Show X 55 T1IERALTL:VKI! TRIBUNE jSTjyDATjg0rtyiKGJIA7 pr y y ' 8 1932 f 7 1 1 M Bodi y from fhe oottom of ihe - Akifl and Astonishing Pontoon Grappling Device Which 1 i p Jv "li' I’t' May Be Employed READY r TO EMERGE' to Recover the ks AFTER 17 YEARS Sunken Liner’s fViu It $5000000 in Gold and -- lHvt 4 Jewels From Davy Jones’s Locker fKSSh -- 11 Ajr' three- - quarters WAY TO OF SURFACE million dollar in gold and Thi 1 the glittering lure behind the new and amaxlng attempt that fhay hortly be made to lift the Lusitania bodily from the deep ea floor where she has rested for seventeen years If the colossal project succeeds maritime experts believe that the next decade will see the recovery of most of the $300000000 treasure estimated to have gone down with sinking ships to Davy Jones’s locker The idea of lifting the huge Lusitania to the sea surface originated with Giuseppi Bontempl engineer and inventor of Grantwood N J The startling scheme if proved practicable will crystal! a salvaging dream as old as the Vikings And Mr Bontempl through a series of experiments made with model vessels has convinced himself and many others that his stupendous engineering project will restore to the world the Lusitania’s millions The details of the extraordinary salvaging attempt are simple within the comprehension of ordinary The inventor calls his system “Controlled Grappling Pontoons’ These kwtoij t Cliucppi Bontempl Fnginec (Inventor of Grantwood New J ersey Shown Working on Til Amazing New ‘‘Controlled Grappling Pontoon Device With Which Ue Hope to Lift the Sunken Lusitania to the Sea Surface FIVE ? mander of the Lusitania when she sank that this upper part of the vessel is wrecked but that her hull has been held intact by the water that entered it and forced out the air Still another explorer of the deep who has centered his dreams on recovering the fortune lying in sunken ships is Capt Harry L Bowdoin whose salvage ship the Salvor was ready at this writing to sail for a point off the Virginia Capes There lies the steamer Merida with $3000000 in gold aboard Sha sank in a dense fog in May 1911 after the liner Admiral Farragut Berammed a hole in her side sides the gold there is said to be a fabulous amount of precious stones lying in the ship’s safe The Merida was bringing these gems back from Mexico at the time of the disaster Captain Bowdoin’s divers will wear suits weighing 1400 pounds apiece The shoulders of these suits are equipped with powerful searchlights and tha armor has great flexibility at all the necessary points ( But the principal advantage Is that V the divers wearing this cumbersome equipment can be lowered immediately to the salvage scenes and brought back as speedily as lifting equipment can handle the 1400-poun- d suit (V WThe ingenious suitr gives the diver the appearance and most of the qualities of a robot Claws are fitted inte eaeh hand and worked from the inside The movements of the “arms” and “legs” of the suit are operated by small machinery A four-to- n observation tank will also' be sent to the ocean floor and the men in this will be abla d to work with the divers The backers of the corporation that Is sending out this expedition declare that the suit is the first in which work can be efficiently done at great depths Some time ago Captain Bowdoin himself made a certified test at a depth of 210 feet and spent an hour and thirty-si- x minutes below This took place off New London Conn He Bent up large and small stones from the bottom of the sea and was himself brought to the surface in tha remarkably short time of one minute seconds Captain Bow-- ’ and fifty-tw- o doin pointed out that the rapidity with which the diver can ascend and descend gives him far more working went down Just about the eame time that the creator of the “Controlled hand-in-han- Grappling Pontoons” was demonstrating n) invention an exhibition of new undersea apparatus was being given by Simon Lake in a Brooklyn N Y hotel Mr Laxe Is a subswimming pool marine builder His ambition is the same as Mr —the location and recovery of the Lusitania millions Associated with Mr Lake in his proposed raid on Davy Jones’s locker is Capt H H Railey who was the personal representative of Admiral Richard E Byrd during the Antarctic expedition Their device for reaching the oeean bed where lies the mighty liner is a d deep sea elevator— a atairway” with an observation chamber near the lower end The complementary apparatus recently tested in the Brooklyn swimming pool comprised deep spa lamps and a aeep sea camera Bon-tempi- ’s “steel-encase- lay-laym- great hollow pon- toons are superimposed upon a steel framework provided with gripping steel Jaws This apparatus can be lowered into the sea to a depth of hundreds of feet The clutching jaws are locked about the vessel by machinery on the salvaging vessel When far above ready for lifting the big pontoons are filled with highly compressed air and this will greatly aid in hauling the sunken ship to the surface The weight of the it is believed vessel locks the gripping jaws and they cannot be freed until the weight is removed Once floated the ship can be hauled to a drydock and the recovery of the treasure can then be accomplished in safety to the workers The system worked perfectly on model ships sunk in large tanks but only actual experience of course will demonstrate i t s efficiency on a ship with the dimensions and tonnage of the long lost Lusitania The torpedoed vessel ties ten miles off the Irish coast under a 240 foot depth of water She is 787 feet long over all and has a gross tonnage of 30896 This staggering weight added to the tremendous water pressure the salvagers would have to combat gives some idea of the magnitude of ths necessary engineering operations from her to lift the great liner watery grave Eleven hundred and thirty-fou- r the persons lost their lives when Lusitania was torpedoed on May Her carrying capacity 17 1915 was 2198 passengers and a crew of 850 A total of 1959 soula were on board when her last voyage The Pontoon of Mr Bontempl Remarkable Invention for Lifting This Sunken Ship Bodily Will Be Filled with Compressed Air As Soon As the Gripping Steel Jaws Seize the Vessel Forcing Up the Lost Liner From the Sea Bottom 11 gold-freight- er (b - IS rvQ m "I Reallatio Drawing of the Proposed Gigantic Engineering Feat Which WUI Force the Lusitania Up Bodily from It 240 - Foot Ocean Crave used are about eight Inches in diameter and well abla to withstand wa- 300 feet In the Lusitania project forty of these submarine lighting devices will be used according to Mr Lake’s plana The electrical connections of the are inclosed in a lamps rubber-covere- d cable At the lamp junctions this Is Imbedded for further protection in a wooden block and covered with rubber As the pressure taping Increases this becomes more and more water- This Submarine Photograph Shows Exactly How the “Controlled Grappling Pontoon" Will Qon All Around the Torpedoed LullalnlaMrin Engineer Have Estimated That Hire Seta of Enormous Pontoon Built to “Fit" the Lusitania's Hull Will Bo Required to Raise the VesseL 4 tight The carry expedition a will 200-kilow- dynamo to the scene of operations to furnish the current for the forty lampa Mr Lake plans to have the submarine workers taka these lamps right KUg fsatune the Lusitania The giant tube through which the divers of the Lake-Raile- y party will descend to the ocean floor will be connected with the mother ship on the surface Plana for the date of the great ocean gold quest had not been announced at this writing but Under-Wate- r Mr Lake said he thought Photograph of the Crnppling Device at Work Upon a Model Ship Demonreadiin would be everything strating now the Weight of the Submerged Ship Will Hold the Gripping Jawt in Place ness the latter part of the forthcoming Summer While the search Is going on Capthe richest filed in In charge of the actual diving work tain Railey will broadcast a radio dee submarine fortune-hunte11 be Frank Cnlley who holds the There is no Since the earliest days of scription of the event deep-se- a commerce countless thousands of vesdiving record Mr Cnlley set doubt that the adventure will be the this mark in 1915 off Pearl Harbor most exciting underwater treasure sels have gone to her cerulean floor Hawaii while helping to raise the ever took place that quest The Romans Greeks Phoenicians sunken submarine F-- S When the divers emerge from the and Egyptians all lost precious cargoes New recognition came to him in on the sometimes stormy bosom of the great tube they will probably use dyna1928 for his daring and brilliant Mediterranean mite to blow off what remains of the Entire regiment of achievements In connection with the Ceaser’s legions who had This would give them conquered 4 the of in access to readier those parts of the far off lands and extracted rich tribute i raising Aiding Cnlley his work will be a group of the best steamer where the treasure is stored were lost at sea with their hard won divers in the world It is the belief of Captain Turner com- gains Into ter pressure at a depth of started The estimate of $5000000 that has been placed on the valuables on the steamship was made on the basis of the several millions In gold bullion known to have been aboard plus the currency and jewel of the These many wealthy passengers included 120 rich Americans among whom were such well-knofigures as Alfred Gwynn Vanderbilt Charles Frchman theatrical manager Elbert Hubbard the author of “Little Journeys” and Charles Klein playwright The submerged $5000000— ransom enough lot a hundred icings and emperore—has been the objective of inventor and marine engineer ever since the Lusitania time below than divers in ordinary equipment enjoy The deep sea explorer believes he will have little trouble in locating the Merida This is the phase of sunken treasure recovery work that has proved most baffling to divers Captain Bowdoin has at his disposal an electric sound device which he believes will show him just where the ship lies This is the same apparatus that modern ocean liners use to escertam water depths and the locations of sunken objects If successful with- - the Salvor Captain Bowdoin will seek more treasure amid other The liner Egypt which wrecks lies under 400 feet of water off the coast of France and has thus far proved inaccessible is "knot her rich pri7e the captain hopes to recover The Mediterranean Sea certainly rs J super-structu- S-- las 1111 re |