INGOTS IN BUCKETS.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 254, 25 October 1919, Page 17

INGOTS IN BUCKETS.

RAISING £7,000,000 OF LOST GOLD. DIVERS AT WORK ON BOTTOM OF THE SEA. Twice in recent times has the name of the Laurentic been spoken of in wonderment, says a special correspondent of the "Weekly Dispatch,",, writing from •Lough Swilly, on August 17. Once ■when, in 1917, the vessel while acting as an auxiliary cruiser was mysteriously 6Unk midway between Fanad and Dunail, the headlands at the entrance to Lough Swilly, and now for the second time when, in this peaceful holiday-making August, the work of salving the ship's cargo of bullion has been so successful that newspaper headlines tell of the recovery of a million of money from the wreck. The -wrecked Laurentic lies thirty fathoms deep in the mysterious blue sea four miles north-east from Fanad Head, and here is taking place one of the most successful treasure hunts ol modern times. For the past 6ix weeks the two salvage vessels, The Racer—solid, substantial and black, with curious appliances on its decks—and the more elegantly built Corcyia, have steamed from their anchorage to hover over the grave of the Laurentic. Owing to the depth of. water and the strong tides running in. ana - out of the Lough, the work can only be carried on in calm weather. THE STRONG ROOM. To-day, ;when Lough Swilly" is a lake of blue glass or like a piece of tightly stretched blue silk gleaming in the sunlight, the two vessels are moored to the buoys and diving is in progress. There are eight divers, each of whom work •half an hour at a stretch. The black ship makes fast to the barrel buoy and so brings itself exactly over the spot where the Laurentic's strong-room with its stores of bullion has been located. A diver appears on deck, clambers down the ladder leading from«the opening in the ship's side to the surface, and slides down the wire cable to his work on the bed of the sea. From time to time the powerful cranes on deck haul up the buckets with their load of precious metal. • •- • The work is slow, the ingots coming up in ones and twos. Until now the biggest haul in one bucket was seven ingots, and the best day's work resulted in 47 bars of gold being recovered. Each bar, about 9in. long, weighs 2Slb. The Laurentic sank two years ago as the result of an explosion, whether caused internally or by mine is not .known. She now lies a heap of rubbish and twisted gear on the ocean bed. and among this pile of iron plates tbe divers poke and search for the small bars of gold. The heavy strong-room probably broke loose as the Laurentic sunk, and now lies possibly shattered below the mass of wreckage of the alter part of the ship. As n result of the explosions this part of the ship is completely broken up, so that the divers often pick up- some of the ingots lying free in the sand of the bed of the sea. They estimate that if tile line weather continues the whole of the £7,000,000 of specie ought to be recovered by the autumn. . « Divers have searched the exposed part of the wreck and removed what portion of it they can. They then lay charges and explode them so as to open another part of the hull for inspection. The search begins again, and so will go on by slow and dangerous stages until the whole has been examined. Even to move the wreckage is a matter of difficulty, for the pressure makes it impossible for a diver to lift any bulky article. Sometimes the bucket brings up not ingots of gold, but silver and copper coins all minted in 1917, and as cheerfully familiar as those now in our purses, despite their two years under the Atlantic. Although the working shift of a diver is only 30 minutes, his journey to the surface takes even longer, for he is hoisted up so as to become gradually used to the varying pressures. A halt is made at thirty feet below the surface, another at twenty, another at ten, so . that the prolonged ascent lasts for thirty-five minutes. Even then it may happen that the diver has been brought up too quickly, and is in pain on reaching the* surface. Preparations have been made for this emergency, and on the deck of tb e steamer is an airtight tank in which the pressure can be regulated as desired. The diver is shut up in the tank at the pressure under which he has been working, and this is gradually lessened until he is able to move freely in the normal atmosphere. The day's work over, the fussy little patrol launch ceases its nosing about from on c salvage ship to the other, and the two go down the shadowy lough in the evening to Buncrana, or, if the day's catch has been a good one, to Portsalon. BORED BY TREASURE HUNT. The men seldom get shore leave, and to them the biggest treasure hunt of our time is something of a bore. The Fanad Peninsula, gay with loose strife and corn marigold, and fragrant with meadowsweet, honeysuckle, and heather, pays little heed to their comings and goings. It was a matter of surprise to the inhabitants when I expressed a wish to go out to the scene of the diving in a curragh, one of the frail boats of tarred canvas which ride so buoyantly over the heavily running sea. To go out for fishing or to explore the curious rock formation in the neighbouring cliffs was understandable, but why anyone should' want to see gold being hoisted in buckets out of the sea was evidently a mystery. Not once have I heard "the treasure hunt mentioned here by the peasants. Donegal would be more interested in hearing of the capture of a few Nationalist or Unionist rifles than it is in the recovery of £7,000,000 worth of lost . gold. A RECORD TREASURE HUNT. ■ \ Commenting upon the operations atLough Swilly, "Lloyd's News" says:— If the estimated total of about £1,000,000, stated to have been recovered from the wreck of v HjM.s. Laurentic, sunk in Lough Swilly in Febru- • ary, 1917, is correct, it represents by far the biggest thing ever accomplished in the w ( ay of the recovery of sunken treasure. Probably the "next best" stands to : the credit of Sir Wdlliam Phips, who, many years ago,, salved £300,000 worth of gold and silver from a Spanish gal- , leon •wrecked off the Bahamas. Captain Dickinson, in 1830, recovered close on £150,000 from the Thetis , wreck, with no better appliances than a diving-bell made out of two iron water 1 tanks and an old fire-engine converted , into an air-pump—a very creditaible performance under the circumstances.

OUTWITTING THE DONS. From the Lutinc frigate, lost off the coast of Holland in li'.l'J, with over a million pounds in coined money on board, ahout £150,000 has been .recovered at intervals ; some so recently as 1012, when dynamite and huge magnets were used to wrest the treasure from the deep. Nearly a century ago a Scotsman, Donald Maclean, salved about £80,0001 from the Spanish -treasure ships sunk ! in Vigo Bay 'by Admiral Sir George i Rooke in 1702. A big share of this j ought by rights to have gone to the J Spanish Governing—t. But the canny Scotsman made the officials on board his salvage ship drunk, bundled them on 6hore in that helpless condition, and sailed away with the lot. By the way, there is lots of scope just now for deep-sea divers and salvage companies in the attempted recovery of treasure from ships sunk quite recently. In addition to the Laurentic, which had about £7,000,000 on board, there is the Lusitania, now lying in 270 feet of water with treasure estimated to be worth £200,000 inside her shattered hull.. Then again, there is the Oceana, sunk * oUision otT Beachy Head in March, 1912. in 210 feet of water, with £1,000,000 on board in gold and silver specie, part of s>. loan to China