
National Maritime Museum UK
Wikimedia Commons
THE ADVERTISER (ADELAIDE) 25TH JUNE, 1932
(Abridged)
There is the case of the diver who was working on a wreck off the coast of Galway – a portion of the coast where, rumour had it, a Spanish galleon (one of the ships of the Armada) had gone down, centuries before.
An old fisherman told the diver about the galleon.
“You show me the treasure, and i’ll soon get it,” said the diver.
“We’ll share it if there’s any.”
He and the fisherman went out in a rowing boat, threw a grapnel over the stern and dragged it about the sea bed in the hope of striking the wreck.
For a month their efforts were fruitless. Then the grapnel held.
“We’ve got her,” said the diver. And they had.
The diver donned his suit and went down. He found the skeleton of the galleon of long ago – and also came across what appeared to be several small barrels. The barrels were actually solid stacks of Spanish doubloons, from which the wood had long since perished – leaving the coins still shaped like their containers.