Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-03-08

from her. present supposed resting place,
Two miles down below the surface of the
sea. and transporting her to some point
near the Nova Scotia coast. where a
temporary resting place could be found
at depth Of not more than 100 feet
But great physical obstacles lie in the
path of Mr. Smiths project. 10 begin
with. it would take an immense amount
Of hunting to locate the wreck. Wrecks
have a way of shifting even after they
reach the ocean bed. and this is one OF
the puzzling aspects of a submarine prob
lem of this sort.
Simon Lake. who has had a pretty wide
experience in dealing with underwater
problems. found in the wreckins business
that it sometimes took more time to To-
cate vessel on the bottom than it did
to salve her cargo after finding her. Ac-
cordingly he set about devising means to
explore the waterbed quickly over large
areas In one case a vessel had been lost,
and sweeping for her in the old-fash-
toned way had consumed months unsuc-
cessfully. but Mr.. Lake with his appara-
tus located the missing craft within less
than two hours He gives a typical exam
pie of what may happen after ship dis
appears below the surface of the water.
"A vessel was abandoned about dusk
between a lighthouse and the shore IN
Long Island sound. The lighthouse keep
er reported he saw her go down, while
people on shore also thought they had
seen her disappear. Two Of the most ex-
perienced old-time wrecking companies IN
the United States tried in VAIN to locate
her efforts being abandoned finally at
the instance of her underwriters. Then
an old wrecking superintendent fitted out
an expedition to locate and to recover her
on his own account. and spent nearly
two years in the attempt.
Learning of the circumstances / sent
my experimental wreck-tinders to the
locality, but after twice covering the terri
tory they failed to find the vessel in ques
ton. They did, however. discover two
other wrecks. neither of which had been
found by previous searchers. Being salts
fled that the vessel long sought for
she had been sunk seven years-was not
within the zone already covered, I wild
ened the field of examination, and the
craft was located fifteen miles away from
the place where all evidences seemed to
Indicate she had gone down. She was
found in ninety -four feet of water. and
the cargo of copper matte and ore was
recovered.
Since then Mr.. Lake has developed
form of submarine wreck detector which
is based upon the use of electromagnetic.
When these come in contact with iron or
steel suitable instrument records the
fact. But don't be misled BY Mr.. Lake
successes in relatively shallow water
There is a vast deal of difference be-
tween towing finder over a bottom 100
feet or less down and doing the same
thing over the seabed where the depth is
a matter of more than 10000 feet! 1t is
estimated that the wreck of the Titanic
is in water fully two miles deep, and II is
not certain that the vessel did not de-
scend into some oceanic abyss of still
greater profundity.
Take your atlas and trace the course
of the gulf stream as 1t branches just
about where the white Star liner col
lided with that death dealing iceberg.