Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-05-25
FINDING SUNKEN GOLD.
Perils Of Treasure Salving-Risks
Taken Under Waves for Wealth.

From London Tit-Bits.
Although the average person needs no
telling that diver carries his life in his
hands every time he descends beneath the
waves. few realize the righteousness OF his
work and the many difficulties he has to
overcome, particularly when engaged in
the task Of recovering sunken treasure.
One Of the greatest difficulties. for in
stance. which faced the staff OF sdivers
working under Capt. Young. who took
charge of the operations for saving the
three-quarters Of million Of specie which
went down with the Oceana of New
haven, were the currents which sweep
round the wreck. 1T Is very bad water
to work in.'' said Capt. Young. during
the course Of an interview. and the
strength Of the currents is strikingly IL
Illustrated by the fact that within q few
hours of sinking the Ocsana was carried
nine miles from the spot where she was
struck
OF water. and the first task which fell to
the divers was to find the key Of the
bullion room in the captains cabin. Ulti-
mately one OF the divers managed to get
into the cabin, but the current was SO
strong that twice he was washed out
again before he succeeded in his object
Another of the divers got entangled in
the wreckage, while on several occasions
the men were obliged to let go their hold
on the guide ropes, and trust to luck and
the currents to reach the surface.
It is the state Of the water rather than
the depth which has made the task Of re-
covering the Oceana bullion 50 difficult.
for 1t is by no means the greatest depth
Of water from which treasure has been
saived.
Some years ago, for instance, 10000
was recovered from Spanish vessel, Al
phonso XII. which had sunk Off Point
~
OF water. while another case was that Of
the Skyro. which sank of Cape Ffnis-
terre in 1873 feet of water and from
which 10000 worth of bullion was re-
covered some time after. dynamite having
to be used In order to get at the gold
case may be gathered from the fact that
the deck had collapsed to within eighteen
inches Of the cabin floor, and at the finish
OF the dynamite operations the diver re-
wreck standing higher than himself, ex-
cepting the engines and the main boilers;
It was just heap Of scrap iron.
Among other instances Of recovered
sunken treasure might be mentioned the
100000 worth Of specie raised from the
Hamilla Mitchell. which sank in $50 feet
of water near Shanghai. In these cases
the great depth OF the water was an i'm
portant consideration. The greater /. the
depth at which q diver works, of course
the greater the pressure, which increases
by four and half pounds for every
ten feet. Those working on the wreck Of
the Oceana labored under a pressure of
about forty pounds per square inch In
the other instances mentioned the pres
sure was between seventy and eighty
pounds per square inch.
The greatest depth that admiralty divers
have reached-and these divers are the
most scientific in the world-has been 30
feet. The first man who set up this rec
ord was Gunner Cato, who. during. the
Scottish experiments with the Spanker
some years ago, dived to this extraordi-
nary depth and stayed down for twenty
five minutes. The previous record was
held by Angel Erostabe, who recovered
a12.OoO worth Of silver bars from the
Skyro already mentioned. He made over
eighty descents to a depth Of 1856 feet,
and his maximum stay at the bottom was
twenty-five minutes.
A curious fact in connection with div
| ing work is that the greater the depth
that a man descends the greater must
| be the care with which he ascends. When
| diver has descended to such a depth
| that he is suffering from a pressure Of,
say, seventy pounds. the tissues of the
blood become saturated with nitrogen II
he ascends too quickly, this excess Of
nitrogen may SO affect his blood vessels
as to cause paralysis, and for this reason
| a diver will often take half an hour to
| rise from wreck at depth Of 100 feet.