The vessel was cast away
off Cerigo, with no other cargo on board but the sculptures: they
were, however, too valuable to be given up for lost, because they
had gone to the bottom of the sea. A plan was adopted for recovering
them, and it occupied a number of divers three years, before the
operations were completed, for the Mentor was sunk in ten fathoms
water, and the cases of marble were so heavy as to require amazing
skill and good management to be ultimately successful. The cases
were all finally recovered, and none of the contents in the least
damaged, when they were forwarded to England. The whole cost of
these marbles, all expenses included, in the collecting, weighing
up, and conveying, is estimated at the enormous sum of 36,000_l_."
CHARLES. "When was this valuable collection made, sir?"
MR. WILTON. "It was many years in hand. I believe about the year
1799 investigations commenced; but the 'Mentor' was lost in 1802,
and the marbles did not all arrive in England until the end of the
year 1812; since then an immense number of valuable medals have been
added to the collection."
DORA. "May we now sail through the straits of Gibraltar into the
Atlantic?"
MR. WILTON. "We must necessarily pass through the straits of
Gibraltar to get out of the Mediterranean; but as we proposed to
examine into the different situations of the lesser divisions of
water, _first_, we will merely sail through a _portion_ of the
Atlantic, and have a little information concerning the Bay of
Biscay.
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