Site of the wreck The site of the wreck, the
Vlie, was notorious for its strong currents and the danger of storms forcing ships onto the shore. The area is composed of sandbanks and shoals, which the currents continuously shift, with channels through them: in 1666, during the
Second Anglo-Dutch War,
Admiral Holmes had managed to penetrate these shoals and start
Holmes's Bonfire, surprising the Dutch who had considered the shoals impassable. The depth of water also constantly changes, and this has caused much of the difficulty in salvage attempts.
Lutine was wrecked in a shallow channel called the IJzergat, which has now completely disappeared, between the islands of Vlieland and Terschelling. Immediately after
Lutine sank, the wreck began silting up, forcing an end to salvage attempts by 1804. By chance, it was discovered in 1857 that the wreck was again uncovered, but covered again in 1859. The wreck was probably partially uncovered between 1915 and 1916, although no salvage was attempted because of
World War I.
The gold Lloyd's archives were destroyed by the fire at Lloyd's headquarters in 1838, and the amount of cargo lost is based on the estimate made by Lloyd's in 1858: £1.2 million, consisting of both silver and gold 60 years after the disaster. Only the general assessment of the cargo and the amount of insurance are known for sure. The gold was insured by
Lloyd's of London, which paid the claim in full. The underwriters therefore owned the gold under rights of
abandonment and later authorised attempts to
salvage it. However, because of the state of war, the Dutch also laid claim to it as a
prize of war. Captain Portlock was instructed by the
Admiralty on 29 October 1799 to try to recover the cargo "for the benefit of the persons to whom it belongs"; Lloyd's also sent agents to look over the wreck. The Committee for the Public Properties of Holland instructed the local
Receivers of Wrecks to report on the wreck, and F.P. Robbé, the Receiver on Terschelling, was authorised in December 1799 to begin salvage operations. All three parties had drawn attention to the difficulty of salvage due to the unfavourable position of the wreck and lateness of the year. At this point, the wreck was lying in approximately of water. In 1821, Robbé's successor as Receiver at Terschelling, Pierre Eschauzier successfully petitioned
King William I and by royal decree received the sole right: In return, the state would receive half of all recoveries. Eschauzier and his heirs therefore became the owners of the wreck by royal decree and thus are known as the 'Decretal Salvors'. Eschauzier's attempts spurred Lloyd's to approach the British government to defend their rights to the wreck. In 1823, King William revised by subsequent decree the original decree: everything which "had been reserved to the state from the cargo of the above-mentioned frigate" was ceded to the
King of Great Britain as a token "of our friendly sentiments towards the Kingdom of Great Britain, and by no means out of a conviction of England's right to any part of the aforementioned cargo." This share was subsequently ceded back to Lloyd's. The gold was apparently stored in flimsy casks bound with weak iron hoops and the silver in casks with wooden hoops. Within a year of the wreck, these casks had largely disintegrated, and the sea had started to scatter and cover the wreck. Lloyd's records were destroyed by fire in 1838, and the actual amount of the gold lost is now unknown. In 1858 Lloyd's estimated the total value at £, made up of both silver and gold. Despite extended operations, over 80% remains to be salvaged. An uncorroborated newspaper report in 1869 referred to the Dutch crown jewels being on board.
Initial salvage attempts 1799–1938 1799–1801: An 1876 account reports that fishermen-with the sanction of the Dutch government in return for two-thirds of the recovered salvage-for a year and a half prior to 1801 recovered
£80,000 of Bullion consisting of 58 bars of gold; 35 bars of silver; 42,000 Spanish silver
pistoles; 212 half-pistoles, 179 Spanish gold pistoles; with smaller quantities of quarter; eighth and sixteenth pistoles. A 1911 account reports that, besides the gold, silver and pistoles listed above, there was also recovered 41,697 (not 42,000) Spanish Silver pistoles; 81 double
Louis d'or; 138 single Louis d'or and 4 English guineas with an estimated value of £83,000
pounds sterling. The Dutch government's two-thirds share was re-minted into £56,000 worth of Dutch
guilders. Sent to England was a packet of silver spoons initialled "W.S" and recognized as belonging to
Lutines captain; likewise, a salvaged sword was identified as belonging to Lt. Charles Gustine Aufrere. In August 1800 Robbé recovered a cask of seven gold bars, weighing and a small chest containing 4,606 Spanish
piastres. Over 4–5 September, two small casks were recovered, one with its bottom stoved in, yielding twelve gold bars. There were also other, more minor, recoveries, making this year the most successful of all the salvage attempts; however, the expenses of the salvage were still greater than the recoveries by 3,241 guilders. In 1801, although recoveries were made, conditions were unfavourable and the wreck was already silted up. By 1804 Robbé reported:
that the part of the wreck in which one is accustomed to find the precious metals has now been covered by a large piece of the side of the ship (which had previously been found hanging more or less at an angle), thus impeding the salvage work, which was otherwise possible. Salvage attempts appear to have been given up at this point. In 1814, Pierre Eschauzier was allocated 300 guilders for salvage by the Dutch King and recovered "8
Louis d'or and 7 Spanish piastres fished out of the wreck of the Lutine". In 1821, Eschauzier put together a
syndicate with the intention of using a
diving bell manned by
amphibicque Englishmen. However,
Mr. Rennie, the engineer died that year; in 1822, the diving bell arrived at the end of June, but operations were frustrated by bad weather and silting-up of the wreck; at this stage the wreck was reckoned to be under the sand. Although salvage attempts continued until 1829, little was gained and the diving bell was sold on to the Dutch navy. In 1835, the sandbank covering
Lutine shrank and moved southwards, with the depth of water being and desultory attempts at salvage were made. Further attempts to raise capital were largely unsuccessful. In 1857, it was discovered by chance that "a channel had formed straight across the Goudplaat sandbank, leading over the wreck, so that the latter was not merely clear of sand but had also sunk further below the surface with the channel [...] the bows and stern, together with the decks and sides, had come completely away, leaving only the keel with the
keelson above it and some ribs attached to this". Recovery work immediately recommenced, now using
helmeted divers (
helmduikers) and bell divers (
klokduikers), the latter using a bell called the
Hollandsche Duiker ('Dutch diver'). However, a large number of unauthorised salvors also displayed an interest, which led the Dutch government to station a gunboat in the area. Over the course of the season approximately 20,000 guilders-worth of specie was recovered. The 1858 season was hampered by poor weather but yielded 32 gold bars and 66 silver bars. This ship's bell was also discovered in this year (
see below). In 1859 it became apparent that the treasure had been stored towards the stern of the ship, and that the stern was lying on its side, with the starboard side uppermost and the port side sunk into the sand. This area, however, only gave up 4 gold bars, 1 silver bar, and over 3,500 piastres. In 1859 the rudder from the wreck was salvaged. This was transported to Lloyd's and used to make a desk and a chair for Lloyd's of London. These are still kept at Lloyd's and used on special occasions. On the table is a plaque of silver with the text: The chair has a similar inscription. Less known is that in addition to the table and chair, two ink sets are also made from the wood of the rudder. These feature lloyd's coat of arms and a silver plaque with the text: Ink set made of lutine rudder with silver plaque THIS INKSTAND is made of the RUDDER of LUTINE Frigate wrecked off the island of Vlieland Oct. 9. 1799. The Rudder was recovered in 1859 after being submerged 60 years By 1860, the depth of the wreck had reached and the quantity of salvage was declining. Nonetheless, over the four years salvage worth half a million guilders had been recovered: 41 gold bars, 64 silver bars, and 15,350 various coins, and the syndicate paid a 136% return; attempts were finally ended in 1863 as the wreck again silted up. After 1860 to 1889 attempts at salvage are reported to have recovered 11,164 coins valued at $4,600. In 1912 this effort is reported to have recovered silver coins, cannon, cannonballs, grapeshot and an anchor but no treasure. In 1933 an attempt was made to salvage the reported treasure, but was stopped when the salvage bell was wrecked by a World War I
naval mine. This was followed by a further unsuccessful attempt in 1934. In 1938, yet another attempt was made to salvage the reported treasure. During this attempt, the largest
dredger in the world (75 metres long, 23 metres wide),
Karimata, which was operated by the Anglo–Dutch
Billiton mining company. Despite these spectacular means, only one gold bar was raised on this occasion, along with 8 gold and 123 silver coins, 13 tons of steel, 3 tons of lead, 18 cubic meters of wreck wood, 5 cannons and some other objects. The expedition, which cost Billiton 442,500
Dutch guilders, brought a return of only 189,035. In 1956, the Dutch engineer van Wienen proposed the construction of a vast floating pontoon (35 meters in diameter) to explore up to 10 meters deep in the sand while following the path of the shipwrecked ship from its stranding to its dislocation. But funding is not found for this ambitious project of 1.5 million guilders and its "plunging saucer" remains at the project stage 36. In 1979, at the request of New Zealand underwater treasure hunters Lyle Henry Mortmore and Kelly Tarlton37, a tracking campaign is led by the company Oretech, which locates more than 4,000 objects using the latest information technologies. This makes it possible to establish with precision what was the trajectory of the Lutine in perdition. The following year, an American supply ship, the Yak, equipped with two large turbines to evacuate large quantities of sand by the pressure of the jet, was leased. While this method has proven itself in other cases of sandblasted wrecks, and despite the advanced technology that has been used for spotting, this new yard is another disappointment. The turbines dig wells 25 meters in diameter and eight meters deep in the space of half an hour, but only various debris, anchors and a fragment of pipe lost by a dredge during a previous site are recovered. The fact that these discoveries belonged to the Lutine could not be guaranteed, but they were shipped to New Zealand where Kelly Tarlton exhibited them as coming from the Lutine in her wreck museum in Waitangi.
The Lloyd's Act 1871 A brief history of the loss and salvage attempts is given in the
preamble to the
Lloyd's Act 1871: The ownership of the remaining, unsalved, gold is vested in half shares between the 'decretal salvors' and the Society of Lloyd's, Lloyd's ownership being governed under the terms of the Lloyd's Act 1871, §35:
The Lutine Bell and Lutine Bell The ship's
bell (engraved "ST. JEAN – 1779") was recovered on 17 July 1858. The bell was found entangled in the chains originally running from the
ship's wheel to the
rudder, and was originally left in this state before being separated and re-hung from the
rostrum of the
Underwriting Room at Lloyd's. It weighs and is in diameter. It remains a mystery why the name on the bell does not correspond with that of the ship. The bell was traditionally struck when news of an overdue ship arrived – once for the loss of a ship (i.e. bad news), and twice for her return (i.e. good news). The bell was sounded to stop the transaction of business while all
brokers and underwriters were made aware of the news simultaneously. This was because reinsurance on an overdue vessel was often placed (so that an underwriter could close their books on a block of older business), so making the latest information on a ship highly material to a partly placed reinsurance contract. The bell has developed a crack and the traditional practice of ringing news has ended: the last time it was rung to tell of a lost ship was in 1979 and the last time it was rung to herald the return of an overdue ship was in 1989. During World War II, the Nazi radio propagandist
Lord Haw-Haw asserted that the bell was being rung continuously because of Allied shipping losses during the
Battle of the Atlantic. In fact, the bell was rung once, with one ring, during the war, when the was sunk. It tolls when a member of the Royal Family dies and was heard after the deaths of
Diana, Princess of Wales,
His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and
Queen Elizabeth II. It is now rung for ceremonial purposes to commemorate disasters such as the
9/11 disaster, the
Asian tsunami, and the
London Bombings, and is always rung at the start and end of the two minutes silence on
Armistice Day. It was rung once after the death of
Richard Rogers, architect of the present Lloyd's building. The bell has hung in four successive
Lloyd's Underwriting Rooms: • The Royal Exchange 1859–1928; •
Lloyd's building in
Leadenhall Street 1928–1958; • Lloyd's first Lime Street headquarters 1958–1986; • The present Lloyd's building in Lime Street since 1986. There is also a chair and table at Lloyd's made from the frigate's
rudder. The rudder was salvaged on 18 September 1858. This furniture was previously in the Lloyd's writing room and was used by the Chairman of Lloyd's at the
annual general meeting of members, but is now kept in the Old Library of the
Lloyd's building. ==See also==