Last week we left our hero, the so-called Capt. Cook, headed towards the shores of western Mexico from San Francisco in a attempt to retrieve a possible million dollars plus worth of gold bullion and coins from the remains of a sunken steamer, Golden Gate. Recall that Cook had been taught to deep-sea dive and considered himself quite good. But diving for gold proved to be a new challenge which Cook welcomed. Hired divers just a short time ago failed to find even traces of the sunken treasure. Cooked drooled at the opportunity.
Equipped with his diving suit and primitive light, Cook made several dives and at first found only strewn fragments of the steamer: half burned timbers, bolts, nails and scrap iron. A crew of pearl divers had also discovered the wreckage. They would wait around like hyenas hoping the diver (Cook) with the "modern" equipment would reveal the treasure and seize bits and parts, but the treasure would prove to be heavy and too much for the pearl divers.
After days of searching acres around the wreckage, Cook spied the ends of two timbers, iron bound, sticking out of the sand. He failed to examine the pieces carefully, but soon after decided that the timbers were never put together that way in a ship. He quickly returned to the
spot and discovered what he had been looking for.....boxes filled with gold. Knowing that if he didn't deal with the treasure now, he might not be able to find the spot again. Lying flat on his back, Cook pulled down his lifeline, snipped off 10 feet and tied one box of gold to a piece of wreckage marking the treasure in order to easily find the box on his return. He re-attached his lifeline to his suit, clasped his arms around the other box and gave the usual signal to haul up.
Many other boxes of gold had been buried deeper in the sand and required creative engineering for the retrieval. The crew went to work to build a force pump. This pump would be used to force water down a hose and with that force, sand could scoop a hole as big as a man's body as deep as one pleased. With little trouble the plan succeeded; three quarters of a million dollars worth of gold were brought aboard. But the question of what to do with the booty emerged. One plan was to divide it up among the crew, perhaps sail to Peru and say nothing. However, the crew feared to be uncovered by the U.S. government, would be outlawed and allowed never to return under threat of arrest. The crew and Capt. Cook decided to send the treasure to San Francisco, present the find to the owners and claim a reward through salvage. The court awarded the crew one third and the remainder returned to the owners.
The next year Capt. Cook returned to the site of the wreckage in order to look for more gold. Other salvage crews had by now discovered the same location and had to be fended off, sometimes with underwater fights. Cook carried a Bowie knife and so did they. According to Cook, "They were more afraid of their lives than I was of mine, so I always came out the victor. They didn't dare to go down into the sand so deep as I did and they got nothing." But with superior equipment, Cook's crew was again successful and eventually hauled up another huge quantity of gold. This time, though, they decided the gold belonged to them only. They again sent the gold to San Francisco and the courts awarded the crew the whole salvage (after making their case).
But there was trouble brewing in paradise. The rival expedition, jealous of Cook's success, accused Cook of appropriating large quantities of gold and never turning it over to the courts. Cook, in order to avoid trouble, left quickly for South America (Peru). Eventually, he found himself in London only to find his picture in the leading English and French papers and a big reward had been offered for his arrest.
I must digress a bit here and explain that the whole process of salvage and its laws are quite unknown to me and, therefore, I'm unable to explain just why Cook was forced to flee the country and why a reward was offered. But in any case, after the excitement of his disappearance had subsided, Cook made the ultimate decision to return to America and soon found his way back to Presque Isle in 1865 where he had left at the age of 18. He would spend the next 13 years in our village and, with the riches he had acquired at sea, Cook built a beautiful home, married a local girl and operated a successful business.
Next week.....a short profile of Capt. Cook's life in Presque Isle. We'll get a peek at the people who have lived in that house which Cook built (and a recent photo to boot) and reveal his descendants, past and Any comments or additions? E-mail me at RAG111@webtv.net............