Treasure-Seeking

Hokitika Guardian, 21 June 1921, Page 3

Treasure-Seeking

THE NEW STYLE, (By “Jackstnff.”) Although almost uncountable millions lie on the floor of the ocean the most daring of treasure-seekers have depleted by very little miserly old Neptune’s colossal hoard. The latest treasure-seeking expedition has- just sailed from Portsmouth, whence it has Iteeii despot-lied by the Admiralty for the purpose of recovering gold bullion from the wreck of the armed liner Laurentic lying at the bottom of Lough Swilly. Some portion of l lie bullion has been found and it is hoped to raise the remaining two million pounds’ worth or so during till) coming summer.

Prospects of success are greater in this case because the modern treasureseeker sets about his task with a much better equipment for it than was available in past days. Among this is a submarine camera for photographing and a submarine searchlight to assist him when poking into dark spaces.

Nor is ho obliged to make more than an occasional use of such unhandy implements as the hammer and chisel, upon which the old style treasureseeker bad to rely. Within the past couple of years there has been added to his equipment a clever appliance which enables him to do “cutting” with a naked acetylene flame that burns under water.

The flame is lighted at the surface and as the diver descends lie takes the flame down with him, a cone of air which is projected around it keeping back the water and so preventing it from putting the flame out. And for clearing away mud, silt, and sand lie employs an electric pump. This is a wonderful piece of mechanism. The pump can be dropped to the hottom of the sea and “started up” by, means of electric current supplied from the surface, or it can lie dropped into a flooded compartment which it will pump dry if all inlets have been stopped.

Should the treasure-seeker find it necessary to break away plates or move heavy weights out of his way he does not employ the old-time laborious methods. Instead, lie fixes sticks of gelignite in the debris be desires to shift, seeks a place of safety, and the gelignite is fired by electric contact made from the ship which forms the •perating base of the expedition. Nor is he obliged to enefimber himself with a “cage” inside his diving dress when working a deep water. In place of the old hand pump he is supplied with air by steam pumps which are powerful enough steadily to maintain the requisite air pressure, no matter how many fathoms down tho diver may he.

One of the greatest dangers to which the treasure-seeker on the sea-floor is exposed is an attack of “diver’s head.’ Briefly, this means that his blood becomes aerated, full of bubbles, like mineral water. Unless care be exercised such an attack may end fatally. Indeed, ft has happened often. As a precaution against this ailment the treasure-seeker “comes up” from bis perilous work by easy stages. Even this proceeding does not always secure him immunity from a seizure. In that case lie is passed through a repercussion chamber, which is ap iron cylinder filled with compressed air, and in that way his blood is- restored to its proper condition. Gold bullion is mostly cast into ingots weighing 281 b each, but until the bucket arrives at the surface nobody is quite sure what it contains—it may be treasure or it may be “scrap.” This uncertainty is part of the fascination of the game—and a right thrilling game it is!