The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-08-17
LUSITANIA TORN
TO BITS BY SEA,
CAPTAIN FEARS
Theory Prompts Decision tc
Scan Smallest Pieces
of WreCkage.
BY GILBERT M'ALLISTER
lines Special Writer

d.Sate. Inc. Reproduction in whole or
part prohibited. AL rights reserved
ABOARD SALVAGE SHIP OR
PHIR. Aug. 17-Belief that the
Lusitania lies at a depth of almost
300 feet, and may have been crushed
flat by the sheer weight of the
water lying above IL, was expressed
BY Capt. Henry Dell Russell today.
With no sizeable hulk encountered,
despite a search which has been al
most foot by foot in its thorough
ness. Capt. Russell believes that the
great ship may lie scattered about,
with only smaller sections OF it still
maintaining a recognizable shape.
It IS because of this possibility,
that the Orphir IS now checking
every slight irregularity on the
ocean bottom which is revealed by
its echo sOunder
As evidence continues to accumu-
late. assuring us that We are search
ing the right waters. we shall make
it a point to check the minutsst
spars. and other prOtuberances,
which will not have been affected
by the enormous pressure of the sea
at these depths The ordinary
method Of dragging the bottom
with steel nets might never find
such clewS. but with the aid of the
echo sounder, We stand a very good
chance Of uncOvering them.
Squalls Cut Down Visibility
Chief Officer Bestic observed shat
the S. S. Egypt discovered by the
salvage ship Artiglio was found in
tact after five months of patient
searching, and that it lay even
deeper than the Lusitania may lie.
However. the Egypt was constructed
of iron. which, while not so strong
as steel has a tendency to bend
rather than to crack under pressure.
Have the 20 years which have
transpired since the sinking of the
giant Cunarder caused her steel hull
to crack up so that the ocean bot
tom IS now Uttered with fragments
rather than with a discernible shape
of the once palatial liner?
Sudden rain squalls Obliterated
Harbor yesterday. The weather was
generally wet and drizzly with cold
banks of mist coming up at in
tervals Obscuring the headlandS and
making it very difficult for us to
find our range. The mist even
penetrated the port holes and made
the bedding and clothing damp and
uncomfortable
Buoy Marker Washed Away
After an uneventful morning of
trawling. the Ophir finally reached
the spot where our echo sounder
had charted a wreck three weeks
ago and a buoy had been dropped.
To our intense disappointment, the
marker had disappeared.
This is not uncommOnly bad luck
for if the line holding a buoy to its
eight-tOn cement block is a trifle
taut the action of the waves will
cause it to snap. If it is too slack.
the line twists until it tightenS and
snaps off. Even when buoys are
anchored perfectly they will break
away. Only natures perverse wind
and waves know the answer.
Late in the afternoon, as We
steamed back to port under ashen
skies. snapped yarns with Peter
Mclean, the Orphir's carpetner.
Chips" was formerly a diver, and
has faced death a hundred times, he
says. He has seen his diver COM
rades at Scapa Flow drop dead with
the dreaded bends" before they
were able to reach the compression
chamber. (Scapa Flow is an ex-
panse of sea in the south Of the
Orkney islands, Here on June 81,
1919. almost all the German battle
ships and battle cruisers were scut-
tied by their German crews in or
der that they might not fall into the
hands of the BritiSh)
Falls Victim to Bends"
At the salvaging of the Koenig
Albert. Mclean was the chief diver.
As he worked under tremendous
pressure with his mother ship list
ing at an 81 degree angle. an cleo
trio cable caught fire and covered
the wreck with dense fumes. The
fire was quenched after desperate eff
forts. but not until the pressure he
needed below the surface had run
down 10 IS pounds Despite this
nerve -shattering experience. Nc
Lean resumed diving the same aft
ernoon.
As the work continued he fell vic
time 10 the bends" and the nitro
gen bubbles which formed in his
blood stream came close to his
heart In agonizing pain. he
reached the compression chamber
in the nick of time.
Mclean has given up diving to
join our expedition. He is most
anxious 10 make a descent in the
iron man diving suit, in which he
will not suffer the fortunes he I'M
derwent when he worked in the old
rubber suit.
Chips" like all divers. is super
stitious. and has a "hunch" that if
he will be permitted to so below
when the Lusitania is discovered he
will ind the 30-ton safe in the
Cunarder's strong room where the
treasure IS supposed to lie. All
aboard hope that he may be given
his chance.