Evening star., 1925-07-03

are acquainted from actual expert
ence with rum runners and bucaneer-
ing in the West Indies. Some of them
have been on two or three previous
unsuccessful expeditions in search of
the Merida's treasure. They have all
the weird superstitions of the sea, one
OF the most persistent being that good
luck for deep-sea diving expedition
can only be secured by the presence
on board of a read-headed tomcat
Such a mascot was finally secured in
Norfolk only few days before the
Merida was located.
The crew will all receive substantial
bonuses from any treasure which is
brought up by the expedition. Most of
their idle moments are spent in de-
Gliding what they will do with the
money. Mike Olson will buy himself
a little cottage on Long Island near
the sea; Sailor Gus" is going to give
himself years vacation on the land:
Pete Peterson will acquire a f1ivver
and see some Of the country.
Finding the Merida.
The sweep" which resulted in To-
eating the wreck of the Merida came
at the end of the afternoon of June q
the longest and probably the hottest
day Of the year. After our steel cable
had been twice cut in two by the saw
edge Of the Merida's prov, we at last
caught hang" which held firm as
an anchor. Slowly the two ends of
the 13,000-foot cable were brought to-
gether, SO as TO pinch the hang"
Both ends were fastened to the
winches of the Spray and hauled in
until the cable was straight up and
down in the water, indicating that
the find was directly under the
ship. Anchors were dropped on either
side of the wreck, supporting two
large main buoys with brilliant -colored
pennants flying from their tall bam-
boo stats.
Then came soundings which showed
a difference in depth of 4S feet be-
tween the top of our find and the
ocean bed just alongside. This indi-
Gated that the object below was ap
proximately the height of a vessel on
the bottom.
Next the lead was dropped with its
hollow bottom filed with soft soap.
When it came back up from the bot
tom the soap was aecked with pieces
of steel rust-steel rust because gray
in color. The lead, too, was scratched
on it's sides by a hard object which
must have been steel because there
are no rocks on this part of the sea
bottom. Thus we know that the OBJ
ject on the bottom beneath us was
probably a steel ship about As feet in
height.
Food Grows Short.
This was as much data as we could
gather without sending down a diver,
and Immediately preparations for
careful deep-sea inspection began.
But this requires perfect weather and
the elements remained obdurate for
five days. Meanwhile, the air COM
pressor was overhauled, the diving
suits were gone over carefully for
possible leaks and weak spots, the
helmet valves and deep-sea tele-
phones were inspected; the air lines
and life lines were tied together at
6-foot intervals, the leaden shoes
and heavy breast weights were
brought out.
Five days of stormy weather wore
every ones nerves nearly to the
breaking point. The food supply grew
so scant that we were down to a
bare diet of hardtack and coffee. The
fresh water tanks gave us a thick
fluid with a rust color and favor
of cement and iron. We speared Il
couple of porpoise and ate porpoise
steaks, which are not to be preferred
to the ordinary food of landsmen.
Then came calm weather. In the
late afternoon the two salvage ships
drew together over the buoyed spot.
Nielsen, an ex-Navy diver was
chosen from our three deep-sea ex
perts as the man to make the initial
descent. Crilley, the champion diver
of the world, stood at the telephone
and O'Hage-, captain of the expedi-
tion watched the pumps.
Nelson went over the side at 6:4o