Show SALVAGE SHIP TO SEEK LOST WEALTH another effort to be made to find S S merida NEW YORK A new chapter in in the quarter century effort to recover the famous merida treasure will be written this summer when the italian salvage ship falco resumes the search for the rusty hulk buried in the sea off the virginia coast early in 1911 the merida sailed from vera cruz on board were passengers refugees fleeing from revolutionaries of madero who had stormed juarez two days before and the sate safe in the pursers office held more than in gold and silver bars priceless rubies and other gems that once had adorned the imperial robes of the emperor maximilian and empress carlotta rammed in fog east of norfolk va on the night of may 12 1911 the merida was moving cautiously through a thick fog suddenly there was a terrific impact the vessel had been rammed by the admiral farragut of the united fruit company the order came at once to abandon ship and officers with drawn revolvers kept order among the crowd who scrambled for places in in the boats the admiral farragut only slightly damaged in the headon collision stood by to rescue all the passengers hardly had the stern of the merida disappeared beneath the waves when a salvage scheme was being developed the first of a long series of hazardous adventures but outcome all ali were failures the first fathered by capt charles williamson boug sought ht to utilize a submarine tube cars caisson which was to have been lowered over the hulk of the merida while the treasure was being retrieved tri eved the caisson had worked in in a way but it did not work in the case of the merida for the reason that when the time came to dredge a square mile or so of ocean bed the merida was nowhere to be found millionaires backed project A group of millionaires financed the next scheme which was to have been carried out by george D stillson diver and former chief gunner in the navy but after a month of painstaking trawling brawling ling there was still no trace of the merida other schemes were envisioned but the position of the merida remained as great a mystery as ever until in 1924 a group calling themselves the sea hawks decided to make another try two trawlers trailers lers the foam and the spray with weighted chains fes mooned between them swept the bottom off the capes all summer and fall in 1924 they searched without success after a winter of idleness and just as the venture seemed hopeless the chains encountered something solid the merida had been found again but bad luck still dogged the expedition tion before divers could be sent down a storm blew up and when they sought the merida again it was lost |