Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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McCORMICK MESSENGER. McCORMICK, S. C.. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1938 Ideas for Making Christmas Presents By RUTH WYETH SPEARS Unusually attractive toys may be made quickly and at little cost from cheap cotton stockings. This demure yellowish tan kitten with bright red or blue ribbon is made from a stocking leg. The secret of giving toys of this type char acter is in making the stuffing firm and ’ tight. Cotton or small pieces of clean, soft rags may be used. Push the stuffing firmly in place with a blunt stick. Complete directions for cutting and making the body are given here. For the tail, cut a piece 6 inches long and 2 inches wide. Stitch the lengthwise edges to gether, tapering toward the end, then turn right side out, stuff and sew firmly in place. It is easy to draw the face. Notice in the sketch how the eyelids curve, the shape of the mouth and how the whiskers slant. Either wool yarn or mercerized cotton embroidery thread may be used—black or brown for the eyes and whiskers and red for the mouth. Be sure to save the scraps of stocking material left from the kitten. We will make a doll out of them later. If you are not ready to make Christmas toys now, clip and save this lesson as it is not contained in either v of the books offered below. NOTE: Are you ready for Christmas? Birthdays? And the next church bazaar? Do you turn time into money with things to sell? Mrs. Spears’ Sewing Book 2 has helped thousands of women. If your home is your hobby you will also want Book 1—SEWING, for the Home Decorator. Order by number enclosing 25 cents for each book. If you order both books, quilt leaflet with 36 differ ent stitches will be included free. Address Mrs. Spears, 210 S. Des- plaines St., Chicago, 111. Wait, Mother- Ask Your Doctor First Never give your children unknown “Bargain” remedies to take un less you ask your doctor. A mother may save a few pennies giving her children unknown prep arations. But a child’s life is pre cious beyond pennies. So—Ask your doctor before you give any remedy you don’t know all about. And when giving the common children’s remedy, milk of mag nesia, always ask for “Phillips”' Milk of Magnesia. Because for three generations Phillips* has been favored by many physicians as a standard, reliable and proved preparation — marvel ously gentle for youngsters. Many children like Phillips* in the newer form — tiny peppermint- flavored tablets that chew like candy. Each tablet contains the equivalent of one teaspoonful of the liquid Phillips.’ 251 for a big box. A bottle of Phillips* liquid Milk of Magnesia costs but 25^. So—any one can afford the genuine. Careful mothers ask for it by its full name “Phillips’ Milk of Magnesia. PHILUPS’ MILK OF MAGNESIA *IN LIQUID OR TABLET FORM Two Necessities The highest effect of eloquence requires an eloquent speaker and an eloquent hearer.—Shedd. 8V 3 DOZ. TABLETS DOE. TABLETS DOZ. TABLETS 98c BOc IOC st.Josepn GFNUINF PURF ASPIRIN Only Good Merchandise Cm Be CONSISTENTLY Advtrtistd • BUY ADVERTISED GOODS* Again Is Revived the Romantic Story of the 'Hispaniola Treasure 1 Expedition Led by Famous Adventurer, Capt. John D. Craig, Has Found Relics of Spanist Galleons Whose $20,000,000 Cargoes of Gold, Silver and Jewels Have Rested on Ocear Floor Since They Were Wrecked on Silver Shoals Reef Away Back in 1642. © Western Newspaper Union. Capt. John D. Craig holding a skull and crouching over an ancient Spanish cannon found among the coral beds at Silver Shoals. By ELMO SCOTT WATSON E T summer the two- masted schooner, “Isa bel,” sailed out of the port of Puerto Plata on the island of Santo Domingo and headed north. On board were the members of “Capt. John D. Craig’s Deep-Sea Diving Expedition in the Caribbean,” sponsored by Waldo H. Logan, member of the Adventurers Club of Chicago and alumnus of Beloit college in Wisconsin. The purpose of the expedition was to take underwater pic tures of marine life for the Beloit department of biology and the man selected for the job was Capt. John D. Craig, Hollywood’s top producer of adventure movies, the man who is to make the movies of the salvaging of the “Lusita nia” and the author of “Dan ger Is My Business.” Aerial surveys made in an airplane, furnished by the president of the Republic of Santo Domingo, had located their objective for this trip. It was Silver Shoals reef, a coral island 65 miles from Puerto Plata. The schooner dropped its anchor near the reef. Over the side went Captain Craig in the Craig- Nohl diving dress in which he has made record deep-sea dives. Down through 65 feet of the crystal-clear water he dropped until at last he stood on the floor of the ocean. All around him were the fantastically-beautiful coral formations of which he would soon be taking movies in col or, the first of their kind ever made. As he walked about on the floor of the sea, he saw ahead of him a dark object. For a moment he thought it was a coral “tree.” Then as he came nearer its outlines emerged clearly in the soft light. Standing upright on the floor of the ocean, it was thickly encrusted with coral but not so much as to prevent his realizing what it was—an ancient cannon! He stretched out his hand to touch it and reached across three centuries! In that mo ment he was “one with the past” and there flashed through his mind the story of one of the most thrilling quests for buried treasure in all history—the story of the “Hispaniola Treasure.” Away back in 1642 a fleet of 16 Spanish galleons laden with treas ure—gold, silver and jewels— from the Spanish colonies in the two Americas set sail for home. Accounts vary as to the value of their cargoes. Estimates range from $17,000,000 to $21,000,000. The slow-sailing galleons were convoyed by swift frigates, for danger lurked along the sea lanes. If they sailed due east through the Caribbean sea, they might easily become the prey of the fierce buccaneers and pirates who swarmed the Spanish Main. If they sailed north of the West In dies and then struck out across the Atlantic, there was always the chance that English privateers men of the Drake and Hawkins si noe would swoop down upon such a rich prize. Evidently this fleet considered the latter alterna tive the lesser danger for it pro ceeded through Mona passage be tween the islands of Hispaniola (Haiti) and Puerto Rico and head ed north for the open v/aters of the Atlantic. And then the hurricane struck! Before the galleons had a chance to turn tail and head for the safe ty of the harbor at Puerto Plata, they were being driven north at a terrific speed by the howling wind. Only One Ship Escapes. For the galleons were driven on Silver Shoals reef which tore their wooden bottoms out as though they were paper. One frigate alone escaped and when it went back to Puerto Plata it found there a few survivors of the disas ter who had managed to make their way back to that port on a raft. During the next three decades reports of the great wealth that lay somewhere beneath the wa ters surrounding Silver Shoals be gan to spread through Europe. Several British expeditions set out to try to recove the treasure but they ended in failure. Then a seafaring man from Maine, named William Phips, while on a voyage to the West In dies, learned from an old Span iard what purported to be the ex act location of the sunken gal leons. Phips went to England and succeeded in interesting the duke of Albemarle in his plan for sal vaging the “Hispaniola Treas ure.” In 1686 Phips set out with the royal blessing of James II on his quest for fortune. For several weeks it seemed to be a futile quest. The men who went down in the crude diving bells of that period could find no trace of the sunken galleons. Then one day two men of Phips’ crew, Francis Rogers and William Co- vell, while scouting in a rowboat near Silver Shoals happened to see a beautiful sea feather under the water. Believing that their com mander would like to have this in teresting bit of marine life, they sent down a diver and he came back with his eyes almost bulging from his head. He had been on the deck of one of the sunken gal leons—here were some pieces of eight to prove it! Phips’ crew made no attempt to get into the holds of the galleons. They were satisfied with what they found on the decks. And that was a treasure indeed! Historians disagree as to the value of the treasure which Phips recovered. One places it at 200,- 000 pounds sterling (approximate ly $1,000,000) in gold and silver, exclusive of the value of the jew els also found. Another gives the total amount as 300,000 pounds sterling ($1,500,000) while still an other’s estimate makes it $3,000,- 000. Some of King James’ greedy councillors advised him to seize the whole cargo for himself. But he refused and was content with the one-tenth allowed him by the law. That meant between 20,000 and 30,000 pounds sterling or something over $100,000. The lion’s share of the treasure went to the duke of Albemarle, who received more than 50,000 pounds ($250,- 000). The widest divergence among historians is in regard to the amount Phips himself received. One account says that it was 1,600 pounds sterling, while another places it as high as 12,000 pounds. But more important than the money he received was the fact that his success had won for him the royal favor and the immediate result was that the king made him a knight and later governor of Massachusetts. Expeditions Fail. During the years that followed many expeditions visited the vi cinity of Silver Shoals to try to recover more of the “Hispaniola Treasure” but none of them was as successful as Phips had been. In most cases the treasure-hunt ers spent more money on their ex peditions than they realized from the gold and silver which they managed to recover. Because of these repeated fail ures, interest in the “Hisapinola Treasure” seems to have lagged until the middle of the Nineteenth century when a man named Dreene, who perfected the first successful diving apparatus, visit ed Silver Shoals. He found the wrecks of the Spanish galleons but he seems to have been more interested in the coral trees he found there than in the Spanish gold—at least, his writings are de voted almost exclusively to the coral formations. Interest in this famous story of buried treasure has been revived by the discoveries of the Craig expedition, which included, in ad dition to the cannon which Cap tain Craig found standing upright, another one lying on the floor of the sea (as shown in the picture above) and a part of the anchor chain of one of the galleons (also pictured in this article). Inciden tally, the flag of the Adventurers club, which has flown over both the North and South poles with Admiral Byrd, as well as being carried into many remote places all over the globe, was taken down under the sea for the first time by Captain Craig who draped it over the old Spanish cannon and took a picture of it there! New Discoveries Possible. By the time this article appears in print, Captain Craig will be leading another expedition to Sil ver Shoals to take more pictures of the coral growths and other un dersea life there. Will he make other discoveries that reveal more details of the thrilling history of the “Hispaniola Treasure?” Will ultra-modern diving equipment and methods of blasting loose the coral growth of centuries, bring to light more “pieces of eight” and other kinds of treasure which went down with the galleons dur ing the fierce storm that raged there away back in 1642? The answer to those questions is most appropriately given in the historic Spanish phrase: “Quien sabe?” (“W!’o knows!”) Rene Dussaq and Captain Bonsito bringing up part of the anchor chain of a Spanish galleon found at Silver Shoals. A question that comes to mind at any mention of the “Hispani ola Treasure” is, naturally: “Why haven’t more efforts been made to recover that great wealth?” One very good reason is that no one knows the exact location of all the wrecked galleons. Remember, they were being driven at a terrific rate of speed by the hurricane when they struck Silver Shoals and the other coral islets that dot the water around it. Some of them may have been carried a considerable distance before they sank to the bottom. It would require considerable underwater exploring before the location of all the galleons could be determined, if indeed that is possible after 300 years. For the timbers of most of the ships have long since rotted away and disap peared and the treasure which they bore is probably now so heav ily encrusted with coral as to make it almost inaccessible. If it could be located, there is no telling how difficult or expensive it would be to blast it loose. Treacherous Currents. Another difficulty is the danger involved in carrying on such op erations. Treacherous currents sweep through the coral “forests” which grow on the floor of the ocean there. A diver who goes down is in constant danger of be ing carried into the intricate mazes of these forests and if that happens, the chances of his ever returning are very slight indeed. He is in danger, too, of injury from the razor-edged coral for mations which can easily slice through any kind of diving suit, except the unwieldly ones of metal, and which can cut through airlines as though they were cot ton threads. And if the diver goes down with only a helmet on and touches one of these sharp projec tions with his hand, foot or any part of his unprotected body it means that his blood will be dye ing the water. And blood in the water means—sharks! Yes, indeed, there are sharks down there! That’s why Captain Craig and his divers carry with them compressed air guns with which to shoot steel darts to dis courage any inquisitive shark that comes nosing around. So, you see, it wouldn’t be such an easy job to try to recover any Captain Craig has just fired a dart from his compressed air gun to frighten away an inquisitive shark. part of the “Hispaniola Treasurei* that happens to remain down there around Silver Shoals. It’s difficult enough—and dangerous enough, too—taking the underwa- terlnoving pictures which is the reason for these Craig expedi tions. The danger part of it, however, seems to worry Capt. John Craig less than the other. For, as the title of his book indicates, “Dan ger Is His Business.” He has been at it for more than half of the 35 years of his life. Born in Cin cinnati, Ohio, in 1903, the son of a Scotch engineer who ran awaj- from his home in Scotland at the age of 20, young Craig in herited some of his father’s reck lessness and wanderlust. Started at 16. His father died when he was 16 and he started to work to help his mother support his four brothers. Then by what seemed to be a miracle he was suddenly rich—oil was discov ered on California lands owned by the Craigs and young Craig set out to see the world. In India, Craig began shooting tigers to oblige the natives and ended by shooting them as a part of his job. A British picture com pany had sent two men to get wild animal photographs, both cam eramen had been put out of ac tion by the tigers, and Craig got their jobs. Back in America Craig again did what many Americans would like to do: he tried to get a job in the movies—not as an actor, but as a cameraman. In India he had discovered the original building plans of the Taj Mahal and he wanted to sell a scenario based on the story of that historic monument. To earn money while trying to sell the Taj Mahal story he began his undersea photogra phy—and discovered orr the bot tom of the ocean the job he want ed to do. Since that time, Hollywood pro ducers have sent him all over the world to get their “thrill shots” for them and some of the greatest of these have been unf’er the water. Horse Sense About Winter Oil Change Cold weather creates new prob lems in lubrication. To overcome damaging wear, the motor oil must possess three essential char acteristics: (1) low cold test to assure quick easy starts (2) abil ity to lubricate at all driving speeds (3) durability to stand up for reasonable mileage. Curiously enough these requirements are contradictory in that to assure one factor it is very easy to unbalance another. The only safe rule to follow in preparing your car for Winter is to buy the very best motor oil, Acid-Free Quaker State. The refiners of Quaker State were pioneers in developing motor oils for Winter use. Today in four great modern refineries the most modern equipment and methods transform the finest Pennsylvania grade crude into motor oils which make automobiles, trucks and tractors run better, last longer, the year ’round. The low cold test of Quaker State Winter Oil assures smooth easy starts. Its purity frees you of worry about sludge, carbon and corrosion. Its ability to stand up is unequalled . . . you go farther before you need to add a quart. It is merely commonsense to practice economy. And the ac cumulated experience of car man ufacturers, engineers, and most car owners proves that the use of high quality motor oil is genuine economy. It is conservatively es timated by authorities that 80 to 90 per cent of all repairs to an automobile are caused by faulty or incorrect lubrication. A wise man once said: “It takes 12 months and sometimes longer to correct a mistake on a farm.’* Just so, five minutes running with the wrong oil in the engine of your car the first cold morning this Winter can cause more wear and damage than all the miles you drove this past Summer. Play safe with your motor in vestment. Ask your dealer to pre pare your car for Winter with Acid-Free Quaker State Winter Oil of the proper grade for your community.—Adv. NO FUSS RELIEVING GOLD DISCOMFORT THIS WAY! Just Follow Simple Direttioos Below— and Uso Fast-Adiog Bayer Aspiri* ease pain and discomfort and re- duce favor take 2 |N Bayer Tablets—drink glass of water. Re peat In 2 hours. 2. If Throat Is raw from cold, crush and dissolve 3 Bayer Tablets In % glass of water. It’s the Way Thousands Know to Ease Discomfort of Colds and Sore Throat Accompanying Colds The simple way pictured above often brings amazingly fast relief from discomfort and sore throat accompanying colds. Try it. Then — see your doctor. He probably will tell you to con tinue with the Bayer Aspirin be cause it acts so fast to relieve dis comforts of a cold. And to reduce fever. This simple _ way, backed by scientific authority, has largely sup planted the use of strong medicines in easing cold symptoms. Perhaps the easiest, most effective way yet discovered. But make sure you get BAYER Aspirin. FOR 12 TOILETS 2 FULL DOZEN 25c Expensive Sweet Tooth The tax collector has a sweet tooth. When you buy sugar he takes one lump out of every five in hidden taxes. Every mother wants to know how to relieve her child’s cold dis comfort. Rub with stainless, snow- white Penetro. Extra - medicated vapors tend to re lie ve congestion of respiratory mucous mem brane. Penetro eases the chest muscle tightness. PENETRO 666 LIQUID. TABLETS SALVE, NOSE DROPS relieves COLDS first day. Headaches and Fever doe to Colds In 30 minutes. Try “Rnb-My-Tisin” - a Wonderful Liniment