The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-07-17
COUNT is EXPECTING
TO RAISE LUSITANIk;
INTEREST IN SECRETS
BY c. {. MORRIS
Omitted Press Staff Corresponds

(OnItco FreSS starr CorreSponoent) 1
LONDON, July 17.-Speculation is /
rife here and on the continent as to |
the possibility of raising the Lusi-
tania.
Whether the salvaging is success
full or not, revelations of historic i'm i
port are expected to follow the at
tempt.
Did the Lusitania carry munitions?
That is the moot question which the
salvaging operations are expected to
clear up.
The German press is taking a par
ticularly keen interest in the project.
Berlin papers, which have recently
been devoting considerable space to
discussions of war guilt, are agitating
for the appointment of German Of
fetal witness of the salvaging attempt.
Count Charles Zaradi Landi, who
will command the specially-equipped
salvage ship, "Semper Paratus," is
confident of success.
The Lusitania he told an inter
viewer. lies in $50 feet of water on
clean gravel bottom. No attempt
has ever been made to raise her, be-
cause the limit of diving possibilities
has hitherto been not much more
than 120 feet. The new diving suit
which l have invented will enable my
men to work at a depth of 500 feet"
DO not expect to bring the Lusi-
tania home under her own steam?"
the count was asked.
Engines Disabled.
Perhaps not the salver replied"
l expect to find her engines disabled
by the torpedo that severed her main
steam pipe, thus instantly stopping all
her mechanical functions when she
was hit. Had that fatal torpedo
struck 80 feet further forward, the
Lusitania would never have sunk. She
could have limped along those few
miles and been safely beached.
IF 1t is mechanically possible" said
the count, three days are all that are
necessary to get the engines of a sal
vaged vessel in order again. There is
no rust. The deeper the water in
which ship has been lying, the less
rust there is"
Count Landi does not appear dis
turbed by the report that an American
firm is already proceeding across the
Atlantic to salve the Lusitania.
THE Ayeready SaIving and Towing
company, of which l am managing di-
rector" he said, has been granted a
three-year contract by the Liverpool
and London War Risk Insurance com
pany, the British owners of the vessel
and her contents"
Count Landi, an Italian by birth, is
naturaized British subject He
spent years in Canada at ship saving
and photographic surveys.
His Greatest Trjunnbh
One of the counts greatest triumphs
as a salver was the raising Of the
French steamer "Evangeline," which
was torpedoed near Corfu and sank
with heavy and extremely valuable
cargo off the Madonna Rocks. The
French Admiralty sent for Lanli. Con-
tire Admiral Merveilleux du Vignaux,
in command of the Eastern Mediter-
ranean, was sceptical as to the sue
cess of the attempt
After going down, examining the
ship and estimating the difficulties,
Landi said to the French commander:
Il will have her up in six days"
The admiral laughed tolerantly.
She came up in five days four hours
and p minutes" said Landi in describ-
ing the salving Of this vessel.
Landi has had IS years experience
in salvaging work. While operating
under Sir Vincent Gregh, of the Brit
lsh Salvage company. of London, with
Constantinople as his base, he brough,
up many ships of all sizes in the Black
Sea, the Dardanelles and the Sea Of
Marmora. During and since the wal
he has had charge of the salvagine
operations Of various companies char
tered by the British Admiralty
One of the grimmest tales of salvins
that Count Landi has to tell is of thu
King Alfred. When she was torpedoed
gramaphone concert was going OF
in the ward room. Rule Britannia
was being played as she sank Wher
the salvers brought up the grama
phone half a year later, full of waite
but unchanged, the record was still il
place. The machine was dried out ani
the unplayed half of the record wa
heard or tho saliva shin