyage to Australia and home via Portland, Oregon, where she had gone for a timber cargo owing to the shortage of available wool in Sydney at that particular time. I mention this because she had the option of a cargo either from Portland, Oregon, or Puntarenas. But practically all this trade has gone now, though, as already said, some mahogany is still exported by the steamers which call regularly there.

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The capital of Costa Rica is San José, about sixty miles from the coast and a very fine town. It is connected by railway with Puntarenas, but, unfortunately, there is only one train a day, and not always that; moreover, the journey takes about five hours in spite of the fact that the track is good and well laid, and the engines up to date. The time is taken up by stops at any number of small stations on the way, and the passenger trains also, as a rule, carry a lot of freight.

The day of our arrival at Puntarenas happened to be a fiesta (feast day), and of course a public holiday. Any excuse is seized upon for a fiesta in this part of the world, and it seemed to me that they came along pretty frequently. In the evening there was a public dance, at which the town band played and most of our crowd put in an appearance. As a consequence, and late that night, it was found necessary to go and interview certain police officials in order to bring about the release of two of our party who had become involved in some brawl which took place at the dance. We had little difficulty in making the necessary arrangements, and I do not think any fine was imposed.

Next day Colonel Leckie, Cross, Turgeon and Cooper left by the morning train for San Jose to meet Turgeon's father who was due to arrive there that day by air. I saw them off, then returned on board. After breakfast I went to the Church for High Mass. At this ceremony the town band was present and a very good band it was, recruited entirely from members of the police force.

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On this occasion they played Carmen practically throughout the Mass. It was my first experience of anything of this kind, but, although it is very much out of the ordinary, I could not see that it in any way lessened the religious atmosphere. This band plays on alternate evenings in the public square, at which times nearly everybody is to be found there.

I do not think there are any British in Puntarenas but there are several Germans, engaged mostly in the coffee and banana trades, and we saw a good deal of them. They were ready to help us in any way and at all times. Before we left Cocos we wirelessed to the Consul at Panama asking that our letters might be sent up to the Consulate at San Jose; these duly arrived and were sent down to us. As it was now a month since we had left Panama there was quite an accumulation of welcome mail, and we had now a good opportunity for reading and answering them, for it was certain that we should be here at any rate for a few days. We expected our people to get back from the capital in a day or two, but there was some hitch in the air service and Turgeon did not arrive there until later. He then had business to talk over with Mr. Cox, the British Consul, who was acting as agent for the Vancouver Treasure Company. Added to this they spent a day visiting Cartago, a city with over 20,000 inhabitants only twelve miles from San José. The old city of Cartago was totally destroyed by earthquake in 1910, when about 1,200 people were killed. Actually the party got back to Puntarenas two days later.

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Meanwhile, we who had remained on board saw what we could of Puntarenas, and enjoyed its limited pleasures, but there was not much to be done. In the outer harbour there is a fine sandy beach, over two miles in length with perfect bathing, but sharks literally swarm there and it is dangerous to bathe singly though quite safe if with others. Across the inner harbour, and up the many creeks and rivers, there is good alligator shooting, but we did not indulge on this occasion for the weather was hot, and we did not feel inclined for anything that called for much exertion.

The return of the party from San José was the signal for a very noisy evening on shore, in the course of which we visited several cafes, and also went to a picture-house at which everything was spoken in Spanish. Turgeon had decided to go down with us to Cocos, for he said he was due for a little holiday; and we found him a most genial and businesslike fellow to deal with. We made arrangements during the evening for the delivery on board of stores of various kinds, and hauled alongside the pier next morning (Friday, - August 19th) to take them in, and fill up with water and oil.

We expected to be able to sail about 4 p.m., and I had made arrangements with the pilot to take us out as I was not too well acquainted with the channels of the harbour, this being our first visit. At that hour, however although Hannenkamp turned up, there were still a lot of stores to come, for time means nothing to these people; and as it appeared likely that we should not be ready for another two hours the pilot went

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away to another job, promising to return at 6 p.m., just before dark. Actually we did not succeed in getting everything on board until half-past six and, of course, after dark. Nor had the pilot returned, but we were reluctant to lose another day so cast off from the pier and sailed without his assistance. We managed to get out without any hitch, but before we had cleared the Gulf of Nicoya, which is thirty miles long, and at the head of which Puntarenas lies, we ran into very heavy rain and also a fresh south-west wind with a nasty, confused sea. Our upper deck was piled up with all kinds of stuff, including forty live chickens, and another item of our deck cargo was a ton and a half of firewood. This would seem to be extraordinary stuff to be taking down to Cocos Island which is chock full of timber, but the trouble with that owing to the huge amount of rain there everything was saturated. In any case, with so much gear lying about we were unable to use the mainsail, and with a head wind also, we had to make the passage back under foresail and mizzen only, assisted by the engine. It was not at all a pleasant trip, and excepting for "Vigilant's" crew everybody was hors de combat practically the whole time. When about halfway across she began to jerk about in a very nasty way, and I could not for the life of me understand the cause, till, on arrival, it was discovered that the lifeboat, which had a lot of firewood in it, was full of water owing to the seas we took aboard, and also because the plughole had become filled with dirt. This solved the mystery for it meant about two tons weight in the wrong place.

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We finally made the island in the early hours of Wednesday, August 24th, and anchored just as darkness came down in Chatham Bay.

We weighed again after breakfast and steamed round to Wafer, where we landed the stores, and returned in the late afternoon to our mooring in Chatham Bay. Turgeon remained at the camp, but came across the trail next morning, together with Leckie, Cross and Davidson, boarded " Vigilant " and settled down to talk over the proposed fresh agreement. This did not differ greatly from the old one, but there was a difference in respect of the division of spoils, if any, between the two parties, and of course, this time, it was set out in a more correct legal style; at least I supposed so. In any case we had all agreed to and signed the document by 10 a.m., and then had arranged that "Silver Wave" should leave on the following day to take Turgeon back, in order that he might return to Vancouver as quickly as possible to call a meeting for the purpose of getting the new agreement ratified. She sailed Friday, August 26th, and we took this opportunity of sending back to the mainland Taylor the American, who had come with us from Panama. He was of opinion that Puntarenas would suit him just as well as Panama, especially as it was uncertain how long it might now be before we returned to that port. Turgeon said that he had enjoyed his short visit and would have preferred to have stayed some time with us, but his presence in Vancouver was urgently needed. Sheffield and Howe the two youngest member of "Vigilant's" crew , went with

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them, as they had not made the previous trip across in "Vigilant ".

"Silver Wave" arrived back again on September 3rd late in the evening, and two days later sailed finally, bound for Vancouver, taking with her the thirteen whose names were mentioned in a previous chapter.

We heard later that she had a somewhat adventurous voyage, developing engine trouble on the second day out, which was of a rather serious nature for she floundered about for several days, and finally managed to effect repairs sufficient to enable her to limp in to Puntarenas, where, after some delay, repairs were effected and they proceeded to Vancouver without further incident.

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It was not until September 7th that we received a wireless message from Turgeon to say that the final draft of the agreement had been approved. In the meantime excavation had gone on both at Treasure Creek and at the diggings in Wafer Bay, the whole party having been divided into two gangs for this purpose.

On board, we unbent sail, overhauled running gear, rove off new stuff where required, and generally refitted; we also spread an awning on deck and rigged tables for meals. In addition, we got up the end of our second bower cable and shackled on to the starboard anchor, for although the weather up to now had not suggested that we should be likely to need a second anchor one never knows. And so the days passed. There were times when the rains were so bad that work in the diggings was absolutely out of the question, and these days were devoted to fishing and pig-hunting, for the climate was so warm that a thorough drenching did not matter. Even with "Silver Wave" gone we still had three boats, consequently it was possible for nearly everyone to go out fishing at the same time. Competition between the boats was keen, and I hesitate to give any details of the numbers of fish caught for they would appear incredible.

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We obtained endless interest and enjoyment from this pastime, added to which was the fact that a party of twenty strong was capable of getting away with a lot of fish as a change of diet.

I must not forget to record, too, that Cooper took this opportunity of stripping down the main engine and of giving it a thorough overhaul. It was as well he did, for number three cylinder was found to be cracked. Fortunately, however, we had come away with plenty of spares of all kinds.

On September 3rd, when Cooper had re-assembled the engine, we thought it would be well to give her a run, and so, took "Vigilant" to Wafer Bay.

She ran well and we anchored and spent a few hours there, during which we loaded on board sufficient stores for a number of days; this to save the trouble of transport by boat, or over the trail.

To our great sorrow Dwong, the Siamese cat, could not be found on the morning of September 5th, nor was she ever seen again. Parts of a wild pig, killed the evening before, had been strung up in the main rigging to keep fresh and cool, and we think that, during the night, Dwong must have been having a feed from this and have fallen overboard. If this was so the sharks would have had her quickly.

The agreement having been duly signed by both parties, we got down to steady work, and this was carried on throughout September.

Main operations were conducted at two places, on the rising ground about 300 yards to the northward of Wafer camp, and at Treasure Creek in Chatham Bay.

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I wish I were blessed with a small fraction of the ability of such writers as Robert Louis Stevenson and Joseph Conrad, for I might then be able to set down in the picturesque language they deserve, the happenings of this next month. It was very gruelling work on account of the heat, and at times it was found necessary to knock off for a few hours during the greatest heat of the day. As a rule we had breakfast at 6.30 a.m., after which the two parties made their way to the diggings and carried on till about 4.30 p.m.

Those working in Wafer Bay returned to camp for lunch, but those at Treasure Creek took their midday meal on board " Vigilant ". Finnis was nearly always

on board with me, for he had control of the ship's stores, knew their whereabouts, and, in any case, was the only one capable of the work of refitting and ship routine generally. Usually we had one, and sometimes two others, to assist, and these extra hands were changed from time to time. There was al ways plenty to do, and in fact there can at all times be found jobs to do in a ship. There was also a considerable amount of boat-work when taking the working party to and from the beach; fetching fresh water, etc. Cooper as a rule lived in "Vigilant", for he had to keep the batteries charged up, but he paid a visit on most days to the diggings to make sure that reactions were still present.

I find many items of interest in my notes over this period and these give some indication of our different occupations. There were no hard-and-fast rules and

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if anybody wanted a day or two at pig-hunting or fishing this was arranged, for everlasting pick and shovel work became monotonous. Work was frequently interrupted by heavy rains, and I see that on the 15th and 16th of September everything was held up by bad thunderstorms. Work was suspended on Sundays, though not always, for we carried on as usual on that day if operations had been unduly interfered with during preceding days. On the 16th, Bill Johnson went off after pig, taking with him the dog Loco, and when shooting a pig accidentally killed the dog as well. This was a great loss to us, for although pigs were plentiful enough they were difficult to get without the aid of a dog. Pig would generally stand at bay if a dog happened to be in the hunt, and this made it easy to come into contact with him. After this sad affair it was much more difficult to keep the pork supply up to requirements.

We made a thirty-foot hose, with a funnel at one end, and rigged it at the cascade, our usual watering-place. This was a great improvement, for often enough, and owing to swell, it was impossible to get in close enough for watering without risk of doing damage to the boat. After some days of digging at Treasure Creek, a tunnel had been worked horizontally to a distance of forty feet, and at this stage Cooper reported that the pull he felt seemed to come from a more upward direction. Accordingly, a second tunnel was started about fifteen feet higher up, and in this one hard rock was encountered at times, necessitating the use of dynamite; but the ground was easy to work through

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on the whole, and there were occasions when it was so loose that timbers had to be used to prevent collapse.

On September 27th the first of the tuna fishing boats called to water, and "Chicken of the Seas" was her name. She was in charge of Captain Walter Morgan, one of four brothers who owned her, and there were one or two other similar craft. She carried a crew of four Americans and twelve Japanese. Her Company reported that fish were scarce, that they proposed to try around the island next day, and failing any good results set off home for San Pedro. They went out at daylight, and by invitation of Captain Morgan I went with them, hoping to see some fishing, but luck was out. In the open water we met a strong S.S. W. wind with rain squalls; not at all the right kind of weather for this game, so abandoned the idea after two hours and returned to Chatham Bay, where I disembarked and went on board "Vigilant". They then sailed for home, taking with them letters which they promised to post for us.

Tinned meats and provisions of this kind were now getting a bit low, though there was still plenty of pork, and of course fish; but, here again, we had used the lazy method so much that our stock of explosive had begun to dwindle. So, after talking matters over, we thought it advisable to go to the mainland for a fresh supply of what we now needed, and on the 4th October got under weigh and sailed. This time we shaped course for Panama, for, although nearly twice the distance from Puntarenas, we wanted certain articles which could not be obtained in Costa Rica.

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WE now found that our rudder had settled down rather badly against the after side of the rudder-trunk, and we had been waiting some little time for a smooth day, when the rudder would not be working, for a chance to wedge it up into place again. The day before we left for Panama was perfect for the purpose, and Cooper carried out this little job successfully. Jolly, Cooper, Finnis, Tracey and myself, also Cross and Tom Sather of the Canadians, made up the crew for the trip, and we took with us Windy, our black cook, for return to his home in Trinidad. He had not been a howling success, and was anxious to get home again, but he could easily be spared for we had replaced him in "Vigilant" by a young Mexican named Ancira, who had been brought down in "Silver Wave" on return from her last trip to Puntarenas. A jolly good cook he was provided he could be kept clear of the rum-bottle.

We sailed in the evening with a light breeze which held through the night, but backed next day to S. W., freshening considerably in the afternoon with three hours of the heaviest rain I have ever seen. By 9 p.m. wind had increased so much that we single-reefed main, mizzen and foresail and hove

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to, remaining so till 10 a.m. next day when it lulled and we kept her away on her course. The wind stayed in the S. W., strong at times, and we carried this without interruption to Panama. We arrived here and anchored at the examination ground off Flamenco Island at two o'clock in the morning of Monday, October 10th.

Doctor and Pilot boarded at daylight, and after the usual examination took us up to the anchorage we had used before off the Balboa yacht dub, a very snug little berth and only fifty yards from the landing place. After breakfast we went ashore to call first of all on the British Consul and collect the big batch of letters and papers that awaited us.

Some of the things we required were not to be had immediately, but this suited us for we were anxious to take a few days off for a look at the place, and, in any case, there was no cast-iron hurry. We spent one very interesting day at the ruins of Old Panama, about five miles out from the present city, and right on the coastline of the bay. This place, it will be remembered, was sacked about the middle of the 17th century by that notorious Welsh buccaneer Henry Morgan.

Piracy in those days appears to have been looked upon rather differently than in later years, for we find that, although Morgan was imprisoned for piracy he was afterwards released, knighted and made Governor of Jamaica. The explanation may be that it needed men of this calibre to rule rule our Colonial Islands successfully in those stirring times.

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In a cafe near the ruins of the old Cathedral there is a fine oil painting of Morgan, and he certainly looked a tough bit-of-work; but I do not think good looks were ever a failing amongst pirates, at any rate the ones whose portraits I have seen. Again, in the ruins of this old town, treasure of enormous value is reputed to lie concealed, and Cooper said that he found very strong indications of silver in one corner of the Cathedral grounds. Subsequently, we met various people during our stay, and sowed the seeds of what might, at a future date, develop into another quest in these parts, but nothing was of course possible now. It was not very difficult in these surroundings to visualize the happenings of those long-ago days when Morgan appeared upon the scene with very little warning and practically destroyed the city. We put in several hours looking round, but it was much too hot for close investigation.

We then booked a passage to Trinidad for Windy, by a German steamer leaving in about five days' time, but the authorities here, realizing that they already had the finest collection of riff-raff that could be collected from the four quarters of the globe, gave no chance for such lads as Windy to swell the number. When we sailed, therefore, which was before Windy's ship arrived, he had to be handed over to the care of the quarantine station, which took upon itself the responsibility of seeing him safely off the premises.

We saw a good deal of Marriott, the British Consul, also Commander Nichols of the naval radio station, and many other friends, all of whom did their best to give us a good time.

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Many congenial hours were spent at Jimmy Deane's, this being a saloon run on American lines and a popular rendezvous in Panama. The walls of the very long bar there were literally crowded with glass-cases containing specimens of a big variety of deep-sea fish, mostly caught by Deane himself, for he had been a noted fisherman. The crowd usually to be found foregathered at" J.D's." beat anything I have seen in other parts of the world, and it seems strange that this place is seldom mentioned in this respect to the same extent as San Francisco, Valparaiso, Singapore, Shanghai, and other places. All colours and types, good, bad and indifferent were there, with the two last-named strongly in the majority.

A message came through from the island by way of the radio station nearly every day, but there was no change in the situation, and no fresh discoveries.

Something had prompted me to send a cable home to enquire whether all was well, and I received a reply before we sailed again saying that such was the case. This was reassuring because, for some unknown reason, I had the feeling that I ought to return home. There is, I think, a lot that at present we do not understand about such premonitions, and in any case, in the light of subsequent events, it would have been better had I followed my apparently unreasonable inclination, for my wife died on December 20th, and I never saw her again.

All stores and gear were collected by degrees and stowed onboard and we got under weigh again at 4 p.m., on October 15th, for Cocos. This was a Saturday and we were able to drink in the usual toast of

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"sweethearts and wives" once more, for we had aboard ten gallons of plant alcohol which is quite a good substitute for whisky. It happened in this way: by the Courtesy of friends we had been made honorary members of the Commissary at Balboa, which is a huge store run on co-operative lines for the benefit of the 12,000 employees in the Canal zone, which is entirely American.

They were able to let us have everything we required until it came to a request for rum or other spirit, a supply of which we always took care to have if it was in any way obtainable. When mentioning this to one of the officials of the Commissary, his reply was that we could be supplied with any quantity of plant alcohol we might need. I believe it is used for medical purposes, but he informed me that it was only necessary to add an equal quantity of boiling water to this spirit ( for the purpose of driving out the fusel oil) to produce stuff of about the same strength, and difficult to distinguish from, ordinary Scotch whisky.

This was something that none of us had heard of before, and we decided to give it a trial. We were still more amazed when told that it was issued in five-gallon tins, and that the price was thirty-six cents a gallon, or, in English currency, eighteen pence.

We took ten gallons, which meant that we had twenty gallons when broken down with hot water, at a cost of ninepence a gallon. In due course we consumed this, and I know of no ill effects ever having resulted from it.

On our way back, and from the very start, we ran into a head wind and dirty weather.

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It took us two days to beat out of the bay, a distance of one hundred miles, and it was necessary to tack the whole way back to Cocos; the only saving grace being that it was warm. In the afternoon of October 20th, in a hard squall, one of the strops of our main-peak halliards carried away, and the gaff came down with a crash about ten feet. Luckily the second strop held or we should have had a nasty mess. As it was, we lowered and furled the mainsail, and, weather being too bad at the time to do any refitting, the engine was started and kept going till, on the 24th, it stopped owing to the big-ends in numbers three and four cylinders having gone. On the previous day, however, the weather having moderated, Finnis and I had spliced in new halliard-strops, so that, when the engine broke down, we were able to set the mainsail again.

Weather continued bad, with poor visibility owing to heavy rain, and at noon on the 25th, by which time I had expected to make the land though we had had no sights for four days, we furled mainsail, started the engine and altered course from west to S.S.W. It was a good guess, for the island was sighted at 1.30 p.m. and the hook dropped in Chatham Bay at five o'clock. It had thus taken us ten days to make the trip down from Panama; we were glad also to get in for the weather outside was now very dirty and with a high sea running. Up at dawn again and around to Wafer Bay where we were quickly boarded. Our party had been advised from Balboa at the time of our sailing, and for some days past had been looking for our arrival;

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but not with undue anxiety, as weather conditions on the island had been similar to those at sea, and it had been understood that it would be a dead beat for us.

We stayed all day at the camp, landed the stuff we had brought and returned to Chatham Bay just after sunset. The next day was spent in a visit to both the scenes of operation, and we found that during the fortnight of our absence the appearance of things had been considerably altered. At Treasure Creek, in particular, where they were now working on the third tunnel, a great show had been made and it was rather disappointing to find that all this labour had so far produced nothing. I believe, too, that it was just about at this stage that enthusiasm appeared to run less high, and the first signs of pessimism became noticeable.

The " Vigilant " also was starting to make more water, and an examination of her hull at the waterline showed that the teredo worm had attacked her badly. In the absence of any facilities for docking I consulted with Finnis about the possibility of putting her up on the little sandy beach in Chatham Bay at the next spring-tides. After talking over the idea we concluded that it was a reasonably feasible proposition, given a smooth day and sufficient rise and fall of the tide to enable us to get well down to the keel.

On land, work proceeded in the usual way for some days, and on board we carried out a minor refit, scraped and greased masts and booms, and also painted down aloft. It was generally possible to raise a bridge four from the crew in the evenings, and we all listened

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in between seven and nine p.m. each night, to the wireless broadcast from England which came clearly and free from interference. By ten o'clock, as a rule, everybody had turned in, for it is a tiring climate, but Saturday nights were exceptions, for, in anticipation of a restful day on Sunday, there were at most times visitors from the camp, and we kept it up till later.

Our water-tanks needed filling on November 1st so we tried a new experiment in order to save the five times repeated half-mile journey each way with the boat. We picked up anchor and took the ship over to within about thirty yards of our water-fall, where we put the anchor on the bottom. This was a great saving of labour for by this move all tanks were filled in less than half an hour. This idea· came from Finnis's fertile brain, and proved a good one. It poured with rain all day on November 3rd, when no work on shore could be done. Finnis and Howe pulled across to the west side of the bay to investigate a cave which so far had been only casually looked at. This cave lay just beyond the extreme point of the bay, and the swell breaking there made landing exceedingly tricky. Finnis therefore endeavoured to find out whether it might more easily be got at by landing in the smooth water in the bay, and then by climbing over the cliffs. The landing was made at the top of the rocks a line was made fast, and Howe swung over the edge to climb down to the cave. The rope, which looked good enough, was in reality quite perished; it parted and in consequence Howe dropped a distance

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of twenty-five feet, was badly shaken-up, and had a couple of front teeth knocked out. In consequence of this accident they gave-up the investigation and came back to the ship. Although nothing further was done about this cave, I have always thought it a place that should have received more attention. We had, as I have said, previously been into it. The entrance lay about fifteen feet above high-water mark, and ran back a distance of some thirty or forty yards. One side had fallen in and was a mass of huge pieces of rock and loose earth over which Cooper had an idea that he could feel indications of metal.

Just before nightfall on the same day another fishing boat came in; this time the "Olympic", and, like the "Chicken of the Seas", she was a sturdy, up-to-date craft with a cruising speed of eleven knots. The crew paid us a visit, bringing several fine tuna of about forty pounds with them, and reported having caught fifty tons that day.

Again, on Saturday, November 5th, we had heavy rain and it blew hard from the south, so that the day was spent on board in company with several of the "Olympic's" crew and a few of our own people from Wafer Bay. As there was nothing else to do we passed the day and up to a very late hour yarning, during which the spirit-locker suffered rather badly.

Many days of bad weather followed, and it was not surprising to hear, on the 10th, that two hurricanes in quick succession had passed over the West Indies, doing much damage. Although well over 1 ,ooo miles away the conditions were in a minor way repeated with us,

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and for some days we rolled uncomfortably to a heavy swell from the northward, though the wind remained constant at S.W. Saturday, November 12th, proved a more settled day, and being full moon that night, and with spring tides in consequence, we prepared to take the ship over and beach her, hoping to be able to dean her bottom. At noon we weighed anchor and steamed across, hove her close in at the little, sandy cove, and made our headlines fast to a rock on which was carved the inscription, "Her Majesty's Steam Frigate Scorpion, 1848 ". Below this inscription followed a list of her Captain, sailing master and other officers, and it is reasonable to suppose that they came here for the purpose of making search for treasure, particularly as this date was so soon after the alleged buryings. Admiralty records no doubt could verify this, but I have had no opportunity ·of getting access to the necessary documents. The inscription had been carved by a master hand, and will be legible for centuries.

High water at full and change of the moon at Cocos is stated to be at 2.10, but our experience showed it to be at least an hour later. We took the ground at 4.30 and from then till low water only registered a fall of about four feet. This fall was quite useless for our purpose. After sunset, too, the first signs of a new swell appeared, so we gave up our intention as being impracticable, and at 1 1.30 p.m., shortly after floating again, we we hauled off and returned to our old anchorage. We were taking a risk no doubt in coming away three hours before high water, but she was beginning to

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bump badly, and I was anxious to get out into deep water again. As it was we touched on the way out, but very slightly and no damage was done.

News of a further disastrous hurricane came through on the 14th, and the very unsettled weather we were experiencing was fully accounted for. On shore work proceeded again as usual, everybody hoping that something might at any moment be unearthed, but expectations were dwindling daily. The two scenes of labour were once more gone over by Cooper, also tested with the metalophone, and reactions were still evident, but the direction was indefinite, and there began to be a general feeling that the work was being carried on very much in the dark.

A strong party came over from camp on Tuesday, 15th November, with the intention of having a last fierce day of digging at Treasure Creek, and then, in the absence of any discovery, of abandoning it.

On the same day another tuna boat arrived, the "Continental'' fourteen days out from San Diego, and pushed off again almost at once to prospect for fish around the island. She was an older boat than those of our previous callers, and I believe much slower. This was also one of the worst days in respect of weather we had had, so were not surprised when the " Continental " returned and anchored at 3 p.m. She was about half a mile to seaward of us, and riding, as these boats often did, to a small kedge at the end of a light wire in about thirty fathoms of water; the idea being that this was more easily hove-in than the heavy bower anchor and cable. At 6 o'clock Bill Johnson,

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who was on deck, shouted down to us that there was a big flare on board of her. We went up to have a look and thought, at first, that it might be some device for attracting the fish, but presently it became quite obvious that she was on fire. We hauled up our two boats lying astern and Finnis and I getting into one, Johnson and Jolly into the other, were just preparing to pull over when we heard the splash of oars and a boat appeared out of the darkness and came alongside. There were twelve men in her, and they reported that the Captain and one hand had left the ship in a small dinghey. A few minutes later they too arrived, and we took the lot on board; all of them drenched to the skin and being mostly Portuguese, including their Captain, much excited, but there was also an additional skipper, an American carried for navigation purposes, the United States law demanding this. The whole crowd seemed to be pretty much shaken, which was understandable, for they had had to make a quick getaway, and had come off with nothing but what they had on. Not even the ships papers were saved.

She was by this time well and truly alight, and we could do nothing but watch her burn; for my own part rather anxiously, for the tide was making into the bay at the time, and I did not like the idea of her drifting alongside or anywhere near us. Fortunately, her anchor held until about 11 p.m. by which time the tide had turned , and she began to set away to the north-eastward. It was a very fine sight though a sad one, especially when the fuel tanks burst and the flames

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shot up to a big height with a mighty roar. She disappeared over the north-east horizon at 2 a.m. still burning, but could not possibly have remained afloat much longer. In fact, at seven in the morning, yet another boat, the "San Salvador", arrived from the direction in which the burning "Continental" had drifted, and when we boarded we found that the crew had seen no signs of her ill-fated sister. It was fortunate this disaster had happened in Chatham Bay, and not on the open sea, for she was a mass of flames fore-and-aft within a few minutes of the outbreak, and the boats she carried were not of the type I would care to be cast adrift in excepting in the finest of weather. The presumed cause of the fire was a short circuit under the forecastle-head and in the cable that took current to the foreward capstan; for everything in these boats is worked by electric power.

We did the best we could for our unexpected guests, first in the way of hot toddy, then changes of clothes and coffee, and the remainder of the night was passed with them in discussing the situation, so that no one got much sleep. It had rained heavily also throughout the proceedings. We could not accommodate such a large party in the " Vigilant ", so, after breakfast, the whole crowd manned the boats and pulled round to Wafer Bay camp, whose occupants, up to now, knew nothing of the night's occurrences. On arrival, wireless contact was established with Balboa, a message passed asking that the owners might be informed by telegram, and we left it at that. There was, of course, plenty of room for them at the camp.

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Late in the afternoon "San Salvador" came in again, dropped anchor, and having had a fairly good day's fishing the captain said he intended spending a few days around the island. He also offered to take " Continental's" crew on board to assist in the fishing, pending further arrangements for their ultimate disposal. We received news a little later that the United States' cruiser "Stenton ", lying at Balboa, was under orders to sail for San Diego, and that she would be diverted to pick up the shipwrecked crew en route. She duly arrived at breakfast-time on the 21st, and sailed again an hour later with the shipwrecked party, and that is the last we saw or heard of them; but, before leaving, they presented me with their little skiff, a useful boat, light and easy to handle; their longboat they gave to "San Salvador".

Messages from Vancouver -had not been too cheery of late, and had indicated that funds were beginning to run low, and altogether there was a feeling that we should soon close down. Work had already been abandoned at Treasure Creek, and although we held many meetings to discuss the possibility of new attempts in other spots, these did not develop into anything. Excavations were still going on at Wafer Bay, but without any great enterprise or enthusiasm, so that it came as rather a shock to us to receive a message, shortly after the " Stenton " had left , to the effect that more money was available, coupled with the suggestion that efforts should be continued a little longer. Once more, however, we were in need of replenishment of stores, and preparations were made for another trip to Puntarenas.

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In the afternoon of November 22nd, Sheffield decided to land and see if he could get a pig, so took the small skiff and, when about fifty yards from the beach, was capsized by a heavy roller, losing his gun and glasses, but, being a good swimmer, somehow managed to right the boat, recover the oars, and get back to the ship, but with a nasty bump on the head. It was not a pleasant experience because the bay is at all times full of sharks, though the danger from these brutes is, I believe, very greatly exaggerated. They are certainly great cowards, and will seldom attack anything living. In support of this opinion I would record that I, myself, have been in the water in Sydney Harbour on several occasions, for a considerable time when capsized yacht racing, and that harbour is infested with sharks. In 1910, when homeward-bound in the troopship ''Plassy ", and halfway up the Red Sea, one of the troopers jumped overboard. Many lifebuoys were dropped close to him, the ship was stopped, a boat lowered and he was picked up. This sportsman was quite crazy and took not the slightest notice of lifebuoys, but was a strong swimmer, and when rescued had a fine bodyguard of sharks of all sizes swimming with him, none of which made any attempt to go for him.

We sailed for Puntarenas at noon on November 23rd, the full "Vigilant" crew being on board with the exception of Tracey who was not anxious to go. Cross, Murray-Ure and Decker of the Canadians were also with us, and the four members of the Costa Rican

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army, whose spell on the island had expired and who wanted to be relieved. This time we made a perfect crossing, arrived and anchored in the outer harbour at one o'clock on the morning of November 26th.

I was glad for a very good reason to be making this trip. The rate at which our ship had been taking in water had increased considerably lately, and it was obvious that the time had more than arrived when she would have to receive attention. So, as soon as daylight came, we got Hannenkamp on board and consulted with him as to the possibility of beaching her in the inner harbour. He took us in at noon, but a small Government steamer was already in the best place, and in consequence we had to be satisfied with a berth outside her. Here, however, the tide ran rather strongly and the bottom was soft, so that our oak-legs sank into the mud when tide fell and she started to heel over. This trouble meant getting out two masthead tackles to hold her upright. At the next high water we hove her closer in and hoped for better luck; but here, apparently, was hard bottom on one side only, the result being that at about half tide the port leg carried away, so over we went against the bank and lay careened.

I had hoped that it would have been possible to avoid this, for such a position strains everything badly, especially a ship with heavy spars and gear such as we had; but it could not be helped. At low water we found that the worm had got hold of her very badly, and it was obvious that many planks would have to be renewed, though, at the time, we did not know how many.

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Captain Pinel, of the little steamer alongside of us, fortunately spoke good English, so was of the very greatest assistance. He quickly got hold of a shipwright, who started work with three assistants on the next falling tide. We knew now that there would be no chance of refloating until the next spring tides in a fortnight's time, and we wirelessed a message through to the island to let them know the position. So, for the next fortnight, we had a most uncomfortable time, laying over with each tide at an angle of forty degrees, and to make matters worse everybody now began to go sick with fever and dysentery. On November 30th Jolly and Howe were both down with temperatures round about 102 degrees, and though Jolly recovered more or less in a couple of days, Howe was not right again for nearly three weeks. Finnis, too, was far from well, and was persuaded to go ashore and live at the Europa Hotel, for a few days' rest away from the ship. On calling in a doctor he was removed to hospital where he underwent a minor operation for ulcer, but soon recovered and returned to " Vigilant " after a few days' convalescence at the hotel.

Sheffield and Howe also developed fever, and so did I in a lesser degree, though my attack was mild and only hung about for three days. Sheffield, however, became worse and also went to hospital, though, he, too, soon got right again.

All these illnesses were due, so the medical people told us, to eating the green vegetables of the country, for the complaint was a common one with the residents.

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Cooper was the only one who missed this trouble, but, just to make things even, developed several bad and painful boils on his arms. He, too, responded successfully to treatment after a time. As may be imagined, we were a groggy lot during this period, and with the hot weather in addition there was not much chance of doing a lot of work. It was impossible to do any cooking, or to have meals, on board, but we had arranged for feeding at a native hut abreast of the ship, where the Costa Rican housewife did everything we wanted, and did it well. Fowls cost from 1s. to 1s. 6d. each, and to a great extent we lived on them.

The old shipwright and his mates were slogging away as best they could all this time, but as fast as they ripped out a plank it was found that the next one to it needed renewing. The new planks were of cedar wood, which is said to be good stuff for the purpose because, being bitter, the worms do not attack it so readily. We had ample proof, however, that they liked English oak and elm well enough. During the neap-tide period work had to be concentrated on the upper planks, for only at, or near, full or new moon, did we dry out completely. It meant therefore that the time in which work could be carried on near the keel was limited. There is no doubt either that many of the new timbers put in low down were never properly caulked and paid-in with pitch. I had found that the worst places were around the waterline, and outside of this the garboard strakes and just above on both sides. For the uninitiated I would say that the garboard strake is the bottom plank in a ship's side, the one next to the keel itself.

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The work there was imperfectly done owing almost certainly to the short time during which these planks could be got at.

As the new planks were worked in we smothered them with several coats of a mixture of boiling tar and pitch, with dry cement sprinkled in, and in view of the approaching new moon we concentrated on renewing what was possible in the time available. We had one consolation in that the dry season had now set in, and we could keep a fire going on the beach close to the ship, and here the pitchpot was always boiling.

Two yachts, both British, were in Puntarenas at the time. One was the " Western Queen ", owned by a Captain Arthur, and the other, a smaller craft, the "Southern Pearl", belonged to a man named Palmer. Both Arthur and Palmer gave us every help in their power. In spite of difficulties and sickness, time passed pleasantly enough; most of our evenings were spend in the square, where the band played, and where you might be reasonably sure of meeting anyone you wished to see. So that, when seated outside one of the many cafés, with a few friends round a well-stocked marble table, things seemed not too bad, and in fact, at times, quite rosy.

Frantic messages now began to come through from the island to the effect that there was a great shortage of provisions, so we finished off work on the ship in readiness to haul off on December 14th. This, however was not to be.

For some reason, which cannot be explained, the fullmoon tides failed to reach the level of the new-moon

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tides by about three feet, during which we had gone into our present berth, and all our endeavours, on the 14th, 15th and 16th, even with the assistance of a tug upon the hire of which we wasted good money, failed to move her an inch.

By this time, news from Cocos gave us the impression that the working party would shortly be eating one another. We, in consequence, went so far as to send a telegram to the President of Costa Rica asking for the loan of the " Valleriestra " for the purpose of taking down stores to the island. But the reply we received was to the effect that she was not considered suitable for making the trip. There was certainly a certain amount of truth in this, for I knew the ship and her captain well enough by this time to be aware that she was not too seaworthy, though she would have served the purpose. The real reason for refusal was that she was not covered by insurance outside territorial waters. The Costa Ricans are not at all sea-disposed, for there is not even a fishing fleet at Puntarenas though the adjacent waters are alive with fish, a food they say they are very keen on. But it would be too much like work!

Captain Arthur thereupon offered to place the " Western Queen " at our disposal for sufficient time to make the journey to Cocos and back, provided I would go also. This, of course, was readily agreed to, and stores were ordered and brought on board in a hurry. By a big effort everything was ready on the evening, December 20th, and, rather than waste time, we sailed at 10 p.m.

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"Western Queen" carried sail but was lightly rigged and depended chiefly upon her two-cylinder Gardner engine, alleged to give her a speed of 7 or 7½ knots. Actually we averaged 6 knots, both on the way to, and back from, Cocos, but some of the reduction was due to the fact that she had not been docked for cleaning for some months, and ships' bottoms foul quickly in these waters. Winds, were light and variable so that sail was of little or no use, but the engine, though of an old type, was reliable.

On board there were Captain and Mrs. Arthur, and a young engineer named Edwards. The last had actually come out from England in the " Southern Pearl", but had left her and transferred to the "Western Queen" at Panama, when the two ships had met on the way out at that port. Besides these we had Isnaga, an Englishman of Spanish descent, George the cook and a native of British Guiana, and two passengers. These latter were Lankaster, an Englishman who had for a great number of years been coffee-planting at Cartago, in Costa Rica. He was also a keen naturalist, and had been put in touch with us by Cox the British Consul at San Jose. The second was a lady, also from Cartago, who knew Lankaster and Captain and Mrs. Arthur well. We took, besides, three members of the Costa Rican army in place of the four who had come up with us.

"Western Queen" was not quite so big as "Vigilant", but she had good accommodation, for a comfortable deck-house had been built aft and was used by Arthur and his wife as their quarters. The galley, too, was on deck and right aft, so that below-decks

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there was an amount of room. Quite a good ship for the tropics, but over-ballasted I thought, and consequently too stiff in a seaway.

A fine sixteen-pound dolphin was hauled hours after leaving Puntarenas to the great joy of the passengers, but otherwise the trip across without incident. We had fine weather until daylight on December 23rd, when I had hoped to sight the island , but the day broke with heavy rain-squalls and bad visibility, so that we got to within eight miles before picking it up. A little later we passed Chatham Bay and steamed straight on to Wafer Bay, where we anchored about ten o'clock in the morning. The shore party was glad to see us for supplies had run very low, though there still remained a good stock of flour and beans. Pigs had been shot from time to time, but they were now getting much shyer and more difficult to come by. Latterly the party had been catching a large number of crayfish which made splendid eating; so much so that some of them had made themselves ill, though not seriously. Their urgent need was milk, tea and sugar, all of which we had brought in sufficient quantity to last another month. Unfortunately there was no news of treasure to greet us after our absence, and, moreover, we found the general feeling to be that the time had now come to cry peccavi! Lancaster got his kit on shore and quickly established himself at the camp, for it had been arranged that he should stay with us until we finally left the island. This he did, adding daily to his collection of plant and bird life.

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He enjoyed his month's stay very much and would have liked it to have lasted longer.

It would now have been more convenient to have remained at anchor in Wafer Bay, but a heavy swell was rolling in as usual from westward, so I was obliged to take " Western Queen " back to Chatham Bay for the night. The Arthur's were naturally keen to see what they could of the island and our work, so went round to camp early next morning in the little motor-boat "Western Queen" carried, and spent the day there, seeing more than I would have thought possible in the time.

Next day was both Sunday and Christmas Day. Colonel Leckie had stipulated that everybody should have Christmas dinner at the camp, so, accordingly, we got under weigh after breakfast and steamed over there once again. It was fortunately a fine day, very hot and, for a wonder, with smooth water, so that, after mooring up, we all went on shore for the day, leaving the ship to look after herself.

Mike Barton the cook put up a truly excellent spread, good soups, crayfish, several other kinds of fish, the inevitable wild pig, many mixed-up dishes which might have been anything, but very good, and Christmas pudding and mince-pies. We had not omitted to bring down rum with us, for the stock of this had been exhausted for some time. The meal lasted about three hours, by the end of which the rum had got to work and everyone, or nearly everyone, had a shot at speechmaking, and some of these were humorous, though one or two of the speakers had to be stopped by force. Altogether a happy day, and one which

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those present were not likely to forget for many years to come. On Boxing Day we sailed again for Puntarenas, which was sighted after another very fine trip on December 28th.

Seeing as the island party was now fixed up with supplies I felt much more comfortable in mind, and this was increased when we steamed up the Gulf of Nicoya in as perfect weather as it would be possible to find. It was nearly high water when we arrived so that it was possible to take the ship straight in to the inner harbour, and, on rounding the point, I was delighted to see that the old " Vigilant " had been successfully floated off, and was riding at anchor. Everything looked fine; but it is on such occasions that fate seems to be standing by to deal a nasty blow of some kind. We proceeded up harbour and anchored, put the motor-boat into the water, Captain and Mrs. Arthur, Miss -- and myself got into her and pushed off to the shore. As we approached the pier I saw that Finnis was there awaiting us. On stepping ashore he broke to me the worst news I have ever had, at the same time handing me a cable. It told me that my wife had died on December 20th. It had been left to poor, old, big-hearted Finnis to bring me the message, and I know that he never in his life had a job which he disliked more. But it was soon over, and I remember so well our adjournment to a near-by cafe, the order for some rum and Finnis giving me details of all the work they had done in "Vigilant" since we had left to go down to Cocos. Under the circumstances I did not feel like going to

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" Vigilant " just then, so returned to " Western Queen", where I stayed for the next two days. In the meantime Finnis brought "Vigilant" out and anchored close to us. I rejoined her on December 30th, and we then set-to and gave her a much needed scrub down and general clean-up. This took some time for she was in the dickens of a mess. The deckseams had opened badly owing to the repeated careenings, and most of the water we put on deck went below instead of over the side; but the dry season had set in, otherwise we would have been obliged to recaulk the decks fore-and-aft.

Apparently she was making less than half the amount of water as an outcome of the replanking operations~ and as we had borrowed from " Western Queen" a useful electric pump, which we ran from our electric-light batteries, hand-pumping was finished with for the time being, which no one regretted.

Cross was now busily in communication with Vancouver, and the British Consul at San Jose, endeavouring to get some decision as to the length of time operations on the island should continue, and as it did not appear likely that we would be able to sail for a few days we spent the time in getting her once more as shipshape as possible.

There were festivities ashore on New Year's eve, but I had little inclination for them, and Finnis, Cooper, Howe and Jolly also stayed on board. The weather was now beautiful so that we were able to sleep on deck almost every night and have most of our meals there as well.

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We heard on January 2nd from the island that the Metalophone was now quite unreliable, in fact definitely out of action, and that the shore party did not propose to do much more digging until Cooper got back there again for a final walk over the places where anything had been done. We asked Cross, therefore, to complete his business as quickly as he could in order that we might get away.

I had exchanged cablegrams with people at home and found that my two children were in good health and being well cared for, and this being so there seemed no reason for my immediate return; nor did I particularly wish to go at present.

On the morning of January 4th we hauled in alongside the small pier, filled up oil-fuel and water-tanks, and took on board a few other stores that were required, including the usual batch of live fowls.

It was reasonable to assume that our next departure from Cocos Island would be the final one, with everybody and everything on board. We came to the conclusion therefore that it would ease matters somewhat if some of our crew remained at Puntarenas, and Captain Arthur very kindly offered to accommodate in "Western Queen" whoever might stay behind. Eventually Jolly, Howe, Sheffield and Milbourne accepted.

We sailed on January 4th, Finnis, Cooper, Cross and myself being the only hands on board. We again made a fine-weather passage, anchored in Wafer Bay on January 7th; then stayed for supper before taking the ship back to Chatham Bay.

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I could not help thinking how strangely things had turned out. We had come to the island nearly six months ago in the expectation of spending only a few days, or at most a few weeks, there, whereas this trip had represented my fifth time of arrival on Cocos.

Finnis, Cooper and I cleaned out and painted our cabins next day, after which Cooper went on shore to test worked ground, still in the hope of making a lucky hit. The two of us left on board began a systematic square-up in anticipation of final departure, for we realized that our accommodation, both for crew and gear, would be fully taxed.

Torrential rain fell again on January 1oth, for the dry season does not penetrate to Cocos, and our decks leaked like a sieve, making it well-nigh impossible even to keep our beds dry. So that when we turned in it had to be under oilskins and waterproof-sheets. In the evening the wind freshened considerably, with some stiff squalls, and on going up on deck, at about 8.30 p.m., I was astonished to find that we had dragged at least half a mile seaward. I say dragged, but drifted would probably be more correct. What had most likely happened was that, being anchored in foul ground, the bight of our cable had got underneath a rock, and parted in one of the liftings to the swell. Finnis was up with me immediately, and we endeavoured to pay out cable, but it was some little time before we could free the thirty-fathom shackle which had jammed in the compressor.

This we cleared eventually, let the cable run out to the full extent and promptly she ceased to drag.

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This again was quite beyond my understanding, for we were now in fifty fathoms of water. The only reasonable explanation is that the cable had parted close to the anchor and when we paid out our chain, the long length dragging along the bottom must have fouled a coral-patch and so held us.

As soon as we could, we made fast the kedge-anchor to two parts of grass hawser, and dropped this over to assist in holding her. So we passed the night, wet through, and with no chance of getting dry for it continued to pour throughout. Had we failed to bring up when we did the prospect would have been a decidedly sticky one, for we should have been forced to make sail, a formidable job for two men, and have gone with a fair wind to Puntarenas, which might have taken us many days. This incident brought home to us another matter in which we had badly failed; to the fact that no-one, with the exception of Cooper, was able to start the engine, so that when he happened, as in the present instance, to be out of the ship, this was the type of mess that might occur. When the first signs of dawn appeared, about half-past five, the rain had taken off and there was not nearly so much weight in the wind. Finnis and I therefore manned the dinghy and pulled in to the landing place at Chatham Bay. Finnis set off over the camp-trail to fetch Cooper and some extra hands for heaving in cable whilst I waited on the beach hoping the wind would not freshen again and take "Vigilant" adrift once more.

The wind was lulling, however, and she did not shift , in less than two hours Finnis and Cooper hailed me from up from up in the hills, and soon after arrived on the beach.

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They told me that others were on the way round in the "Mary Dear" , and even as they spoke she came out from around the point and we were soon all on board. Before doing anything else we had some hot coffee suitably brought up to individual requirement by the addition of rum, and then went forward to get our chain aboard. The grass hawser with kedge attached came in easily enough, but when we tackled the other cable it was a different proposition. Our combined efforts would not move it an inch, and in the end we were reluctantly compelled to slip it, or rather Cooper sawed through one of the links with a hacksaw. Thus we had lost one of our bower anchors plus sixty fathoms of chain, and as we had failed to heave the chain in we never knew what actually had happened to the anchor. All the same, it would have been very much worse had we got properly adrift, and on the island, of course, they would have wondered what the devil had happened to us. It was bad enough in any case, although easy enough to write about, and Finnis and I had a hard and anxious time that night. We returned to our old position but not quite so far in and well clear of the foul bottom so we lay with the kedge-anchor fast to a wire-rope, for we could not afford to risk a repetition of our trouble.

A message had already been sent by Colonel Leckie to Vancouver to say that it appeared useless to continue work any longer, and actually the first movements towards. packing up were, then being made.

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A reply came on January 13th agreeing that the effort should be abandoned and promising further instructions.

On board we got the starboard cable up and transferred it to the port locker, shackled on the other bower anchor, ran out the jibboom and generally prepared for sea. We filled fresh water-tanks also, and hoisted in and secured the lifeboat.

Sunday, January 15th, destined to be our last on the island, was a beautiful day, and everybody went to bathe and wash clothes in the creek. Cooper with Bill Johnson and some others who had come across from the camp pushed off in one of the boats on a fishing expedition, and they had a successful day. Next morning, at daybreak, and in accordance with previous arrangements-, I took " Vigilant " to Wafer Bay and embarked all the heavy gear not required for the remaining days of our stay. First the Metalophone and all the coils and cases of stuff belonging to it were stowed, together with boxes of tools, spare cooking utensils, and, in fact, all the really heavy stuff. This job took us most of the day.

We were now expecting to hear hourly that final arrangements had been made, and a wireless message came in on the afternoon of January 18th. This was brought over by Vic Nelson and said that a passage home to Vancouver would be arranged by steamer from Puntarenas. So now there was nothing left but to pack up and go, and I sent back a message to Wafer Bay to say that, if Leckie approved, " Vigilant " would come round in the morning to embark the rema1n1ng gear and all hands

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He agreed, and everybody thereupon started packing up; not a difficult matter for it had been going on for some days in anticipation of the news which had arrived.

According to arrangement, therefore, we went over next morning to Wafer Bay for the last time and commenced loading up straight away. Not often would it be possible to see such a mixed collection of stuff as began to roll off to us by the boatload. Although personal kit had, by this time, dwindled to small proportions, everyone seemed determined to make up for the shortage by taking souvenirs of all kinds, the result being that, after a few hours of it, we were well down in the water. The wireless had been dismantled and the engine took a bit of handling to get on board. Lankaster, too, had made good use of his time for he brought away birds and lots of other things he had collected, besides which he had the full kit of a naturalist, including an operating table.

But all things come to an end, and by 3 p.m. we had collected the lot. All the remaining live fowls were left in the hope that they might thrive, and gladden the hearts of the next band of adventurers; for it is certain that there will be more, probably many more. Finally, Bill Johnson took the "Mary Dear" in and moored her up about thirty yards out from low-water mark, and we hoped that she, too, would be a useful asset to our successors. And so, rather sadly, we weighed anchor, gave the old island three cheers, and shoved off under engine only. There was no wind in any case, but our decks

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were so full-up with gear that to make sail would have been totally out of the question. The weather was wonderful, and this was one of the few days during which the island was free of mist and rain-clouds. The two high peaks, which we had not often seen, stood out very clearly against the intensely blue sky, and the whole place somehow gave the impression that it was glad we had gone. Running up the west side we soon came to, and passed, Nuez Island, a very remarkable lump of rock, tree-covered of course, about 350 feet high and a ·quarter of a mile long, to which, I believe, no earlier reference has been made.

This island lies off the north-west comer of Cocos, and is only separated from it by a channel about one hundred yards wide. It is just west of Chatham Bay, and is shaped like a crouching sphinx, with the head towards Cocos. I only landed there once and is reputed to be swarming with rats, but I saw none. Very deep and fast-running water lies around Nuez, and it is here that big fish can be caught by the enterprising fisherman, especially in the channel dividing it from the main island. We left sphinx looking as if still on guard. So, regretfully we gradually drew away to the northward, for in spite of all the hard, unsuccessful effort, we had been happy; and although the island was still well up at nightfall, that was the last glimpse we had of it.

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As may be imagined we now had a good crowd on board, and here is a list of them: Belonging to " Vigilant ": Finnis, Cooper, Tracey and myself.

Vancouver party: Colonel Leckie, Cross, Davidson, Johnson, Nelson, Sather, Hosken, Murray-Ure, Turgeon, Young, Barton, Decker.

Passenger: Lankester, the naturalist. The three Costa Rican army representatives and a dog which we had brought down from Puntarenas on our last trip to replace Loco. He had been given the extraordinary name of "Nubbins", and was quite a likeable old mongrel, but he never cottoned to pig hunting.

This was now quite the hottest weather we had met with at sea, so that for the next two days the pitch oozed out of the deck-seams and we had constantly to keep it wetted down. Feeding such a big gang was something of a problem, and this last journey was literally a beanfeast, for beans were nearly all we had left, and before we got to Puntarenas we had eaten them boiled, braised, fried, baked and by all the other methods there might be of dishing them up. We had, however, a small supply of flour and rice, though

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nothing in the meat line, excepting half a wild pig, brought off at the last moment and dealt with completely at the first meal.

Other than being forced to stop for twenty minutes the day after leaving, whilst Cooper packed a leaky pump-gland, there were no incidents worth recording. We went across in practically smooth water, arriving off the outer pier and anchoring on January 22nd, high water not being till noon. Soon after daylight the Port Doctor and Customs Officials boarded, and by way of a change there was this time a job of work for them, for there were a dozen or more of the crowd, with all their belongings, to be landed. It was Sunday morning, and after breakfast I slipped ashore to enjoy another musical treat at the High Mass, the police band being in attendance again on this occasion. Returned on board about eleven o'clock. When I returned all the formalities had been completed, so weighed anchor and entered the inner harbour, steamed up and made fast to the wharf. Used as they are in these parts to disorder of all kinds, I fancy the crowd congregated on the jetty viewed our decks, as we hauled alongside, with amazement, and as being something even beyond their broadminded ideas of what is right and proper on a ship's deck. They certainly had good reason for we were piled up to such an extent with bits of everything that it represented more or less a mountaineering-feat to get along the upper deck. In addition to our lifeboat and dinghy we had stowed on the deck the little skiff presented by the "Continental". But, as an offset,

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these boats had provided sleeping accommodation for several on the way over. Had we met with bad weather it would have been a somewhat mixed entertainment for those in them, but fortunately nothing of that kind came our way.

We learnt that the Canadians would have to spend some days at least in Puntarenas, for there were no expected sailings on the list for Vancouver, and it was obviously impossible for them to live in "Vigilant". So, pending arrangements being made for housing on shore, we left everything standing for the day, and the majority drifted on shore to celebrate the end of the enterprise. This I found they did to some tune, but with no serious results beyond the creation of fat heads. In the course of the same day an empty house of fair size was found, and a bargain struck with the owner for the hire of it; so, on the following morning, we began to land our miscellaneous cargo. This did not take long with such a big working party, and before noon everything had been put on shore, after which we thankfully cast off from the jetty and dropped anchor some distance off in mid-stream. Peace at last !

We now proposed to take things easily for a few days before sailing on our long journey back to England, and for the added reason that we wished to see March out before crossing the North Atlantic. On January 25th Tracey announced that news from home called for his presence there as quickly as possible and two lays later he went by rail across country to Port Limon, and took steamer for England. Sheffield received an invitation to a yachting trip with friends

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we had met in Trinidad on the outward voyage, and he left, too, for Port-of-Spain. Milbourne and Howe were neither of them anxious yet to go back to England; they were also nosing about for anything that might turn up and made provisional arrangements with Palmer, the owner of "Southern Pearl," to join up with him when we left. Before that happened, however, they had joined up with a gold-mining syndicate, controlled mostly by Germans, and operating about forty miles from Puntarenas. Howe was paid a salary as overseer on this stunt, with a bonus according to profits, and as a temporary affair he enjoyed the life very much. Twice, before we left, he came down to spend a night with us and to relate his experiences. He is still out there, and has corresponded regularly with me, so that I have been kept in touch with happenings after we sailed. He stayed with the goldmining concern for about three months, at the end of which disputes arose about the question of ownership; there was also some trouble with the native labour. In the end the enterprise broke up and was later on reorganized, but Howe took no part in the new venture, preferring to return to Puntarenas, where he lived with Palmer in the "Southern Pearl". In the meantime, Milbourne had been offered the managership of a coffee plantation by a Major Watson, whom we knew at Trinidad, and had left to take it up. Palmer and Howe obtained a contract for a time, to tow mahogany logs from various small ports, and villages, in the Gulf of Nicoya to Puntarenas, and this was a fairly paying business, but the little "Southern Pearl" was hardly man enough for the job except in dead smooth water, and having been neglected the worm had got into her with the result that she began to leak badly.

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Information in the latest letters from Howe indicates pretty clearly that she will soon be a wreck. Meanwhile, Captain Arthur had sold his ship " Western Queen " to the Costa Rican Government for 10,000 dollars (so it was stated, and if so at about £3,000 reckoning the rate of exchange then in operation) and had sailed by steamer for England with his wife. Edwards, his engineer, remained in charge, and he was appointed her captain under the Costa Rican flag. The intention, in this case, was to sheath her hull in copper, and run her along the coast as a revenue cruiser. But, here again, matters were allowed to drift so long that, before the coppering was started, she, too, became riddled by the teredo worm, and will probably soon be unfit for further sea-service. Howe and Edwards are now living on shore with Hannenkamp the pilot, and have started collecting the skins of snakes, alligators, and other animals, for export to America and the United Kingdom, and seem to think that it will be a profitable venture. They hunt and trap these animals themselves, also they propose to trade to some extent in live specimens; they have also native agents at scattered places who will work in with them so the job certainly will not be without excitement and interest. Howe, in any case, prefers this to a stool in his father's office in Manchester.

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The sale of the " Western Queen " had gone through without any mention of the electric pump we had borrowed from her so we retained it, and a godsend it was while the petrol held out. We had now dwindled down to four, Jolly, Cooper, Finnis and myself, and now began to make preparations for departure, intending, if we felt so disposed, to ship one or two more hands at Panama, if they could be found, for the trip home. There is usually no difficulty about this, because in every part of the world there will be found someone who wants to get away. As it turned out we were to need no such extra assistance, but this was not known to us at the time. The days drifted by, and presently we made up our minds to sail. This decision was come to somewhere about February the 2nd or 3rd, also to settle up our affairs during the weekend and push off on February 6th. During this interval we had been seeing a good deal of the Vancouver party. Two of their number had gone to San Jose to take up jobs of some kind there, and a few others had drifted off, making their own arrangements for getting home. But the main body of them still occupied the empty house they had taken, and were there when we left. Actually, I believe, they cleared out finally about a fortnight after we had said good-bye.

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WE spent the 5th February in going around to bid farewell to various friends including Milbourne, who had been for some days in hospital with the familiar dysentery and fever from which he had suffered more or less for a month. He was, however, better and due to leave hospital on the following day. In fact this he did, in time to see us sail down the gulf. I also called to get our clearance from the Port Captain, returned to the ship, and having taken on board as the last item, six live fowls, one for each of the six days we anticipated it would take us to reach Panama, we weighed anchor and sailed. The last person to push off in his little coracle was old Pilot Vanderloos, who had insisted on staying aboard until the anchor was up. We had only about fifty gallons of oil-fuel, which would have been enough in reasonable weather to have taken us up the Gulf of Panama. Another reason why we took no more was that at Puntarenas it cost 1 s. 6d. a gallon, whilst at Panama we knew we could get it for 2½d. Our supply of paraffin for the cooking stove, and petrol for the small engine was also limited for the same reason.

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Following events were so contrary to expectation that it would perhaps be better to set the first part of them down in semi-diary form from notes made at the time.

Monday, February 6th. Weighed anchor and left at 11 a.m., using the engine, there being no wind. Breeze sprang up later from S.S.E. and at 4.30 p.m. made sail and stopped engine.

Tuesday, February 7th. Very light, variable airs and barely making any sort of headway, but in anticipation of needing all our fuel for pushing up against the strong northerly wind which is certain to be met at this time of the year in the Gulf of Panama, kept the engine in reserve.

Wednesday, February 8th. Flat calm, so took a risk and ran engine from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Passed Cano Island, which we had explored on the outward voyage, at noon, and just afterwards caught a seventeen-pound turel, a very useful capture.

February 9th and 10th. Occasional light airs off the land, just sufficient to give headway, but afraid to use any more oil fuel. Breeze came away from N .E. in the evening of the 10th and we rounded the southwest end of Coiba Island ( which we were destined to see more of) about midnight. Here the wind freshened so began to take heavy spray on board, which was a nuisance, for the decks leaked so badly that most of the water went below. Wind eased off in the early morning of the 11th and later fell away completely, then sprang up again, light from southward. Nothing could be better for us so opened up everything and brought our saturated bedding on deck to dry-off. During the night we lost the wind again, but by noon

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on the 12th had worked up by taking advantage of the light variables to a position only fifteen miles from Cape Mala. Here met the wind blowing straight down the gulf, furled sail and started engine; kept it going all night. By 7 a.m. were still only abreast of Cape Mala lighthouse, making no headway against a very strong wind, choppy sea and adverse current. Reluctantly turned to the south-west to await better conditions, and steamed along coast looking for a good sheltered spot in which to anchor. This found in a bay seventeen miles west of Cape Mala, six miles northwest of Frail Island. Good protection here from prevailing wind, and hoped to be able to land to do a bit of prospecting when it lulled. A desolate-looking place, not a sign of life to be seen. This bay is of considerable extent, and on the west side the Tonosi River empties itself into the Pacific; that is to say, when there is anything to empty, but it is a dried-up watercourse for a good part of the year.

Now for a rather fuller description.

Even at this stage we were not to be allowed to get away from buried treasure, for, at some little distance up the Tonosi, or rather a small tributary of it, tradition says, a lot of gold lies buried, and on a small chart, presented to us at Panama, there was a cross showing the approximate spot. Full details about this alleged cache are somewhat vague, but at some time during the last century, a vessel laden with gold coin, and bound either from Canada or the United States to Panama was wrecked here. The cargo is said to have been successfully taken ashore and buried at the spot marked on our chart.

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The story goes on to say that one need not be in any doubt as to whether the right treasure has been hit upon, for the coins of the cache referred to are five-sided. So much for the information, but we were never given the opportunity to investigate because landing was out of the question owing to heavy breakers.

It was reasonable to expect that before long the strong north wind would ease off for a day or two, but not a bit of it. Day after day conditions remained exactly the same, and being unable to land we were absolutely at a deadlock.

After a four days' wait, therefore, we got under weigh on the morning of February 17th, and sailed along the coast towards Cape Mala, looking for a possible anchorage nearer to it than our present position. The wind during this period was strong from the north to north-east, and we had a single reef in the mainsail. About four and a half miles west of Cape Mala we dropped anchor in four fathoms of water, just outside a small bay in which there showed a collection of huts, almost enough of them to be called a village, for we intended, if we could, to land and make our way along the coast to the lighthouse, where we thought there might be a chance of getting hold of sufficient oil for our needs, or, failing this, a message might be got through to Panama. We knew of course nothing about the personnel of the lighthouse; whether manned by Americans or Panama natives; nor had we any idea as to our chances of getting what we wanted there.

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We had now used the last of our petrol and were once more back to hand-pumping; so, after waiting here for two days without a remote sign of weather change and consequent chance of landing, we made up our minds to have another shot at sailing up the gulf. An added reason for the decision was that, on Sunday morning, February 19th, a heavy, southerly swell had commenced to roll in, and this caused the ship to jerk badly at her cable. So, once again, we got under weigh and sailed with a good leading wind up to, and past, Cape Mala. The wind dropped in the afternoon, however, the first lull we had met with, and had we been fortunate enough still to have oil fuel there is little doubt that we should have been able to get through. As it was the strong current soon took us back close to the Cape, and although the wind sprang up again after sunset, and we kept under weigh through the night, we had made no appreciable distance by daybreak, whilst the wind was freshening again. We viewed Cape Mala from every possible angle in the hope of being able to spot a place quiet enough to land at, but there was nothing doing except at considerable risk, so we eventually made the decision to put her before the wind and sail back to Quoiba Island, a distance of approximately one hundred miles.

For many days we had perused the chart, looking for signs of life and civilization, and Ouoiba Island was the nearest approach to it that we could discover that was in any way getatable. Quoiba is a penal settlement for Panama, and we estimated that if we could get on shore there and make

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our wants known to the Governor he would be able to fix us up, even if it meant our waiting there till a supply ship came from the mainland. For we felt sure they must have frequent communication with headquarters.

At Panama, and after our troubles were all over, we found that the lighthouse at Cape Mala is manned by Americans; also that the light is run by high-powered Diesel engines; so that, if we had been able to effect a landing, everything we required could have been obtained. In addition, it was in wireless touch with Panama, so that, in any case, a message could have been sent through.

By the evening of February 21st our fair wind had taken us along to Cape Mariata, and soon after dark a stiff breeze came off the land, making it necessary to close-haul for Quoiba. Even so, we were not able next morning to make in to the east side of the island where the settlement lay; nor would this have been advisable, for it would have meant anchoring opposite a lee shore in a very strong wind. We eventually sailed in, after a considerable amount of nosing around, to what appeared to be the best position on the south side of the island, and dropped anchor in six fathoms of water. Just before noon Jolly and Finnis pulled away in the dinghy with the intention of making their way through the forest and jungle to the settlement which was exactly three miles from the spot at which they landed. There was a bad surf breaking on the beach, but they got in safely enough and hauled the dinghy up above high-water mark. We had no expectation of seeing them again until next day, for we

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reckoned they would be tired by the time they reached the settlement and would probably stay , the night there. All this, of course, subject to their reaching the place and meeting with a favourable reception.

Cooper and I waited on board hoping that they would get good luck, for by this time food was getting very short. We had plenty of tea and coffee, beans and rice, but that was all. Our paraffin, too, was now finished, so that we could no longer use the cooking stove, and, instead, had to use a petrol-tin with sticks for fuel.

A small creek ran into the sea just abreast of our anchorage, and amongst the dense growth, and not far in from the beach, we could see what seemed to be the grass-roof of a hut, and possibly an outpost of the penal camp. Jolly and Finnis, as soon as they had hauled the boat up into a safe position, went to find out its nature.

It was a hut right enough, with a rough table and a few old boxes which evidently served as seats. This made up the sum total of the furniture, but there were several tins of rice and various kinds of beans on the table. They came to the conclusion, therefore, that the hut was used by the prison officials when on shooting or fishing expeditions. In any case, after a good look round, they started oft in a north-east direction - roughly the line taken by the creek, and also the way to the settlement-but once out of sight of the ship-progress was well-nigh impossible. It was the dense vegetation of Cocos Island over again and, if anything, more difficult to penetrate. It was not long before all sense of direction was lost.

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The trees were so thick that the sky only became visible at odd intervals and they were in consequence making their way in semi-darkness.

After a time they came to a marshy spot alive with alligators, but none of big size. They scuttled away at the sight of strangers, making no attempt at attack. By five o'clock in the afternoon it was realized that the night would have to be spent in this jungle, so, whilst still daylight, the two chose a fairly open spot, lit a fire and made some coffee, after which they settled down for the night. But not to sleep, for parrots and monkeys carried on an incessant din throughout the dark hours, and they were thankful when dawn came to allow of a move once more. At about 10.30 they appeared to be approaching more open country; and so they were, for, shortly afterwards, they found themselves back on the beach not a hundred yards from where they had started. We learnt later that this island is the home of the dreaded fer-der-lance, the yellow viper of the American tropics, and that he is to be found there in great numbers, but we were in ignorance of this at the time, or the night out would have been still less comfortable, for the bite of this reptile is deadly.

It was low water when the shore party arrived back and, in consequence, difficulty was found in getting the dinghy down to the water, but this was managed in the end and both pulled off to the ship to there relate the sad tale of their efforts.

Next day there were heavy breakers on the beach and in consequence no attempt was made to land.

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During the day Cooper took the filling-plug off the oil fuel tanks, and, with a small dipper, got out about six gallons of oil which lay below the level of the draw-off cock. With this in the feed-tank it was estimated we had about eight gallons all told, and that, given smooth water, it would be sufficient to take us round comfortably the twelve miles to the east side of the island, where the settlement lay. In consequence, on the following morning, with but little wind, we hove-up anchor and steamed out, but as soon as we rounded the point into the open we found quite a sea running and a freshening wind. An hour and a half of it and we saw that we could not make it, so turned back to take up our old position once more.

In the afternoon Finnis, Cooper and myself landed to have a look around, and we went along the beach for about a mile to-the northward. There were, however, no signs of habitation, and the prospects of getting across three miles of country that intervened between ourselves and the settlement did not look particularly rosy. Returning on board, we talked things over, and it was agreed that Jolly and Finnis should make another attempt. Next day at 8 a.m. we all got into the boat with the idea that Cooper and I should take her back to the ship that they might have no bother with her on shore. Before we left the ship I had noticed that the sea appeared to be breaking badly close in and we found it to be worse than it looked. A particularly heavy comber caught us when about thirty yards out and picked up our stern so quickly that she had no time to recover, for it was rather overloading

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our old boat to put four into her. In any case, we capsized, but by degrees the four of us got clear and dragged the boat ashore with no injury to anybody. But we had lost practically everything moveable in the boat, the most serious item being the boat's compass which the landing party had intended to use; their two pairs of heavy walking boots, the contents of two haversacks and the iron rowlocks.

It was whilst we were salving what we could of the missing gear, and drying our clothes on the beach, that I came to the conclusion we had all had about enough of it, so I proposed that we should abandon attempts to find assistance on the island and sail out into the track of shipping bound to and from Panama. The others were of the same opinion, so we lazed on the beach for a couple of hours, cut some thole-pins from the toughest wood we could find to act in place of the lost rowlocks, and pushed off to the ship again about noon. This time without accident, excepting that the thole-pins broke at the first pull, and we had to use the oars canoe-fashion and paddle off to the ship.

At 11 a.m. on the following day we got under weigh and stood away to the north-eastward. A beautiful day with a light north-east wind and practically smooth sea. Between us we then composed a message to be sent, when the chance came, to Commander Nichols at the Balboa Radio station, to the effect that we needed fuel-oil , paraffin and petrol , and that we were making for a position six miles north-west of Frail Island where it was our intention to anchor. We asked him

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to repeat the message to the British Consul, and also to the West Indian Oil Company.

At about 3 p.m. we sighted a steamer to the westward, heading to pass not far from us, so hoisted a signal, " Close, want provisions ". She turned out to be a large American freighter, the " Susan V. Ludenbach ", and on reading our signal stopped engines and hove-to fairly close to us, hailed to ask us to put our boat into the water and board. This we did in quick time, but the poor old dinghy met with one or two nasty bumps in the operation. She had leaked badly enough before, and this just about put the cap on her. Finnis and I got into her, and one of us had to bale the whole time, but fortunately there was not much of a distance to cover.

By the time we got alongside they had dropped a pilot-ladder, and on arrival on deck I was received with much courtesy and kindness by her master, Captain Heck, who gave instructions to his chief steward. He in turn sent hands to lower into the boat tinned soups, salmon, biscuits and bread; also tobacco and cigarettes which we had been without for a fortnight, and which were almost as welcome as the food. I remember so well how strange it felt to be standing once more on the deck of a big ship. It was almost like being on shore after our little craft !

We did not delay the " Susan V. " more than about twenty minutes, and before I went down the ladder Captain Heck informed me that our message was already being received at Balboa. He had also ordered a ten-gallon breaker of fresh water to be lowered into

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the boat, for, although we had sufficient in" Vigilant" for another three weeks, he said, " you never know ".

We pulled back to our ship whilst "Susan" continued on her journey, and, once on board, settled down to the first real meal we had enjoyed for many days. The tobacco, too, was a great joy, and by the time that we had finished eating it was dark, with a pleasant little breeze out of the N .E. which freshed and lasted till daylight, then died away to nothing.

But during the night we had made quite good progress and were now off Cape Mariata. We had now covered about half the distance --one hundred miles -- to the position we were making for, and which we had given in our message to Balboa. The pump had now to be kept going forty minutes out of every hour, and this was beginning to be rather a trial. We had hopes, however, that it would not be for many more days, and at any rate we now had something to eat and smoke. We little thought either that our troubles would be over as quickly as proved to be the case. We lay becalmed all the morning, rolling to a long southerly swell, during which several steamers passed in both directions at some distance from us. Just about noon we saw smoke to the northward and when this vessel raised her hull she appeared to be heading directly for us, but we, of course, had no idea that anything could be looking for us in so short a time. As she gradually drew near, however, it was evident that she was coming to speak to us, and we could make her out as a warship of some kind, flying the American flag. "Nokomis" was her name, which we were presently

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able to read, a surveying ship for the U.S. Navy, and on approaching us she eased her engines and finally stopped within hailing distance. It looked as if most of her crew were on deck, anxious, no doubt, to know what it was all about, and there was a good deal of camera-work. Her Captain spoke the following through the megaphone: " Your message to naval Radio Station Balboa was received, and repeated to me last night, with instructions to find you and to see that you were all right. Are you able to keep the leak under and have you sufficient food ? ".

I replied that we were quite comfortable and could manage well enough, and that all we wanted was some wind to take us to the rendezvous we had named. He, then said that there was no sign of a breeze, suggested that it might take us days to get there and that a highspeed submarine chaser had already left Balboa with the stores we required; further, that he had a beautiful, brand-new twelve-inch manila hawser simply dying for a job of work, and proposed that he should tow us to the arranged meeting-place.

Whereupon, with many thanks, we accepted the offer and asked for ten minutes in which to furl sail. This operation was carried out quickly enough, "Nokomis" was manoeuvred into a position sufficiently close to enable a line to be heaved to us. A nice bit of work, for she was a vessel of some size. we hauled in the end of the hawser and secured it to the heel of the mainmast, signalled all fast and off we went. It had all happened so quickly that it was only when we were actually in tow that we found time to heave a sigh of relief.

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Twelve hours the tow lasted and we reached the pre-arranged position at three o'clock on next morning, March 1st, where we saw the lights of a vessel already at anchor, and also that " Nokomis" was exchanging Morse signals with her, by which we judged that she was our supply ship. On approaching the anchored ship, the sea being smooth, "Nokomis" hailed to say that they proposed shortening in the hawser, and recommended that we should hold on to it till morning to avoid the trouble of anchoring. This we did and thankfully turned in for a few hours' sleep. At eight o'clock we saw the small ship that had brought our oil heaving up anchor. She was soon alongside and moored up to us. The stores were soon transferred to " Vigilant", when she cast off again and steamed away back to Balboa. Shortly after this a boat came across from" Nokomis", and the officer in charge of her brought her Commanding Officer's compliments, and an enquiry as to whether there was anything more he could do for us.

I intended boarding to thank Captain Carter, for that was his name, but as we knew that "Nokomis" was going herself to Balboa in a few days' time we deferred it till then, when we should all be able to go on board to do this. There was also handed to me a message from Balboa sent via " Nokomis ", which read as follows: " From radio station Balboa to Commander Plumpton, ' Vigilant '. Am glad everything is now all right with you. Congratulations and cheerio. Commander Nichols". Up to the present I have found little difficulty in

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writing this yarn, for it is simply a laconic, straightforward record of events as they came along, but I am more or less " hove-to " when attempting to comment upon the happenings of the past two days. The swift action of our American friends had left no time for thought, but I will endeavour to size it up a little later on. The cooking-stove was once more in commission, the small engine working and charging up the electric light batteries, the water in the bilges was being pushed over the side by the electric pump and the main engine ready for starting-up. At 9 a.m. we cast-off the towrope and steamed along the coast to the anchorage off the village four miles west of Cape Mala, where we had previously taken refuge. Here we spent the afternoon squaring-up the decks, with the intention of proceeding next morning if weather conditions permitted.

The day broke on March 2nd to fine weather with decreasing sea and wind. This was the anniversary of our sailing date from Brixham, but we had nothing stronger than coffee with which to celebrate the occasion, and, anyhow, it represented a somewhat inglorious climax to our high hopes and expectations of twelve months ago. At least, that was the way it looked to me. I had noted that for some days past the wind, though still strong during the day, had usually dropped for a few hours after dark, so we postponed making a move until 6 p.m., then got under weigh, and by 8.30 were abreast of Cape Male, where we met with a good deal of confused sea and swell but not much wind.

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In spite of this and the very strong, adverse current we gradually drew past into the Gulf of Panama.

On Friday, March 3rd and at noon, we found that we had made thirty miles since passing Cape Mala, and it looked as if, with any luck, we should reach Balboa on the following morning. " Vigilant " was still making a lot of water, but we were now able to use the electric pump, so this fact did not worry us much.

A light wind and fine weather kept us company for the remainder of the way and we dropped anchor at 10.30 a.m. on March 4th at the examination ground, Balboa. The Port Doctor boarded and gave us clearance, and a little later the Pilot arrived to take us to the old anchorage off the yacht club, where we let go the hook for the last time. Thus the trip down from Puntarenas, which should have taken us six days, had occupied no less than twenty-six.

Almost as soon as we had anchored we got into the boat and went across to the yacht club, where we spent a happy hour under the shower baths, then back on board to put in a quiet evening with a few visitors who had come to look us up and hear the tale. We had managed to get something to drink sent on board; a matter of some difficulty, for being in the Canal -Zone prohibition was in force. The next day, a Sunday, we did nothing more than square up our decks and make some attempt to discuss our plans for the future. It was certain that " Vigilant " would require a thorough refit before she could be ready for any further sea-service, and we agreed as a preliminary to

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get an estimate for the entire re-planking of the hull.

Monday was a busy day. Shortly after breakfast we landed and called, first of all, on Commander Nichols at the Radio Station in an endeavour to thank him for his share of the assistance that had been given us. But we were not allowed to say very much, and when we took our departure an Admiralty car was placed at our disposal to take us to see Admiral Irwin, in command of the naval forces at this station. He also received us in a charming manner and was anxious to hear all about our adventures, but he, too, airily dismissed any of our attempts at thanks. Then down to the quay where the "Nokomis" was moored up, to see Captain Carter, with whom we passed a pleasant hour or two. I found him a very congenial companion, and could, with the greatest pleasure, have spent a much longer time in his company, but there were other things to do, and, in any case, we had accepted an invitation to dine with him and his officers two days later. He was a man very much in love with his profession, which perhaps, in his case, is more or less natural, for he was actually born at sea. I hope -that I shall some day meet him again. Next, we went on to call on Marriott, the British Consul, where we picked up such letters as were there for us, and retold the story of our experiences. We also arranged with him for an official letter of thanks to be sent from the British Embassy to Admiral Irwin. It was a full day, and we did not return on board until late in the night, for we dined on shore and completed the evening with many friends at Jimmy Dean's.

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The last month had been no joy-ride, so we felt we were entitled to a little enjoyment. We found that the newspapers had made full use of the news of our recent experiences, and from the lively accounts that appeared for a day or two after our arrival, it might be gathered that we had gone through a pretty harrowing time. Unfortunately, some of this had filtered through to the home press and had caused a certain amount of anxiety, but a cable to tell of our safe arrival put things right. Actually, we were never very seriously distressed, and it must be remembered that we might have sailed out at any time into the track of shipping and asked for assistance, as ultimately we were obliged to do owing to food shortage. We had hoped all the time to have been able to reach Panama on our own, and a shift of wind for twenty-four hours would have been enough to have enabled us to do so. At that time of the year, however, it remains constantly in the north and is generally strong.

Not very much progress was made in our attempt to find out the cost of the repairs " Vigilant " needed, excepting that to have had them carried out by the American authorities would have been quite out of the question, the price being prohibitive. On the other hand, it was uncertain whether anyone in Panama was capable of doing the work, and those who said they were wanted at least a couple of months. Eventually we came to the conclusion that it would be more economical to sell her and return home by steamer. It was therefore made known that our good ship was on the market.

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Both Captain Barnes, captain of the port, and Mr. Sheriff of the West Indian Oil Co., promised to do their best to arrange a cheap passage to England in either a tramp steamer or an oil-tanker, and on March 12th we were told of a Norwegian ship, the " Barfona ", due next day and bound for Antwerp, in which it was thought there might be a chance of a passage. The idea was that Finnis, Cooper and I should sail in her, leaving Jolly to complete the sale of "Vigilant" and follow later. Accordingly the three of us packed up in readiness; a simple enough task, for by this time most of our clothes had been worn out and dropped overboard. I boarded the " Barfona " when she arrived, and although the Captain was willing enough to take us, and had plenty of spare accommodation, he feared trouble with the owners, as no arrangements had been made for such a contingency, so he had to refuse us. Personally, and now that we had resolved to go home, I was anxious to get there quickly, for private affairs needed attention, so, on March 14th, I booked a passage in the French liner " Colombie ", due to sail from Colon two days later. But the next day we received a message about a German tanker, bound from Peru with a cargo of oil for Southampton, whose Captain was willing to take us. It was now too late to cancel my passage, but at the same time it was good to know that Finnis and Cooper had been arranged for. We made a last trip round Panama on the 15th to say good-bye to our many friends, and dined that night in " Nokomis " with Captain Carter; an evening we all enjoyed. I had to take train to Colon to catch the

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ship at 7 a.m. next morning, so, just after daylight, I reluctantly got into the dinghy for the last time, and said farewell to "Vigilant". I took several good looks at her on the way in to the landing place at the yacht dub. She still had the old, blue ensign flying which nobody had remembered to haul down the night before--and she still looked good to me. That was the last that I saw of her.

Finnis came to see me off at Balboa station. I duly reached Colon and boarded the "Colombie" at 9 a.m.; a very fine ship with but few passengers, and I was fortunate enough to have a four-berth cabin to myself. During the next ten days we called in swift succession at Cartagena, Port of Colombia, Curacao, Puerto Cabala, La Guayra, Carupano, Trinidad, Barbadoes, Fort de France, Basse-a-terre, and Point-a-Pitre, from which we sailed on March 26th, arriving at Plymouth on April 4th. This homeward voyage in this French steamer, which lasted nineteen days, was a time of absolute rest, which I began to feel was much needed. The great kindness, too, shown me on board, and particularly that of my friend the second Captain, Monsieur Garrique, cannot forget. For I was a third-class passenger; it is therefore worthy of record that. I could not have been better treated had I been a millionaire.

Finnis and Cooper came through all right in the German ship "Heinerich V. Riedemann ", and landed at Southampton about eight days after my ship at Plymouth. Jolly remained at Panama, and returned home some weeks later, after selling" Vigilant".

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GOOD-BYE "VIGILANT "!

No details of this transaction have ever reached me, but I understand that her new owners employ her in the banana-carrying trade. Well, we had sailed 11,ooo miles in her, and I can only say that, properly handled, she will continue to operate long after all of us, who took part in this cruise, have "piped down".

169

CHAPTER. XIII

FACT AND SURMISE

THE story of our Odyssey is finished, but I cannot resist a desire to write down my impressions about it all, and more particularly about the buried treasure. On this latter subject let me say, straight away, that our failure to find anything has in no way shaken my belief that such caches exist, and that, sooner or later, s0me, and perhaps all, this vast wealth will be recovered.

In view of this belief, perhaps it will be better to give the "fors" and "againsts" as far as I know them.

First of all, the exploits of Graham and Thompson are matters of reliable history, and that these two did in fact, conceal several consignments of loot on Coco: is authenticated to an extent that precludes any reasonable argument against it. Their operations were carried out only just over a century ago-roughly between 1815 and 1825-and I have purposely omitted any mention of the many other notorious sea rovers of earlier times; such, for example, as Cook, Davis and Dampier, for although these gentlemen, also and beyond all question, used Cocos Island as a base, there are no reliable records of their having concealed treasure there. It is reasonable enough, however, to suppose they did. Talking of these stout fellows takes us back to about 1680, and despite the

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FACT AND SURMISE

fact that such accounts as remain of their doings are of a very sketchy nature, they make interesting reading. It is quite certain that Davis gradually gathered around him several other shipmasters, and that, with himself in supreme command, they carried on their career of piracy, with Cocos as headquarters, for a great number of years.

But our concern is buried treasure, and Davis & Co. left no clues worth following in this direction; nor do we need to bother a lot about them, for the stories of Graham and Thompson are surely enough to go on with, and the evidence as to their doings is good enough to satisfy most investigators that they carried to Cocos plunder of tremendous value. Many attempts have been made to estimate the present-day worth of this treasure, and, although these differ very greatly, in no case does the figure fall short of many millions of pounds sterling.

Then again, for a period of nearly a century we have ample proofs of search which has never ceased for any considerable length of time, and this fact alone must support very strongly the views of those who , like myself, believe the stuff still to be there. More than twenty serious expeditions have been made, in some cases at big cost, and in all cases with great manual effort, in the endeavour to unravel the mystery of the hiding-places. Over and above these recognized, ambitious attempts, there have been countless minor and milder searches, about most of which little is known; but the various inscriptions carved upon every bit of available rock in Chatham Bay are sufficient

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TREASURE CRUISE

testimony to the legion of optimists who have also had a shot at it.

Two "Vigilants" before ourselves have been there and left their mark; one dating back to 1867. Considerable romance might be woven out of the brief inscriptions left in this manner all over the place, the only pity being that information regarding this fleet is not much fuller.

One of the best organized expeditions was carried out some years ago by the Winchester Small Arms Company of America, and I understand at a cost of about £30,000. But all these attempts have produced nothing, with one notable exception which I will speak of presently, and there is no record of any considerable find.

In spite of this, enthusiasm remains unabated, and a new expedition, with a capital of no less than £75,000, proposes to sail for Cocos Island very shortly, equipped with the most up-to-date instruments for locating metal, and boring apparatus with which to fetch up samples; the latter in order to do away with haphazard and useless excavation. They also intend taking a small seaplane which should be a great asset as a means of quick communication with the mainland. I think that if this ambitious attempt also fails Cocos Island may very likely be left more or less in peace, for a time at least.

For some time after arriving back in England I continued to get a number of letters, most of which related to treasure said to be buried in all kinds of places, both on shore and in the sea. In most cases there was a

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FACT AND SURMISE

suggestion that endeavours should be made to recover them. A few of these I have kept by me for future reference and possibly future effort, but the greater proportion were not worth considering. Needless to say much of the correspondence referred to Cocos Island itself, and it has been astonishing to find that so many people, of whom I had never previously heard, have been there.

Chief interest in this direction lies in letters from a correspondent in Toronto, who is connected with a firm which operates a radio-detector for locating from the surface natural gas and oil, mineralized veins and mineral deposits. It is also held that the apparatus has been used with great success in Canada. The suggestion of course is to make another bid, the field of search being narrowed down very considerably by the fact that a man, still living and farming in Ontario, claims actually to have seen what is concealed in one huge cave, and who, furthermore, says that he brought some away. It will make the matter clearer if I quote a letter published in a Vancouver paper, dated October 9th, 1932, at which time we were still at work on Cocos. Here it is and addressed to the Editor:--

" Sir.

A short account of the actual recovery of some of the treasure lying at Cocos Island might interest your readers. I give it to you in the words of the man who retrieved it, who is still living and in good health, a farmer in Ontario.

In the year 1887 I sailed from Panama in company

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TREASURE CRUISE

with Captain ----- and a crew of three Portuguese sailors in Capt. ----'s schooner, bound for Cocos Island. We set our course for the island but were carried off by currents, and after considerable tacking back and forth sighted the island and landed in one of the bays. We had considerable trouble in landing on account of heavy waves. We only stayed three days.

On the second day Capt.---- and I went ashore and located the cave from directions that had been given to him by a young man (Portuguese) whose grandfather had been a pirate. The entrance to the cave was well screened by overhanging vines and contained many bags of gold in Spanish coins and bullion gold in bars, and also many golden ornaments consisting of golden images and gold plate, pearl necklaces, bracelets, etc., and there was a quantity of swords with gold hilts, and scabbards studded with jewels. Some of the bars had letters on them in a foreign language, which Capt. ---- told me were for some bank in Peru. He said it was not safe to take much treasure with us, as the Portuguese ( whom we had left on the ship drunk) were not to be trusted, so we only took three bars of the gold, which were about the size of old fashioned soap bars, but very heavy. We had brought our coats which we had taken off while in the cave. We tied the sleeves with some :fishline at the cuffs slipped one bar in each of three of the sleeves and the remaining sleeve some ornaments, bracelets, rings· and necklaces.

We then returned to the boats with the coats slung over our shoulders, but our precautions were unnecessary, as the three sailors were still asleep.

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FACT AND SURMISE

The next morning after getting a supply of fresh water, wood and some bags of cocoanuts, we sailed for Panama, where Capt. -- paid off the sailors, and after selling the schooner (there being no Canal at the time, though they were working at it), we went back to New York where we disposed of our three bars of gold and the ornaments on Second Avenue, after first hammering out the letters on the bars.

We were intending to go across to San Francisco and fit out proper, but during the three weeks we were enjoying ourselves in New York, Capt. --received a telegram to come home at once, as his father was dying. We then agreed that he was to write to me when we could outfit again which was not till nearly three years later, when, on our return to the island, although we spent three weeks hunting for the cave, we could find no trace of it.

From information received at a later date . it was learned that a landslide had occurred which had covered the mouth of the cave. This man is satisfied that he could locate the position of the cave accurately within about an acre, and that, with the aid of a metal finder there would be no difficulty in discovering the treasure again."

That is the story, and, beyond saying that I place more credence upon this than anything else out of the X plus Y information I have heard and read, will not make any comment, but will try to say all I can for the case on the other side.

To begin with, this tale is the only one we have that

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TREASURE CRUISE

is anywhere in the neighbourhood of first-hand information as to anything ever having been removed or discovered, and even this dates back to 1887 ; forty-six years ago. During all this time, and although the island has not been left alone but has been a scene of almost unbroken activity with the one object of bringing the treasure to, light, each expedition has been without result. It is suggested by many that, although they have no doubt about the taking of the stuff to Cocos, they feel that it has, very likely, been quietly removed by people who had accurate knowledge of its whereabouts. As to this, I can only say that had a single doubloon been found during our stay the whole world would have known about it in quick time. Indeed, as it was, persistent rumours were current on more than one occasion that we had found many million pounds' worth of the hoard. This being so I believe that if it was ever taken there it still remains. The most convincing argument against the whole history of treasure at Cocos lies in the fact that there are no signs of occupation by the buccaneers who are said to have used the island over such a long period of years. Here, where I live in Devonshire, the Romans were once in possession, and in speaking of this we are not going back a mere matter of a century but two thousand years. In spite of this great lapse of time remains are constantly being unearthed; coins, utensils of common, everyday use in those days, and other things that give very definite proof of their residence here so long ago; and it is the same in all other parts of the country, even in places where their

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FACT AND SURMISE

stay is known to have been a very brief one. But at Cocos Island, nothing ! No odd buttons, remains of old daggers or knives, earrings, clothes or coins. Never a sign of anything that could link us up in undisputed fashion with this bold band who are said to have passed so much of their ill-spent lives there.

At the south side of Wafer Bay, across the creek from the encampment and tucked away amidst the palms in a small cove, are the remains of some huts, and this is called Pirate Village. It is here, surely, that something might have come to light to justify the name, but such has not been the case.

A considerable time ago Cocos Island is reputed to have been used by the Costa Ricans as a penal settlement, and it is more likely, I think, that the so-called Pirate Village was a part of their establishment. The island fell into disuse for this purpose, owing probably to the fact that it is three hundred miles from the mainland, much too far from home to please those who were responsible for maintaining communication between it and headquarters, for Costa Ricans are not at all sea-disposed. All the same, I cannot understand why they do not use this place to accommodate their criminals, for by systematic digging they would be certain, eventually, to unearth whatever is there. As I have remarked before, however, they have no belief in treasure stories, and so would look upon any such labour as being entirely a waste of time. I have, in any case, said all I can on both sides of the question and my readers will, I expect, have

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TREASURE CRUISE

grave doubts about there being anything on Cocos waiting to be discovered, but those who have been there, without exception, are confident that it awaits the arrival of the lucky crowd. For some reason, too, which I am unable to account for, there is a feeling of absolute certainty when on the spot.

As to the search itself, in our own case I had no hand in the direction of operations, but I always tried to imagine myself as being the fellow-in-charge in those far-off times; for this haven of refuge, at the time of those old-time happenings, was one of perfect security without fear of interference, and would not have seemed to require any elaborate system of concealment. The old buccaneers were notoriously a lazy crowd, and they came to Cocos for rest and recreation, not for hard work. Moreover, they had no possible facilities for transporting the articles of great weight which are on the list as part of their pillage to the almost inaccessible places where some of our most strenuous efforts were made.

No, I cannot help holding the view that most expeditions have neglected that which appears to be obvious, namely that the treasure was hidden not very far from high-water mark, and that the place is very likely now further concealed by landslides, or falls of cliff, which have since occurred.

I would strongly recommend any future hunters to examine closely the many caves that face the sea and not inland, for it is there, I feel convinced, that finds will some day be made. Towards the end of our stay a party went to inspect a cave which is situated just

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FACT AND SURMISE

outside the western point of Chatham Bay. It is about fifteen feet above sea-level; the entrance is small, but inside the cave is of considerable size. We found that one side of it was full of fallen rock--tons and tons of it--and in spite of the fact that Cooper said he felt definite reaction, and there was a certain amount of mild excitement, the discovery was made too late in the day. This was just when we had reached the end of our enthusiasm or inclination for a fresh start, so nothing further was ever done about it. I would strongly urge a thorough investigation of this and similar places, of which there are several, and may good luck attend the effort !

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CHAPTER XIV

TIPS FOR TREASURE SEEKERS

AND now a few last words to any who may intend to "go and do likewise".

Good health and a good ship are the first essentials, and with that foundation you can go anywhere. "Vigilant" was absolutely capable of facing any weather, but in the absence of power for hoisting sail and heaving in cable the gear was heavy to work. If fitting out again for a similar voyage I would cut down considerably everything in the shape of spars and running gear. Sails as well, for the tanned canvas of the Brixham trawler is made to withstand gales in the English Channel, and such stout material is not strictly necessary for cruising in the tropics.

An engine, if only of low power, is another requisite, and it would be useless to expect any enjoyable cruising without one; more particularly in the Pacific, where you might roll about for days on end without a breath of wind. But it must be an engine that will go when it is wanted, and the small marine-engine has, in recent years, been so much improved that, nowadays, there is not much trouble in this respect to anyone with a little know ledge of such matters. The next item in order of importance is the selection of your shipmates. It is far from easy to get

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TIPS FOR TREASURE SEEKERS

together half-a-dozen, or more, men who are going to fit in with each other, for under the best conditions there will be trying times. Do all you can to make sure that you will suit each other before getting away upon the high seas. There is no back door, and the enjoyment or otherwise of your cruise will depend almost entirely upon the composition of your personnel.

We were reasonably fortunate in this respect, though I am not venturing to say that there were not delicate moments, but without open warfare.

The financial side must, of course, be on a sound basis, and the way in which money subscribed is used, should be open to the inspection of all. Actually, an expedition similar to our own is not an expensive matter, and it is safe to say that the cost per head of the whole business, including, in our case, the purchase price of the " Vigilant " and her conversion, was less than it would have cost us to live in England during the year we were away.

Provisioning is a question that cannot very easily be advised upon, and must, to a great extent, be decided by the individual tastes of those concerned; but it is important to take as much as possible from home, where most stores can be purchased cheaper than the replenishments that will certainly be required from time to time abroad. The small articles, such as matches, are usually bought in quantities quite insufficient for requirements, and they should in any event be rationed, for it is awkward to be short of them. It has to be remembered that at sea one is always hungry, and this should be reckoned with when laying

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TREASURE CRUISE

in stores for a trip. Everybody eats too much at sea, and from the point of view of health it would often be better, instead of a meal, to pull the belt in a couple of holes and go without. Bovril or other meat-extract should be put on board in quantity, for this stuff provides a good meal at times when weather conditions may make other cooking out of the question, and it is ideal for the night-watches.

With all these consumable stores it is better to overestimate than to be on the short side, and the same may be said about deck stores. Take plenty of spare rope of various sizes, spare shackles and so on, for you will find a use for all of it if away for any length of time, and all these things are terribly expensive away from England.

Take with you charts of everywhere you are likely to go, for this, too, will save you a lot of trouble. I should have been free of a good deal of anxiety had we been better supplied in this direction. But this was nobody's fault, for as has been seen we did not carry out our original programme.

How to pass the spare time, especially on long trips, is the biggest problem, and it will help greatly in this direction if you can raise a "bridge four". Sleep, however, is always a good standby, for one is usually ready for that if there is nothing else doing, especially in fine and hot weather such as we experienced for the greater part of the time. Take a good wireless set for receiving. This will give endless joy, besides keeping you well in touch with the happenings in a civilized world which seems

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TIPS FOR TREASURE SEEKERS

so far away when once you have sailed clear of home waters. A gramophone, too, with a good selection of well-chosen records, will help things along. I do not advise musical instruments unless there are people who really can play them. In the " Vigilant " there were two errors in this line. Jolly possessed what I believe is called a Hawaiian guitar, whilst Milbourne also carried a guitar, his being the common-or-garden brand. They were not expert musicians, and when these instruments were first produced, some days after sailing, the initial tuning up received no great encouragement, and it was not long before there was active hostility to the music provided. Gadgets which I believe are called mutes were brought into requisition, but even with this modification the weird noises produced did not soothe those of us who were endeavouring to read, so that, by degrees, and although there was sturdy perseverance for a time, the guitars died a natural death. If, however, it may be your good fortune to have with you a player who can handle either the concertina or accordion properly you have an asset, for, somehow, this instrument fits in with the sea as no other instrument does.

But best of all is a hobby of some sort, and I cannot forget that Major Phillips, who on account of health had to leave us at Trinidad, was a keen model-maker, and, from the time we left Brixham till he went ashore at Trinidad, he never had a spare moment on his hands, for during that time he had turned out a splendid scale model of "Vigilant".

In the ordinary way reading is the greatest recreation

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at sea, and you cannot overdo the stock of literature. It will be easy enough at the ports-of-call to exchange whatever you may have finished for a fresh supply.

It may so happen that a medical man is one of your party, which is all to the good, and in any case you will, of course, have on board a well-stocked medicine chest. We carried no doctor in " Vigilant " but were well set up as to medical stores, and the majority of us had some knowledge of first aid. Strange to say, we kept clear of accidents throughout our travels, and this is unusual. It was an amazing thing to find, on arrival at Cocos Island, and on meeting the Vancouver party, that they, too, were without a medical man, for there were twenty-six of them, and the expedition started off with ample funds.

Do not omit to lay in a good stock of fishing tackle, for this will provide you with any amount of sport besides a welcome change of food, but make sure that you have a good illustrated book on deep-sea fish, and eat nothing you catch unless the book shows you that there is no doubt about it. Small arms are, or may be, useful, and beyond these in the shooting line the best weapon is the twelve bore scatter-gun with number four or five shot cartridges. They will kill almost anything short of an elephant, and the twelve bore was the weapon we invariably used for wild pig. Of course, I am speaking of shooting up to about fifty yards range. Rifles are hardly worth carrying in the ordinary way, though this naturally does not apply if there is any possibility of going after deer or big game. It may be well to mention that

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TIPS FOR TREASURE SEEKERS

there are two methods of getting wild pig. One is with a dog, in which case you set out and walk till the dog finds, for usually pig will stand at bay to a dog, and this will enable you to come within reach. Otherwise, you will have to lie concealed in the undergrowth, close to an open space where there are signs of recent rooting. And here some advice is needed, for this uncouth, and apparently unwieldy, brute gets about in the jungle practically without a sound--this, too, in country where the slightest movement of a human being makes noise enough to wake the dead. How they manage it I do not pretend to know, but it is so. Therefore, you must keep perfectly still; do not smoke unless to leeward of the spot you are watching, and the first indication you will have of your pig will be his two wicked-looking eyes staring straight at you: then get in your shot quickly. If you miss he is gone, with the speed of a deer. It is a good but tedious sport.

Take a couple of cats if you can, they do well on board ship and are great companions, and if at all possible have also a good hunting dog, provided you are likely to have any opportunity for his use, but not otherwise. Dogs do not thrive on board, and in bad weather are perfectly miserable.

Keep a good diary, having special regard to dates and times, for things which you are quite sure will be registered in your brain for all time have a nasty trick of failing to mature when you need to bring them to memory.

Take cameras, and a good supply of films, for you will find ample opportunity for exposing all you take.

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TREASURE CRUISE

On a jaunt of this kind other things of interest are liable to take your attention away from photography, so that afterwards, when the chance has gone, you will be sorry. This was the case with us so do not let it occur to you. Lastly, if it be your good fortune to get the same enjoyment out of a similar twelve months, and in spite of all difficulties, you will be fully repaid for any trouble you may have had in preparing for it.

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CHAPTER XV

CONCLUSION

FOR there is no doubt about it, our venture was for me a year of real enjoyment. Such difficulties as came our way were more than balanced by the cheery times, the new scenes, even the risks which inevitably had to be taken on occasion. They were more than balanced, too, by the constant belief that something would presently come out of our hard and prolonged efforts.

I would have liked to have sailed the old ship home, even though we should have been coming empty handed; but that was not to be, and perhaps it was just as well, for, when we finished up at Panama only four of the original eight were left, and it would have meant taking on additional hands for the run home. Somehow, too, new hands in " Vigilant " at that stage would have seemed terribly out of place.

I expect soon to be sailing a small yacht, a 25-ton yawl, from Amsterdam out to Genoa, but my heart is set upon another expedition to the westward, all the details of which I have worked out, and during which I have great faith in the possibility of good reward. It will be carried out if and when someone able to finance it has been found. This, too, is a search for gold, but not buried pirate gold, though the project would no doubt strike most people as being quite as

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much a fairy tale as that of the treasure which lies buried at Cocos Island.

It would not be fitting to close this hook without a few words of grateful thanks to all those friends, both at home and abroad, who were, at all times, so ready with their help and hospitality, and I must specially mention Messrs. Stratton of Birmingham who presented us with the Eddystone four-valve wireless set out of which we got so much enjoyment.

And, as one sailor to others, I take this opportunity of placing on record my deep appreciation to Admiral Irwin, Commander Nichols, and Captain Carter, of "Nokomis", all of the United States Navy, for their ready assistance when it was required. "Uncle Sam", I think, is well served by such gentlemen as these, and I could only wish that it might be possible some day to return their great kindness.

To my late shipmates, wherever they may be, I wish good luck. As they well remember, it was not all smooth running, but in the main they will be agreed that it was mostly so. Any small frictions or differences that arose between different members of the party did not amount to much, and they were not actually my concern, for never once did anyone question my decision on any point to do with the working of the ship. On the contrary, full and ungrudging help was always forthcoming. Finnis was my sure right-hand on deck from start to finish, and my good companion on shore. And since it appears that he is stout hearted enough to embark upon the new expedition to Cocos. I hope he will meet with great good luck.

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CONCLUSION

To Cooper, who was our mainstay in the matter of the, engine, the electric light and the thousand and one jobs that only he could do, and who is now prospecting in Trinidad, I extend my heartiest good wishes for success in his undertakings. We shall probably, and before long, be again associated in further adventures. Nothing now remains to be said, and so, although my inability as a writer should make the end of my task welcome, I yet lay down my pen with regret.

189

INDEX

B

Brixham, 15 et seq.

Board of Trade, 21

Burlings Islands, 33

Bay of Biscay, 33

Blue Basin (Trinidad), 47

Balboa, 61

Benito, the pirate, 77

British Consul, Panama, 113, 165 .

British Consul, San Jose, 66

C

Crew of " Vigilant ", 14, 19

Customs, H.M., 21

Cats (Brixy and Dwong), 26

Cook, the, 32

Caroni River, 46

Chaguaramus Bay, 69 et seq.

Colon, 61

Cano Island, 65

Cocos Island, 68 et seq.

Chatham Bay, 69 et seq.

" Continental," S.S., 121

Christmas Day, 133

D

Divining, 28

E

" Endeavour," H.M.S., 38

F

Finisterre, Cape, 33

Fish (at Cocos), 90

G

Gasparee Island, 49

Galapagos Islands, 89

H

Hannenkamp, Pilot, 98, 126

I

Irwin, Admiral, U.S.N., 165

L

Las Palmas, 38

Leckie, Colonel, 84

Lankester, naturalist, 131

M

Madeira, 34, 35

Masson, Dr., 51

Montuoso Island, 63

Mary Dier, 85

Morgan Point, 86

Metalophone, the, 93

N

Nichols, Commander, U.S.N., 62, 165

Nuez Island, 142

"Nokomis," U.S.S., 161, 165, 167

p

Pollyblanks, George, 16

P. & 0. Ships, 33

Pitch Lake (Trinidad), 47

Personnel of Vancouver party, 73

Puntarenas,98, 125,134

Panama, 112

190

Q

Quoiba or Coiba Island, 150, 154-8

R

Ruston-Lister engine, 22, 23

Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club, 25

Refrigerator, 27

S

Shoreham, Sussex, 16

Salvage Islands, 36, 37

St. Vincent (Cape Verde Islands), 41

"Silver Wave," S.S., 71, 104

"Stenton," U.S. Cruiser, 124

T

Timekeeping 24

Trinidad, 46 et seq.

Testigo Islands, 58

Tuna fishing, 90

Treasure Creek, 96

Tonosii River, 151

V

Vanderloos, pilot, 149

w

Wireless, 23, 24

"Windy," the cook, 50

Wafer Bay, 69 et seq.

Y

Yacht "Western Queen," 129

Yacht "Southern Pearl," 129

191

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