460 HISTORY OF COM ASSET. 



Many other important wrecking jobs were undertaken 

 in company with Captain Daniel T. Lothrop, an experi- 

 enced seaman of whom more will be spoken in a few 

 minutes ; but the most interesting salvage enterprise was 

 undertaken upon the coast of South America. It was the 

 wreck of the Spanish war frigate San Pedro de Alcantra, 

 which had been sunk in the Bay of Cumana on the coast 

 of Venezuela in the year 181 5. She had on board a good 

 many thousand dollars in silver coins, but being covered 

 by fifty feet of ocean waves, the treasure had lain un- 

 touched by the eager hand of man. 



Finally, 1850-51,* Captain Tower fitted out a crew of 

 Cohasset divers and seamen, including Captain Jenkins, 

 George Nickerson, Lorenzo Bates, John J. Lincoln, James 

 Tower, Thomas Bates, and others, and sailed in the 

 schooner Eliza Ann for the sunken frigate. The Spanish 

 government supposed the enterprise a bit of folly, and 

 agreed to give the wreckers what they might rescue from 

 the deep, only requiring two and a half per cent of what 

 was recovered. 



The result of the first year's work was fourteen thou- 

 sand dollars. The second summer season was yielding 

 well and had reached seven thousand dollars, when some 

 Spaniards became so menacing that our men were in con- 

 stant jeopardy of their lives. They escaped, however, 

 with the seven thousand dollars for their second season's 

 work. 



The method of diving was not with a suit of rubber 

 and a helmet supplied by air pumps from above, but with 

 a clumsy "diving bell," which had to be drawn up fre- 

 quently lest the men should suffocate under the water. 



Twenty years later another expedition was fitted out for 

 the same task, and Michael Brennock, of Cohasset, went 

 as professional diver. A modern diving suit was used in 

 this second enterprise and some seven thousand more 



* Another authority gives the date 1856. 



