Balsa (Roman town) Balsa (Roman town) Balsa was a Roman coastal town in the province of Lusitania, Conventus Pacensis (capital Pax Julia). The modern location is in the rural estates of Torre d'Aires, Antas and Arroio, parish of Luz de Tavira, county of Tavira, district of Faro, in Algarve, Southern Portugal. Balsa is a pre-Roman place-name with a probable Phoenician etymology: "B'LŠ...", a possible theonym connected with the older Phoenician occupation of neighbouring Tavira. It is mentioned by Pomponius Mela (DC III 1, 7), Pliny (HN IV 35, 116), Ptolemy (GH: II 5, 2), and Marcianus of Heracleia (PME: II, 13). Mints bronze
RMS Lusitania contract with the British Admiralty and other British authorities to partially salvage "Lusitania". The means of salvage was unique in that a steel tube, five feet in diameter, which enclosed stairs, and a dive chamber at the bottom would be floated out over the "Lusitania" wreck and then sunk upright, with the dive chamber resting on the main deck of "Lusitania". Divers would then take the stairs down to the dive chamber and then go out of the chamber to the deck of "Lusitania". Lake's primary business goals were to salvage the purser's safe and any items of historical value.