SALVAGING THE LUSITANIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19278, 16 September 1924, Page 12

SALVAGING THE LUSITANIA.

Will the liusitania ever be raised? The question has arisen from time to time eve since she was torpedoed ofi the in May. 19X5. Despite some of the almost miraculous things done by modern salvage methods-like the discovery o± theDutine 30ft down in the sand more than 100 years after she had been sunk—Mr David Masters declares in his book on “The Wonders of Salvage” that' the chances of salving the Lusitania are almost negligible. The sheer weight of the seas, Mr Masters points out, quickly obliterates man’s handiwork, and tho Lusitania probably ceased to be a ship years ago. It is extremely likely that the remendous pressure to which she was subjected at tiie depth of 288 ft long ago crushed her flat.” The liner’s 30-ton safe, full of valuables, would l)e strong enough, one might think, to resist the pressure of the sea; but even the chances of salving tho safe, alone from the liner’s strongroom do not appeal to Mr Masters as being worth the .risk. . , , On© of the schemes suggested for the salving of the Lusitania sounds like some of the wild inventions put before the Munitions Inventions Department during the war. It was propounded seriously by an American, who explained that he would use a submarine, which would fire torpedoes right through the Lusitania. Each torpedo would cairy a steel cable. Wlien sufficient cables had been fixed through the hull they would be picked up cm the other side, brought to the surface, and the wreck thus lifted from the depth. Could anything be simpler—in theory? Unfortunately Mr Masters, speaking as an expert, declares that the ingenious scheme was quite impracticable. And the Lusitania remains, and is likely to remain, where she.sank, more than nine years ago.