Evening star., 1922-07-02

THE Lusitania lies five miles out
aide Great Britain's three mile limit
Of jurisdiction. established by inter-
national law. But 1 shall have
care on this voyage to touch at no
point. anywhere in the world. within
her three-mile zone. The Blakely
sails with cold storage and other sup
plies for four months without need Of
resplenishment Of any sort for her
complement of sixty officers and
crew, including my divers and opera
tives. Besides myself, there are four
experienced divers, all of them for
merly in the ship service of the
United States government. and the
Blakely carries her own ships doctor.
"A LII I need and want to salvage
the Lusitania treasure is twenty
one diving days. By that l mean
twenty one days during which we can
work on the job. You cannot handle
diving equipment in a rough sea. The
salvage vessel must be kept in place
above the wreck by bow and stern
anchors led to buoys, and the sea
the diving and electric light cables.
Because weather conditions along the
Irish coast are often anything but
ideal. four months has been allowed
for the passage out, the work and the
return"
And after the return. what?'
The gray man from Boston smiled.
shrewd smile has he. Never could
he have undestudied Sol Smith Rus
sell in THE Poor Relation" One
would say there is the imagination of
genius in the Leavitt smile, but moth
ing of the futile dreamer. His lit
tered desk reminds you not Of Mr..
Rockefeller's lately memoired ma
hogany inhabited by a neat pile of
letters at the left. a neater and much
smaller at the right and a little jot
pad for the great man in between.
No-indeed. no. The desk of Leavitt
is as disreputable as the kit bag of
Philip Gibbs when that painter on
Mr.. Kipling's ten-league canvas came
home from many battle fronts to be
an English knight. In the office Mr..
Leavitt is no second offender in the
wearing of a coat.
The first descent to the Lusitania
will be made by himself, Mr.. Leavitt
said. and not until he has completed
survey Of the vessels position and
condition will the employed divers be
permitted to go down. They will
work in two-hour shifts, though the
oxygen tank and caustic soda puri-
flying tank Uhe latter for automatic
removal of the poisonous carbon-di-
oxide gas contained in the divers ex-
hailed breath) are "margin-charged,"
the former for four. hours work, the
latter for six.
Attached to the divers head will be
sound amplifying dictaphone. so
that at all times while submerged he
can-and he will be under orders to
do so continuously-conve in the
ordinary tone of voice with those on
the Blakely's deck. He will report
thus, minute -to-minute progress Of
his observations and work, direct the
movement by deck machinery of his
submarine light. and order the shift
ing and hoisting operations when
tackle or clam scoop Is to grip and
raise an object.
y -
A 250-candlepower Mazda lamp, con-
tained in a half-inch protecting
globe of pyrex (unbreakable) glass.
will enable the diver to see dimly a
distance of seven feet. Asked why
he did not provide a more powerful
light, Mr.. Leavitt replied that mag
I'll a.,
because a submarine beam cannot be
thrown. and $50 candlepower at the
Lusitania's depth gives the same pen
etrative diffusion as would 1900 can
dlepower. Why. he said. he could not
explain. The efficacy of multiplica-
ton ceases below sixty feet. The
light, weighted to 100 pounds. will
depend from another point Of the
deck boom which handles the cargo
tackle, or clam.
The diver will wear the heaviest
chauffeurs khaki union-all and mack
mac socks-no shoes. He will ex-
perience in the summer season a tenn
perature Of about A degrees while
working at the Lusitania. His
bronze suit weighs $50 pounds above
water. and with him inside will weigh
seventy Live pounds at any submer-
sion depth, the weight equalizati ton
being due to the density of the water
Indeed, he will have to exert upon the
surrounding water a body pressure
Of twenty pounds in order to bend
forward from the waist.
LIE will be lowered and raised by a
seven n-sixteenth-inch flexible Ca
Bile Of plow steel. 1t is tested to lift
ten tons, IL non-twisting, contains in
its core the divers telephone wire,
and consumed three years in perfect
ing. The Blakely's cargo boom,
shipped at New York on the passage
out, is of skeleton construction and
capable of handling a weight of fifty
tons.
No one other constructiona1 part Of
the bronze suit promises the diver
such immunity of accident as the at
tachment Of oxygen and soda tanks,
because they do away entirely with
the ever er-dangerous and frequently
fatal air hose feed on which he has
had to depend for breath. It's en-
tanglement has menaced many lives,
its severing or pinch stoppage has
caused many deaths. Second in safety
to the tanks is the protected tAle-
phone communication. The diver who
does not continuously talk with the
deck will be hauled up without re-
quest and against his protest.
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