SALVING THE GERMAN FLEET.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 211, 5 September 1924, Page 5

SALVING THE GERMAN FLEET.

A SEVEN YEARS' TASK

ACTIVITY AT SCAPA FLOW.

'T see that they're going to raise the German Fleet." "Good Lord, what for? It Was only the other day that Wo sank it." Such was a conversation overheard in a Fleet Street restaurant. It typifies the attitude of the average Englishman towards one Of the greatest marine engineering enterprises that has ever been undertaken. It will afford an unexampled opportunity of ascertaining exactly what can be accomplished in salvage operations, which both during and after the war more than repaid the trouble and expense which they en* tailed. There is the romantic story of the recovery of the treasure of the Laurentic, and the fact that by salvage many German naval code-books, the contents of which are still a jealollsly-gllarded secret, have come into the possession of the British Admiralty.

Seven years of strenuous and danger' \ ous work will be involved in raising the German Fleet at Scapa Flow. Thq, engineering equipment devised •to that end is immensely powerful, as simple as possible in design and construction, and so contrived that a week under Water will do it no harm. Pumps that can deal with a ton of water a second, no matter how muddy or sandy; pneumatic hammers and drills that can work under water or above at the rate of 1200 blows a minute; and electric lamps of all descriptions will be employed. Graduated charges of all the moat powerful explosives known to science will aid in the work. Hollow iron tanks capable of being fitted to the Sides of the sunken hulls, and then pumped out and made water-tight, will help tit the lifting after dynamite has blown away obstructions or made smooth the jagged edges of steel in a sunken vessel's skim The salvage ships Will possess strong hulls, and will be furnished with power' ful engines, not only for towing, but to operate cranes and derricks that cab lift fifty tons at a time. - - - Most of the' ships at Scapa Flow lie in different positions and at different angles, SO that each one supplies a separate problem 'in salvage work. Moreover, they are Of heavy steel. Borne are on their beam ends, some are upright, and some are down by the head. It is thought that With the Hindehburg, operations conducted by building a coffer dam round her and then pumping it out will be most effective. The Seydtits, df 24,000 tons, has, however, been capsized where she lies.

After all portholes and openings _ia*e been closed by divers groping in muddy water, her masts and other obstructions must be removed before she can be rolled on to an even keel. Then the oxygen torches and the oxy-acetylenc blbW-pipes will get to work, burning metal under water and removing impeding bulk-heads to any extent that is found necessary. At last, after the divers, with shieldover the glass fronts of their helmets in order to protect their eyes from the intolerable glare, have done their work. the operation of Salvaging proper will besrin. There is lrttle doubt that it will be successfully accomplished. What the ultimate disposition Of the salvaged fleet will be. it is for the British Government to decide. It is certain that it can never airain be "a fleet in being" in the naval sense of the term. l»o*siMy it Will be resolved into its component parts and sold as old metal.