text: ' X fc ft ? : ' ' ' . :<" ? 1, 4 ' * - ^ - 'x * mm* ?? j;? gr . * '** : : *w, J The steamer Blakeley, which has been comfortably equipped for the treasure quest. \ r> INCE the sinking of the Lusitania \ there has been a great deal of discussion of various plans to raise the ship. The lure of the sunken ship with vast treasure aboard is still one of the most potent influences in the life of the adventurous spirits of all the Seven Seas. Sailors before the mast, engineers in their workrooms and dreamers on the benches in the city parks?all have visioned the possibilities of bringing to the surface the great ship which the enemy sunk near the Irish coast, and which went down with a treasure aboard much greater probably than any ever before taken to the ocean floor. However, none of the plans which have been spoken of so enthusiastically in the | past have ever amounted to anything. Now, however, the subject of not only salvage of the ship Itself, but recovery of its treasure is broached again, this time in a very businesslike, promising way. It seems as if, after all, a real and ^encouraging effort is to be made to bring UD from the T.lloltonlo'o o (?BWUg ptawc whatever the waters have left of her that is worth while to recover. This time It is by the simple process of diving that it is hoped to reach the illfated ship. At Cramps Shipyards, just outside Philadelphia, the steamer Glakeley is being prepared for this salvage expedition. It will carry all the modern equipment necessary for the attempt to reach a hulk almost three hundred feet under water. In charge of these preparations, among others, is Benjamin F. Leavitt of Philadelphia, who has won considerable fame as a most daring diver. Within a few weeks the steamer Blakeley will be at anchor eight miles off Kinsale Point, Ireland, as nearly as can be determined, directly over the hulk of the sunken Lusitania, and Benjamin F. Leavitt of Philadelphia will be dropped over the side at the end of a steel cable to locate the sunken liner and her reputed board of $15,000,000 in gold and precious stones. It is not for oaken strong boxes, brimming with Spanish doubloons, that Leavitt and his associates will seek. Theirs, if they are successful, will be a more modern hoard. When the Lusitania was sunk by the enemy off Ireland seven years ago she carried treasure to incite the cupidity of the most prosaic. Not a treasure ship, as were the most historic marine lusitania she carried a fortune probably greater than that carried in any of the so-called "treasure ships" of tradition. And where the treasure in these galleons of old has grown in the telling through hundreds of years, the treasure on the Lusitania can be reckoned with some accuracy and without the fear that traditions of years have multiplied a perhaps moderate number of doubloons. The Lusitania carried $5,000,000 in specie alone. She is also known to have carried an almost equal amount in cases of silver and valuable jewelry. There, if there were no other treasure, would be a satisfactory "haul" for any treasure seeker. But undoubtedly the Lusitania carried more than this. Among her passengers were many men and women of great wealth, who would question them, they carried with them jewels and other articles of great value. A single passenger is reported to have deposited $75,000 with the purser. Mme. Antoine de Page, wife of the director of the Belgian Red Cross, is said to have carried more than $100,000. The purser's strong box held, without doubt, jewels of great value, property of wealthy passengers of the ill-fated liner. The total value of the treasure, virtually all in specie and jewelry, which would defy the action of the water, is estimated at close to $15,000,000. It is for this fortune that Leavitt and his associates will seek. An armored diving suit, invented and patented by Leavitt some years ago and since then constantly tested and improved, has made possible this venture. In an actual salvage test in the Great Lakes Leavitt made the world's record for depth, going down 101 feet in locating the Pewabic, sunk after a collision in 1865. Copper and other material valued at $26,000 were salvaged from that wreck in 1916. From this test, and from later ones made in special high pressure tanks. Ocean floor is covered with treasure trove, which until 5:30, now has deflected all adventurers. Licaviu ueneriB uiai ais sun can stand the tremendous pressure of 200 pounds to the square inch, to which any object is subjected 500 feet below the surface. The Lusitania, however, lies at a depth of only 285 feet. Leavitt's suit is armored from head to foot. The main section is a heavy manganese bronze casting, covering trunk and head. Leg and arm pieces are made of a specially constructed copper coil, planned to give the utmost possible protection while permitting comparatively free movement of the limbs. Leavitt's only communication with the surface will be by means of a telephone wire, strung through a specially constructed steel cable, built to lift twenty tons. The inventor believes that the cable and the suit will be strong enough to withstand any pull necessary to free the diver if he becomes caught in the wreckage. His air supply will be carried in the form of a rivet and a sliding hole into the back of the main casting. It is equipped with a reducing valve that will supply one and a quarter feet of oxygen an hour, properly mixed with hydrogen. That is the amount required by a normal adult while at work. The poisonous carbon dioxide from the diver's lungs will be absorbed by a can of caustic soda fixed in another niche in the casting. Dynamite will be used by the Leavitt expedition to create a pathway to the strong rooms, and a clam shell bucket to lift the treasure. If valuables are found that cannot be reached by that, why? As many plauters know to their own knowledge, they have more enemies than the cocoanut, on the other hand, which so many millions of the white races depend. Monkeys and wild elephants rob the and work great damage. The monkeys human intelligence alone aim a of danger and form long lines of queues the fruits of nuts, that are disposed of ing quickness. The elephants are so fond tender leaves that often it is necessary trees by lighting fires and firing guns Wild hogs and porcupines also eat the invaluable palms. They do immense harm like the Malay bear, or coco bear, that of the tender leaves. The shaggy little climbs the palm very nimbly, seldom natives of the Malay Peninsula. Indeed that the coco bear, instead of attacking and children it meets astray in the several occasions found them food and method they will be loaded into buckets by band. Leavitt and his associates, however, believe that they can get the bulk of the bullion that is said to be in the hold of the great liner by means of the usual dredgers' clam shell and other familiar dredging equipment, once they have forced their way to the strong rooms. Besides the enormous pressure exerted by the water at a great depth, Leavitt had other difficulties to overcome. Probably the greatest of these secondary difficulties was that of providing light for the work. Darkness increases rapidly with depth under water, and the inability to get light has been one of the greatest stumbling blocks in salvage work heretofore. Leavitt experimented for some years and Finally constructed a huge glass bulb of great strength. It has been tested to more than 200 pounds pressure without showing the slightest sign of a crack. Leavitt will need three of these lights, each of 300 candle power. Even with that equipment, he will be able to see only a few feet in any direction. Marine experts differ as to the probable success of Leavitt's attempt. Many, basing their belief on his success in the salvaging of the Pewabic, which lay at a depth of 361 feet, and upon the apparent completeness of the preparations made by the expedition, look for his success. Others, pointing out the enormously greater difficulties presented by coconuts, are now, in fact, the most striking of all, the products of planters, both in the Pacific and colored queer enemy in the no-called "a strange animal that climbs the plantations of the nuts." The with almost inches long, and is as thick as the alarm as can be found in the hand along and on the most fearful with astonishment, he has on his teeth and of the young. Every season this very, to guard the countless coconuts, in the night, does this out of sheer hunger, the roots of the the marten of the palm tree to the trees, hesitation than the most ravenous. Frequently the palm squall, which on the trees on the East in attacks the this squirrel makes use of, it is said green nuts by the marten of the women, milk. Yet it also can tap single, has on their delicious fluid, helped them. Many are the enemies of the squirrel. SUNDAY May 28, 19: Troas J wH^HHjM r ^^HuBBBv ^ral Cpl. Chat. S. Rickardt of t Blakaley, who will supervise salvage operations. The Lusitania because of its great bulk and of the currents which sweep around it, are skeptical. There are even some who doubt that the Lusitania, as a ship, now exists, arguing that she has long since disintegrated under the pressure of the water. As long ago as February, 1918, H. Ensor, a widely known expert, speaking before the Engineering and Scientific Association of Ireland, made that assertion. Despite the pessimistic views of this latter group, however, Leavitt is not alone in his belief that the Lusitania may be salvaged. In fact, an even more ambitious project than his is being fostered by the British Salvage and Towing Syndicate. So hard to have oil the coco tree and nut; and am the chief foes of the coco interesting it and Indian Islands. One thing, all-marten of the palm trees—the pollen of the coco and drink the above the great marten is about nineteen the macaws of the bark in the body as the average nut trees. I have and in southern Asia, a kind of restless and ferocious fighters, its nest and a wildcat's stormy weather. The odd-looking animal spoils passes its time from the natives to the natives, declaring it this way came to human beings, whom certain of the recent attacks with even less insects all the vale weasel, or white ants. It is to be seen frisking and killing them in the shallow places. When it can find a home in the holes gnawed in the many others, to drink what is left of the a miniature of the nuts and sip its fill of way. Into the midst of the coco palm and its and kill the 22. During the adventure, the Ocean Floor in an attempt to raise the ship by her own buoyancy. He believes that, because of the strength of her construction, she will be found to be intact and not damaged too badly to make raising her impossible. He also plans to begin his salvage venture. The salvage was brought to the surface by the ship, which was brought to the surface by the ship. Above on the left, the diver attempts shortly. It is said that much interest is being excited by his attempt in Germany, where it is hoped that an examination of the bulk will disclose the fact that she was carrying munitions when torpedoed. It is the German belief that such a discovery would justify her sinking. If, as now seems quite within the range of possibility, the Leavitt expedition is a success, boundless possibilities for salvage are opened up. For the ocean floor is covered with treasure trove, which has up until now defied the best efforts of adventurers for many centuries. In 1588, when the shattered Spanish Armada was scattered and fleeing before the British, a mighty galleon, the Florence, sought refuge in Tobermory Bay, off the coast of Scotland. She is rumored to have carried the paymaster's chest for the fleet, containing in gold and silver an amount variously estimated at from $30,000,000 to $70,000,000. Doubtless exaggeration here takes a part, but it is certain that she carried vast treasure when she sailed into the bay where she was in the bay. Pernicious, commanding the Florence, promised aid to one of two rival Scottish tribes, the worst are birds. Beautiful and is to see the parrots climbing and chirping in their plumage and sucking the splendid golden flowers that rise from leaves of the coco palms; they destroy the fertility of many, many coco-however, they are not as destructive as a swallow—the black noodle. It builds the stalks of the leaves, and when there prevents it from flying out to sea it pecking the flowers of the palm, and in the rest at times a very poor yield of nuts on the East Indian Islands. So prey on the coco palm. The termites, build their nests on the tops of the trees from their crowns, and the species that inhabit their base roots poison them. Among the rhinoceros beetle, that is very like a model of the unicorn rhinoceros, cuts his leaves and eats the topmost sprout, while a hole in the trunk to lay her eggs in it is a great relief. Brave the Terrors of Modern Diving Suit Old and Jewels Fated Liner chieftains in exchange for needed supplies. Hearing of the offer, the leader of the other clan laid his plans. Filled with a loyalty which thought nothing of sacrifice, a youth of this latter clan stole on board the galleon and fired the magazines. The ship was torn to pieces and sank with her treasure hoard. The Leonardo da Vinci, (bowing the in the sea for many years. It is the armored divine) Lavin Leavitt, famous will trust his life. Since 1641 attempts have been incessant to recover the treasure, but they have met with little success. In 1903, some fifty doubloons were recovered from the silt bank in which the scattered fragments of the once proud ship are buried. A few weapons were also found. In 1907, another attempt was made, the search directed by a divining rod in the hands of a famous uncoverer of buried money. The rod found much that the dredgers could not find, however, and only a few scattered coins were uncovered. Here a diver clad in Leavitt's suit might succeed where divining rod and clergets failed. At the bottom of Vigo Bay, on the coast of Spain, lies an enormous treasure in gold and silver bullion, the cargo of a fleet of plate ships destroyed by the British and French navies in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Its present value is estimated at $100,000,000. There were forty sail in the fleet which set out. From Mexico for Spain, bearing gold and silver from the mines of the New World to the coffers of old Spain. Seventeen of the ships were bullion carriers, the others French men-of-war to protect the tremendously valuable cargo from the British. The fleet, constantly alert, made its way across the Atlantic, reaching the apparent safety of the Spanish coast. Before they could reach Cadiz, however, the report of a powerful British fleet frightened them into Vigo Bay. Here, because of some difficulty with the customs officers, who would not pass the bullion, the Ingots were not unloaded. While the debate between the officers of the fleet and the officials of the port was in progress, the combined British and Dutch fleet swept in and, after a hot engagement, burned and sank almost all the vessels. One captured by the British gave indication of the enormous treasure which went down. It contained hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold and silver ingots. Shortly after the battle Spain began to fish for her lost treasure, but without success. Instances might be enumerated for ages. Hundreds of heavily freighted vessels, loaded with gold and silver and precious stones, have sunk in all parts of the world, sometimes under the guns of enemy craft, often under the buffeting of the wind. In many cases their locations are known with accuracy, but the depth at which they lie has made impossible the recovery of the hoard beneath. Leavitt's expedition is a success of millions of dollars in gold and silver may be added to the coffers of the world. 