LIFTING THE LUSITANIA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3131, 21 August 1922, Page 7

LIFTING THE LUSITANIA.

. Count Charles Landi expects to bring the giant liner up intact, and thinks it likely that it will be only a short time before she will be able to travel under her own steam. Ho says he is undisturbed over the report that an American firm is ready to attempt to salvage the Lusitania, because he has a three year contract by the Liverpool and London War Risk Insurance Company, owners of the vessel and her contents. Count Landi, who is an Italian by birth and a British citizen, says that the reason no attempt has yet been made to raise the Lusitania is that until now no one has had a diving suit which would enable men to descend to such depths. The limit of diving possibilities has not been much more than 120 ft, according to the Count, who adds that he has invented a suit which will make it possible for men to work at a depth of 500 ft. As the Lusitania lies under 280 ft of water on a clean gravel bottom he does not think that the task of raising her will be difficult. He has had much experience, particularly in Eastern waters, and says that since the war he has recovered a score of ships in European seas. He raised the French merchantman Evangeline off the island of Corfu in five days after going down personally for inspection purposes. Three days after the vessel had been brought up, he says, she proceeded under her own steam. Perhaps his greatest achievement was the raising of the American Tanker Oilfield, sunk off the Hebrides in 1918. She was cut clean in two. Count Landi decided that the forward half, which contained nothing but the empty tanks, was of no value, so he fetched up the stern part, containing engines and valuable machinery, and three days later this strange, blunted craft was seen clumsily limping toward Glasgow under her own steam. H.M.S. King Alfred, a warship of 14,000 tons, which was sunk in Belfast Lough, the Count says, he brought up in eight days and she proceeded to Liverpool under her own steam. Count Landi figures on three days to get the engines working after he has raised a ship. He says that it is natural that there should be no rust on the machinery, as rust is caused by the oxygen in, the air. Asked if he expected to send the Lusitania home under her own steam, he said: "Perhaps Not. I expect to find the engines put out of action by the torpedo that covered the main steam pipe, thus stopping all mechanical functions, but I expect to have the Lusitania afloat on' the Atlantic for the traffic rush next spring.." Count Landi says that the best story of all his salvaging tales concerns the King Alfred. "When the warship was torpedoed a phonograph concert was going on, playing "Rule Britannia." the record was half through when the ship struck and went down. Months later when the ship was raised the phonograph was full of water but intact, and when it was emptied and adjusted the remaining half of the. record was played on the ship. Count Landi who has worked with the Admiralty, ,'s reported to have salvaged certain snips during the war the identity of which is still unreveakd.