Evening star., 1925-07-29
TREASURE HUNTERS
BAFFLED BY STORM
Divers Seeking $4,000, 900
Sunk in Ocean Prepare for
Another Attempt.
BY BRADLEY KELLY.
Special to The Star and the North Americ
Newspaper Alliance.

Special to The Star and the North American
Newspaper Alliance
NORFOLK, Va, July 29.-The bat
tered salvage steamer Spray, carrying
the thirty-odd treasure hunters who
are engaged in an attempt to salvage
the $4,000,000 cargo of the sunken
liner Merida, is anchored here today
after a four-day battle with a storm
that has probably swept away all their
markings and preliminary work of the
past four weeks.
"A disgruntled Neptune has been
doing his utmost TO discourage and
defeat our treasure hunt" said Worth
ington Davis, the wealthy Harvard
athlete. who is in command. Super
stitious sailors insist that the sea
Jealously guards all sunken treasure,
and the setbacks which the Merida
salvagers have met during the past
month seem to justify their supersti-
tion."
New Lamps to Aid Search.
The Spray will spend two or three
days here undergoing repairs and
waiting for the storm to Subside. On
her return to the salvage task she
will carry a new weapon against the
Merida-a battery of four powerful,
specially designed, underwater lamps.
Zach Of the lamps is /, 900 watt, but
has special concentrated filament
which produces much more light than
an ordinary 1,000-Watt lamp and will
burn approximately for 200 hours. The
glass bulbs of the lights are filed with
inert gas at pressure high enough to
neutralize the water pressur at 200
feet below surface, which would crush
an ordinary bulb. The lamps are fit
ted into parabolic refectors with heavy
wire guards to prevent breakage
against cables or wreckage. The han
dies OF the lamps are of brass, as are
all other metal parts, to avoid corro-
sion. and are packed with steel wool
and paraffin to prevent the water
reaching the connections and short
circuiting the current.
Each lamp weighs about 40 pounds
above water, but has no weight at all
under water, so that the diver can
handle it with ease. Use of these
lamps will enable the Merida sal
Vagers to work at night as easily as
in the daytime, thus facilitating their
task considerably, as calm weather is
more frequent in the evening.
Divers Air Hose Bursts.
It was a month ago that the sal
vagers definitely located the hulk of
the Merida. But that was only the
beginning Of their task, and, apparent
ly, it was the easiest part of the Job.
Since that time winds and currents
have conspired against them. In 80
days they have had only 6 days of
weather calm enough to permit deep
sea diving. The first diver to descend
nearly lost his life when his air-hose
burst under the enormous pressure of
the 210 foot depth. He was brought
hastily to the surface and brought
back to life. On the next favorable
day another diver went down and at
tached a series of lines from the
wreck to buoys on the surface. Dur
ing the night all these lines were car
ried away.
A week of unfavorable weather fol
lowed, and then the diver who went
down reported serious interference by
sharks. but he finally succeeded in
attaching a new series of cables &c
the wreck. Two days later there was
another descent, but the diver found
the wreck in utter darkness, owing
to an almost solid mass of small fish
swimming in great schools above the
Merida.
The underwater survey of the
wreck has shown that the big Ward
liner lies on her starboard side. i'm
bedded in about IL feet of sand. Again
the sea-demons have planned well tC
defeat the salvage effort, for the ships
strong room is on the starboard quarter
and therefore on the sea bottom. with
the whole broken structure of he
vessel piled above it.
Intrior Mass of Wreckage.
To reach the strongroom it will
therefore, be necessary for the diver
to drop into the hallway in front OF
the dining saloon, this hallway now
being a vertical shaft owing to the
fact that the ship has fallen over or
its side. The diver must drop his
lines straight through this hallway
40 feet, to the purser's quarters and
door of the strongroom. The inside OF
the ship, the divers say, is a mass OF
collapsed partitions and wreckage. II
the strongroom door is intact, it must
be dynamited. If it has already col
lapsed under the deep sea pressure
there is a possibility that the contents
of the strong room have been scatter
ed in the drifting sand below in which
case recovery will probably be i'm
possible.
A few days ago, the final prepara
tions for entering the strongroom were
completed by lashing additional ca
bles to this part of the wreck, running
them straight to the sides of the sal
wage boat above. Then came a mild
breeze, which rapidly increased in VIC
lence, with an accompaniment of rain
and mist. Waves 80 feet high pounded
the little salvage boat and twisted
the underwater cables and hawsers
until they were hopelessly tangled
Finally the weather became so severe
that in self-defense Capt. Moore oi
the Spray insisted that they run for
shelter. The lashings were hastily
thrown off onto steel buoys, in the
hope that these buoys might be able
to ride out the storm. If they have not
done so, it will be necessary to re
locate the Merida by again sweepins
the ocean bed until her resting place
is revealed.
Copyright. 1928. by North American News.
paper Alliance