SUNK AT SEA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 3 October 1924, Page 5

SUNK AT SEA.

TREASURE LADEN VESSEL. THIRD SALVAGE ATEMPT v Cable — press association— copyright VANCOUVER, Oct. 1. After two previous abortive attempts a third treasure hunting expedition starts to-day in an effort to locate the Ward Line steamer Merida, which was rammed and sunk at sea by the United States battleship lowa thirteen years ago. The vessel carried three million dollars worth of gold and silver and an enormous amount of copper, consigned by the Mexican Government to New York in an effort to save it from the Madero revolution. It is also believed tlie ship’s safe contained the famous Maximilian rubies belonging to the Empress Marie Charlotte, the mad widow of the ill-fated ruler. Many prominent American society men are backing the expedition, which includes three of the most expert divert in the country. As the exact position of tlie wreck is unknown they have a difficult task ahead. All they have to go by is the record of an officer on the battleship that it was forty-five miles east and half north of Cape Charles.