The Washington times., 1922-06-04

THE many ingenious and elaborate
plans suggested for raising the Lusi-
tania have been abandoned, either
because engineers found too many flaws
IN them or because they required too much
initial capital to risk on only a possible
success The work of salvaging the treas
ure that went down with the great liner
has now been taken up by single diver.
Clothed in a diving suit of his own in.
vention, built to withstand the enormous
pressure of water in the depths where the
Lusitania lies B. F. Leavitt, Of Philade
phia, will be lowered to. its decks some
time in June. He expects to blast his way
with dynamite down to the strong rooms
where the bulk of the gold and gems are
stored. Unless his plans miscarry. he will
blow open the built in steel safes and send
their contents up 10 The surface in dredg.
ing clans. Smaller safes and other OBJ
jects that can he moved will be brought
up by steel cables.
After this is done. Leavitt will make
complete tour of the sunken ship, seeking
what he can find in the mysterious silence
of its scores of flooded stateroOms, cabins
and salons. After everything OF value haE
been carried TO the surface the Lusitania
will either be allowed to rust and rot away
in the grave to which the German sub
marine sent her seven years ago, or, if the
British Government desires, will be torn
to pieces by dynamite by Leavitt and his
men
The gold and jewels that went down
with the Lusitania have been estimated to
be worth between two and three millions
of dollars. AS everybody remembers, she
had an unusually large passenger list on
the voyage that ended in her destruction.
Included in the list were Alfred Gwynne
Vanderbilt and more than forty other men
and women whose fortunes were rated in
the millions of dollars.
Owing to war conditions many of these,
as we'll as other passengers not so rich,
carried with them large quantities OF valu
ab)es they ordinarily would have trusted
10 the mails or TO express For example.
Nine. Antoine Depage, wife of the Medical
Director of the Belgian Red Cross, was
making trip 10 Europe and carrying back
with her 100000 in gold, which she and
her husband had helped to raise in this
country for relief work. Mr.. Vanderbilt
was said to have placed in the purser's
care money, jewelry and securities worth
around a quarter of a million dollars.
Charles Frohman, the theatrical manager;
Ebert Hubbard, the writer, and Charles
Frederick Fowles, the millionaire New
York art dealer, are said to have had in
the ships strong rooms another 100000
worth Of property too valuable to be Kept
in their staterooms Or to be carried about
on their persons. The total amount Of
treasure in the strong rooms of the Lus-
tania, placed there by the passengers.
is believed to have been alone more than
a million dollars.N
But this is not all There are the thou
sands of trunks and travelling bags, most OF
which contained jewelry of varying values
and gold in varying amounts and which
are still in the staterooms.
Besides all this. the Lusitania carried
small but very rich cargo of express freight.
Included in 1t were many things that could
not be harmed the least by the years OF
Immersion in the Irish Sea. There were
precious stones valued at $160,000, fully
half million dollars in gold and copper
metal, $50, 900 worth of sheet brass, and
variety of articles that are worth just as
much, II not more, today than they were
when they left New York in 1915.
1t is not so much the wealth that NAV
be brought up from the lost ship that stirs
the imagina ation-it is the adventure of the
man who is going down tC get it. And in
the imagination we can follow him on his
weird journey.
First, Leavitt will be lifted from the deck
of the steamer and lowered slowly over
the side He will be helpless-a man In
metal cage, a chrysalis in bronze cocoon.
Slowly but steadily the cable will be paid
out, The feet OF the grotesque figure will
touch the water, and soon the staring eyes
of the hood will vanish beneath the seas
surface. Leavitt will now be on his way
to the first deck of the ship, more than 200
feet beneath him-where the foot Of man
mas not trod for seven years! And as ne
descends, side by side with him will drop