Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-10-08
postpone ACTION
ON TRIP To REC0UP
LUS|TAN|A'S GOLD
Sunken Riches in Mediterra-
mean to Be Tapped This
Winter.

The scheme to extract So,Oou,oVo
worth of gold and jewels from the
supken Lusitania has been MOO
this wear because the investing pubic
has not purchased enough stock IN the
enterprise, but a couple of fat treasure
hin at the bottom of the Mediterrane-
an may be tapped this winter, according
TO w. J. Sheehan of the Leayitt-Lusi-
tania Salvage Corporation.
The steamship Blakeley, from which
the divers were to operate on the Lusl-
tania. 275 feet below water, is still on
the Delaware river, near Philadelphia,
although B. T. Leavitt, president OF
the announced last June that
the ship was to sail at once for AIM
sale Head and would have the gold U
of the Lusitania on or about August 70.
Many marine engineers in this country
and England said that the enterprise
was hopeless, from the engineering
standpoint, and that the treasure, II
| obtained, would be subject to q multi
plicity of lawsuits, which would keep
it in the maritime courts and before
The Hague and state departments for
half a century. Leavitt, however,
waved aside the legal and engineering
difficulties as trifling, and assured in
vestors that, with ordinary weather, the
I "OhAhA - -
end of the present month.
SAYS Other Ships Are Richer
When he was asked over the tele-
phone the cause of the delay, Mr.. Shee-
han, who was in charge of the otflce
of the salvage company. told OF the
change of plan and the new scheme or
boring through the decks of sunken
steamers in the Mediterranean.
u11t.-- - -.,Io. &u1oc,ra ohi1a thar
! the Lusitania and easier to work on,
he said. 1T is so late in the season
now that by the time we could get at
! the Lusitania the weather might be too
rough to allow the diving to proceed
so it is practically decided to go on TO
the Mediterranean. 1t Is smooth
enough there to allow work to so on all
winter.
The best ship sunk in the Medl-
%terranean is the Japanese ship 1osaka
Maru, which went down with Sl2,0OV.
900 in gold on board. Then there is
the Geelong, which was sunk with So
900, 900 worth of jewels belonging to
the Maharajah of some country. They
are both in shallower water than the
ILusitania.'
When he was asked why the salvage
shin Blakeley had not sailed last June
as scheduled, he said
well, in the first place. we had OH
ficulties with the captain
The captain is alleged to have re
fused to accept $4,000 worth OF stoci
in the enterprise. When Mr.. SheehaI
was asked why the captain had no
} heen replaced at an earlier date, d
said:
"He might have been replaced. bu
: another trouble was that we did no
! have enough stock sold at that time Il
cover the of the enterprise
/, That is the reason why we have no
} sailed as vet. There is still S3o,OU
worth of stock that has to be sold be
. fore we are ready to start. We nav
sold S95. 600 worth of stock alread!
r but we have 10 dispose of the rest mrs
/ Nov Giving Diving Exhibitions
= I'VE are now holding regular dlvln
t Exhibitions on the Blakeley TO show IN
= public our equipment and the feasibIllt
n nf getting the treasure. The diving 10
Exhibition purposes Is going on IN ON
40 feet of water, but it shows tn
I public how 1t can be done at grea
depths" =,
Ieavitt. the chief promoter of III
stock-selling campaign, claims 10 nav
invented a rigid diving sun Whlch mdht
it possible TO operate under water
=, great depths. The diver in an ordlnaI
q suit would be crushed by pressure
the depth of the Lusitania, and came
d, do any practical work at a depth grea
err than 100 feet. Other rigid divir
l. suits are in use. but divers wearir
them can only explore and not wor
sLeavitt alleges that his suit enables
diver TO work at 800 feet or great
under water.
lie His plan was to cut through thr'
steel decks of the Lusitania with nltr'
Il. glvcerin and raise the boxes of go
=. and the purser's safe. containing lev
Ut els. According to other salvage eng
ic neers. experience indicates that nltr
glycerin does not work we'll IN SUI
I'd cases. because it tends to tear up al
twist the steel. instead Of cutting ne
" holes through 1.-THE New 1o'
Times.