CAPE HENLOPEN HISTORY
1935 NEWSPAPER ITEM
REGARDS DE BRACK HUNTERS
Friday, July 19, 1935,
Daily Mail , Newspapers.com, reports a piece of a sunken
British hull located off
Cape Henlopen , believed to be the De Braak, has been found and
equipment is being rushed
to the site to raise the vessel from t he shifting sands of
the
Breakwater Harbor. The
piece found by a diver is a carved wood railing, undeniable,
from the De Braak
according to Randolph MacCracke, a great grandson of the De
Braak's
skipper.
This led the leaders of
the salvage operation , Charles Calstead of Atteboro,
Massachusetts and Richard
Wilson, of Providence, Rhode Island, to rush in equipment
to raise the wreck. The
diver, Harry Morgan, of Florida, reports the wreck lies half
buried in sand on the bay
floor.
Hailing from the West
Indies, Captain James Drew the skipper in command was
seeking anchorage at the
capes when a wind gust turned her over, she fast filling with the sea
and sunk with 40 sailors and a cargo of gold loot from two
Spanish galleons.
All during the 1800's the
wreck attracted treasure seekers and fifty year ago a stock
company in Philidelphia
sold stock for $25 a share anf after a large sum had been spent
with no results, shares
fell to ten cents, the search was abandoned. Early in 1930's the
Baltimore Derrick and
Salvage Company of Baltimore tried to raise the wreck, and the
misfortune of one vessel burning to sea level, another grounded and
beat to pieces, caused
another failure.
Abstract: Friday, July
19, 1935, Daily Mail, Newspaperabstracts.com
No comments:
Post a Comment