«Lutin» - treasure ship (1779)

[Anatol]

The frigate "La Lutine" (translated as "The Minx") was considered one of the fastest warships of the French fleet at the end of the 18th century. It was launched by the French in 1779. In 1793, the ship was captured by the Royal Navy and officially accepted into British service. The ship, which received a name without the French article - "Lutin", served in the waters of the North Sea and was used to escort transport ships. In the fall of 1799, the ship had to deliver valuable cargo from England to Holland for local banks - many chests with gold bars and coins totaling $105 million. The frigate sailed from the English city of Great Yarmouth and headed towards Holland. On the way, the ship encountered a severe storm. The ship was in danger of running aground off the Dutch coast, so the captain of the Lutin, Lancelot Skinner, decided to stay away from the shoal for safety reasons. But he failed to take the ship away from the shore and into the open sea. The ship ran aground between two islands. A hurricane wind that hit the ship quickly overturned the Lutin. The frigate sank at shallow depths.
Captain Portlock, commander of the British squadron at Vlieland, reported the loss, writing to the Admiralty in London on 10 October:
Sir, It is with extreme pain that I have to state to you the melancholy fate of H.M.S. Lutine, which ship ran on to the outer bank of the Fly [an anglicisation of 'Vlie'] Island passage on the night of the 9th inst. in a heavy gale of wind from the NNW, and I am much afraid the crew with the exception of one man, who was saved on a part of the wreck, have perished. This man, when taken up, was almost exhausted. He is at present tolerably recovered, and relates that the Lutine left Yarmouth Roads on the morning of the 9th inst. bound for the Tеxel, and that she had on board a considerable quantity of money.
The wind blowing strong from the NNW, and the lee tide coming on, rendered it impossible with Schowts [probably schuits, local fishing vessels] or other boats to go out to aid her until daylight in the morning, and at that time nothing was to be seen but parts of the wreck.
I shall use every endeavour to save what I can from the wreck, but from the situation she is lying in, I am afraid little will be recovered.
Gold in bars and coins, which was intended for English merchants in Holland, went to the bottom along with the ship. The precious cargo was insured by the English insurance corporation Lloyd's of London, which claimed rights to the treasure. But in those years, England was in a military conflict with the Netherlands and did not have the opportunity to raise treasures from the bottom of the sea.
Rumors of sunken British gold quickly spread throughout the Dutch coast. With strong sea tides, getting to the holds of the ship where the gold lay was not particularly difficult.
Over the course of a year, local fishermen and divers recovered $90,000 worth of gold items from the water. Gradually, a strong undercurrent completely filled the holds of the lost ship, which sank deeper and deeper into the soft silt. It became impossible to get inside Lutin.
Two decades later, the authorities of the Kingdom of the Netherlands transferred the right to raise valuables from the bottom of the sea to the Lloyd's Corporation - insurers of gold cargo. The process of raising the treasure took five years. But the British were unable to recover all the gold from the sunken frigate - a gigantic part of the treasure was swallowed up by the muddy seabed.
In the 19th century, treasure hunters attempted to find the gold treasures of the Lutin ship. Search expeditions spent several months digging up the sand-covered hull of the ship, but within a few hours it sank back into the silt.
In 1911, an expedition of the English captain Gardner arrived at the site of the frigate wreck. His ship had special equipment designed to pump out sand. The work continued for several months. With the help of powerful pumps, the skeleton of the Lutin finally appeared from under a twelve-meter drift of sand.
The frigate was equipped with powerful cannons, accompanied by hundreds of iron cannonballs in a powder magazine. Underwater, the ship's hull collapsed and heavy cannonballs fell onto the golden treasures. Using explosives, Gardner and his team managed to blow up the iron “armor.” But autumn storms forced the expedition to interrupt the search for gold. Within a few months, “Lutin” was again covered with sand.
In the 20th century, attempts were made several times to recover treasures from the frigate Lutin, but they were also unsuccessful.
The “Lyutina” bell is an expression from the history of the insurance business, symbolizing the traditions of marine insurance. It originated from a ship's bell taken from the British sailing frigate "Lutina".
The ship's bell (engraved "SAINT-JEAN - 1779") was discovered on July 17, 1858. The bell was found entangled in chains originally running from the ship's wheel to the rudder, and was initially left in this condition before being separated and hung again on the podium of Lloyd's Underwriting Hall. The bell was traditionally rung when news of an overdue ship arrived—once for the loss of a ship (i.e., bad news) and twice for its return (i.e., good news).
See also: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10070.

Beliz 2019; 4$.
Source: https://www.globalintergold.info/ru/nev ... tin-zo261/.