The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, May 12, 1982-Page 11
Adventurer leads exotic life
A BOARD THE PLUS ULTRA (AP) - He's battled
pirates n the high seas, and awaited execution before
a communist firing squad.
For everyone's fantasy of exotic adventures, Bob
Moran hasa true-life story.
He's soared through the air in a twin-engine plane
and zoomed around racetracks in sportscars. Now,
at the age of 53, he heads a large team of divers and
treasure hunters minutely scouring the bottom of the
Forida Straits for the remains of the Santa Margarita
and the Nuestra Senora de Atocha.
THE TWO SHIPS, headed for Spain with their hulls
stuffed with gold and silver, went to the bottom of the
sea when a hurricane struck in September, 1622.
"He's driven to find that treasure,' says Bruce Et-
shman, diver-crewman on Moran's 47-foot twin-
engine diesel yacht, which serves as seaborne
operational headquarters for Treasure Salvors, a
company formed by Key West treasure hunter Mel
Fisher.
Everyone should experience
venture. I recommend it
everyone, even if they are
milktoast type. '
ad-
for
the
-Bob Moran
treasure hunter
Moran, who has known Fisher for 16 years, is
mainly responsible for salvaging over $40 million
worth of gold, silver, jewels and artifacts from the.
two sunken ships since this particular search began
12 years ago.
HIS LIFESTYLE - which included haivng his own
SWAT team to recover hijacked yachts from modern
day pirates - has cost him a marriage. And although
he misses his two children, he says he doesn't miss a
"normal" life.
- "Too many people are wrapped up with making a
living," he says. "Everyone should experience ad-
venture. I recommend it for everyone, even if they
are the milktoast type."
Moran joined the Navy when he was 17, traveling
the world for nearly a decade. During those years, he
became an aerial photographer and scuba diver. He,
also raced motorcycles and sportscars.
AFTER THE NAVY, he studied business ad-
ministration at the University of Buffalo. But he
became "impatient and bored."
Moran eventually became part-owner of a salvage
vessel. He and a crew of eight were taking it to the,
Dominican Republic in December, 1962, when a
violent storm sank the boat in the Atlantic Ocean.
"The nine of us drifted four days and five nights,"
Moran said. Their lifeboat landed on the northern
coast of Cuba near a Soviet-built missile site.
'Abby'
admits
repeating
column
letters
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP)-
Abigail Van Buren admitted reusing
letters in her advice column without
labeling them as repeats, but said
yesterday she will make sure they are
identified properly from now on.
The practice came under fire after
her twin sister and fellow advice
columnist Ann Landers admitted she
had reused letters from 15 years ago
without telling readers they were
repeats. When Van Buren was first
questioned about the practice, her
secretary denied the columnist ever
reused letters without identifying them
as repeats.
HOWEVER, IN a statement released
by Fairway, Kansas-based Universal
Press Syndicate, distributors of "Dear
Abby," Van Buren said her Mother's
Day column on Sunday contained two
old letters that were not labeled as
repeats.
The letters praised an unwed mother
for putting her child up for adoption and
inquired about the significance of a
single carnation on Mother's Day. One
of the letters had been used previously
on May 12, 1979, and the other on May 7,
1977, according to a check by the
Cherokee Iowa Daily Times.
Yesterday's statement was issued af-
ter Universal Press executives talked
to Miss Van Buren on Monday night.
They had been contacted by Daily
Times officials, who told them the
newspaper was going to run an article
about the duplication, syndicate
spokesman Ted Findlay said.
UNIVERSAL Press drew a distinction
between the practices of Miss Van
Buren and Miss Landers.
"Abby reprinted letters at the
request of readers. This is different
than the Ann Landers situation," Fin-
dlay said ina prepared statement.
"We endorse and support Dear Ab-
by's decision to label every reprint
regardless of how many times Abby has
used the item in the past," tle syn-
dicate said. .. _.,
Corporate tyke AP Photo
Dino Konstantino, a three-year-old from Ohio, runs the family hot dog cart in downtown Cleveland, undoubtedly anticip-
ating his first million in profits.
Nation's airlines stage bidding
warin effort to f 1 t seats
NEW YORK (AP)- Bidding to fill
empty seats, the nation's airlines are
cutting fares for children-in some
cases eliminating fares outright-to
promote summer vacation by air.
Pricing departments of airlines
scurried to keep up with the com-
petition yesterday, as the industry ap-
proached its peak season.
BRANIFF International announced a
"school's out sale" in nationwide
newspaper ads, offering 50 percent
discounts for children between ages 2
and 11, accompanied by an adult, and a
25 percent discount for young people
between 8 and 21, escorted or not, good
for anywhere Braniff flies.
American Airlines immediately said
it would match the discounts on routes
where it and Braniff compete..
Generally, airlines allow children
under 2 to fly free as long as they are
held in an adult's lap. The standard fare
for children over 2 ranges between two-
thirds and three-fourths of the adult
fare.
PAN AMERICAN World Airways an-
nounced a "free kids" promotion, when
the children are accompanied by
adults, on its north-south routes bet-
ween New York, Washington and
Florida, and in the Los Angeles-
Honolulu market.
On East Coast runs, Pan Am was un-
dercutting Eastern Airlines and Delta
Air Lines. Both Eastern and Delta had
been promoting a round-trip youth fare
of $49, slashed from a standard round-
trip youth fare of $262.,
Trans World Airlines and United
Airlines were pondering whether they
would match the competition,
spokesmen said.
ALL AGREED that keeping up with
rapidly changing fares and conditions
was harrowing. "It's impossible, it'
really is," lamented Delta's William
Berry.
For the first three months of the year,
the 12 major carriers reported com-
bined net losses of more than $500
million. Only USAir, among major
airlines, reported a net profit for the
quarter, $10.8 million.
In the same period, about 40 percent
of available airline seats were flying
empty.
The airlines attribute their losses to
the recession that has cut into air travel
and to decreased revenue