French Group to Seek Sunken Gold Treasure
Paris—(U.P.)—Another expedition whose members hope to rescue $100 million worth of Spanish gold from the bottom of the sea is making plans to sail shortly from France for Central America.
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The expedition will be led by the same man who failed earlier this year to carry out the scheme on which he had been working for a long time. He visited Spain to gather documentation on historical and geographical aspects of the treasure.
He is a 28-year-old Frenchman of Russian origin named Alexander Korganoff, who served as mate in the French merchant navy but has been eagerly studying Spanish discoveries overseas.
He has made a special study of Spanish galleons, many of which, loaded with gold, silver and precious stones, were sunk in the West Indies on their way back home.
Before his first expedition, Korganoff had searched patiently in Seville through thousands of old manuscripts stacked in the "Archivo las Indias."
He was lucky to find thrilling and hitherto unpublished accounts about what happened three centuries ago to some of the Spanish treasure ships.
They were either sunk in storms off the Hispaniola (Santo Domingo) coast, one of the first American islands. Columbus discovered, or were stolen by pirates, and were sunk by the famous pirates known as "Los Hermanos de las Costa."
The most interesting documents Korganoff went through referred to
the Spanish galleon flagship Nuestra Senora de la Concepción, which went down in 1674 with more than 150,000 pounds of gold from Mexico. The crew totaled more than 500 men, of whom 350 were drowned.
The papers included the ship's log and explained how on July 16 of that year, during a sudden storm, the Concepción, which had sailed from Vera Cruz, crashed on the coral reefs of the Banco de la Plata. The log had been kept by one of the crew who was rescued and brought it to Spain.
The Banco de la Plata is a huge coral bank, 35 miles long, 20 miles wide, and in some parts 100 feet under water, which follows roughly the northern coast of Haiti. Along Tortoise Island, for many years in the 17th century a favorite pirate's den.
A 70-ton steam-trawler equipped with modern diving apparatus left La Rochelle, France, at the end of January 1952. It sailed via the Canary Islands and reached Puerto Plata, in the Dominican Republics, early in March.
Korganoff's first expedition met almost the same tragic fate as the gallen. He had obtained financial support of prominent people.
The expedition began exploring the
A CARL'S STYLE FLASH
Rugged Textures
University Daily Kansan
Couple Married on Bridge
Point Pleasant, W. Va., (U.P.)Bern Livingston and Patty Kuhn chose to bridge their lives on a bridge. They were married by the Rev. M. D. Shiflet in the middle of a span across a river here.
coral bank and through the clear water, located parts of galleons, anchors, etc.
The electric lead broke: thei French diver soon gave up because of sharks: dynamite proved ineffective; the ship radio failed and two anchors remained stuck in the reefs. Although Korganoff wanted to stick to the work, it was decided to postpone the exploration, leaving buoys where the wrecks had been located.
This time Korganan will use two ships, he said, including one small vessel which will navigate easily between the treacherous reefs. He will also take along special hammer grabs to go through the coral mass for the buried treasures. The expedition will last about six months.
Then the trawler hit a rock and sank in a storm. The crew were brought back to France.
Friday, Nov. 21, 1952
French Troops Surrender Two Outpots in Indo-China
there every 15 minutes.
The outposts which the French forces abandoned in face of overwhelming enemy pressure are Moc Chau, 15 miles south of the black river town of Van Yen, and nearby Balay.
The exact situation of the retreating French and Viet Min forces is unknown here—the only word is that they have abandoned the two outposts.
Hanoi, French Indo-China—(U.P).—French and loyal Viet Nam forces are retreating from the flaming ruins of two outposts 65 miles west of Hanoi before overwhelming forces of Viet Minh Communist rebels, it was disclosed tonight. $ \circ $
Watching as the rebels started rolling up the southern flank of their defense line, French high command officials said their troops could not be reinforced—the country is too mountainous—and it must be a fight to the finish.
No longer trying to conceal the seriousness of the rebel drive, the high command started a gigantic airlift of supplies to the vitally important Son La base 130 miles west of Hanoi, which the rebels may threaten soon. The capacity of Na San airstrip 15 miles south of Son La was doubled to handle Dakotas, Junkers and fast fighters. A supply-laden transport plane was landing
Ninety-seven per cent of drivers involved in 1951 auto accidents had at least one year of experience behind the wheel.
THE KILTIE
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bright new views of an old campus custom...