, but the site is extremely exposed
and owing to bad weather, it has often been found impossible to
continue dredging operations for more than a few days each year. I
trust the above information may be of service to you, but I may add
that I understand that it is this year intended to operate with some
new apparatus."

Some light was thrown on this latest enterprise by the publication of
the following in a recent issue of _Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper_ of London:

"SEA TREASURE GETTER.

NOVEL MACHINE TO BE USED FOR RAISING SUNKEN WEALTH.

"An extraordinary machine was towed to the mouth of the River Colne,
off Brightlingsea, and anchored on Thursday. It is to be used in a
final attempt to recover L500,000 treasure of gold, in coins and bars,
which is said to have gone down in H. M. S. _Lutine_ in 1797 near the
island of Terschelling, off the coast of Holland.

"A portion of the treasure has been recovered, but the ordinary
dredging plant is now useless, as the vessel has sunk into the sand.
The new device is a great steel tube nearly 100 ft. in length, and wide
enough to allow a man to walk erect down its centre. At one end is a
metal chamber provided with windows and doors, and at the other a
medley of giant hooks and other tackle.

"The apparatus has just been completed, after years of work, by
Messers. Forrest and Co., shipbuilders, in their Wyvenhoe yard. One
end of the tube, it is explained, will be clamped to the side of a
steamship or barge. The other end, by means of water-ballast tanks,
will be sunk until it touches the bottom. Then, by means of compressed
air, all the water will be forced from the tube and also from the
chamber at the bottom of it, which will be flush upon the bed of the
sea.

"Divers will walk down a stairway in the centre of the tube until they
reach the submerged chamber. Here they will don their diving costumes,
and, opening a series of water-tight doors, will step out into the
water. Engineers will be stationed in the chamber, and, following the
instructions of the divers, who will communicate with them by means of
portable telephones, they will operate the mechanism of two powerful
suction pumps, or dredges, which are fitted to the sides of the tube.

"These dredges, it is hoped, will suck away the sand around the sides
of the heavy chamber until it gradually sinks by its own weight right
down on to the deck of the wrecked ship. Then the divers, making their
way from the