GREAT SALVAGE FEAT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 236, 5 October 1937, Page 6

GREAT SALVAGE FEAT.

RAISING THE GERMAN FLEET

Towed keel uppermost, the 25,000-ton wreck of the Friedrkh der Groese, last of the scuttled German High Seas Fleet of the Great War to be salvaged, was taken from Sea pa Flow recently to the ship-breakers at Rosyth. Its value as scrap metal is stated to be about £105,000. Thus, ends the greatest feat in the history of salvage. It was begun in 1023 by a man who knew nothing about salvage, whose firm had never raised a ship. When, in 1933, Mr. E. F. Cox, managing director of Cox and Danks, of London, decided to hand over the work of salvage to a Glasgow firm, he stated that he had lost money. But he described it as a "great adventure, well worth while." Ten warehips then remained to be raised.

Between 1923 and 1933, 62 had been salved of the 72 warships handed over to Britain under the terms of the Armistice and sent to the bottom of Scapa Flow in June, 1919, by the German crews, acting under the orders of their admiral. Though it shocked the Peace Conference at Versailles, which talked of reparation being exacted from the Germans, there was a certain sneaking sympathy for the feelings of the German admiral. The admiral was reported afterwards to have said that he did it to prevent another war breaking out before jieace had been concluded.

Of the 72 vessels 11 were battleships, several of 27,000 ton«, with 14in guns; five were battle-cruieers, including the 28,000-ton HindeiibuTg and Derffinger; six were cruisers and 50 destroyers. Raising the Hindenburg. Included in the surrender was also a great floating dock, 700 ft long and 200 ft wide, the largest in the world. A section of this, weighing 2000 tons, and costing £40,000, has been used by both the firms engaged in the salvage for lifting the vessels to the surface. Sections of the floating dock were placed on each side of the wrecks, some of which wore hauled up to the surface by wire hawsers that ran under the bottoms. "Sometime* the hauling was done by sheer manual labour with the aid of winches and tac-ktes. The salving of the 28,000-ton Hindenburg, the bkrgest vessel ever to have been lifted from the bottom of the sea, was the greatest of all in a eeriee of amazing feats.

She was lying right side up on the bottom, her masts and funnels above water. Cylindrical air-locks had first to be bolted to the hull, and men working inside under air pressure liad to place 800 patches over the orifices.

The Hinderihurg, as the work went on, threatened to ca [raize eeveral times. More than once she had to be resunk. And when she wa* finally brought to the surface in July, l!) 30, after nine months' work, ehe had involved the firm in a loss of £25,000.

Methods used on the Hindenburg were typical of those used on all the larger ve«sols. When the fetching had been done, the wrecks were raised to the surface by air pumped into them. The necessary righting was achieved by increasing the air pressure in eome of the compartments. There was always the risk of explosion from the highly inflammable pases caused by the decay of organic matter. Foul air lingers in such wrecks for yeare. In 24 years three lives have been lost through exploeione.

How Fleet Was Scuttled. The Gerina-ne had done the scuttling well. Condenser doors in engine rooms had been taken off, auxiliary valve*, had been opened, and plates indicating their position had been cut away. Sea connections in each boiler room were also found open, ae well as fore and aft magazine valves, hatches and all watertight doors.

If present scrap metal prices had been obtainable before 1933 tbe salvage work would Imvc resulted in a considerable fortune instead of a loss. For the Hindenburg in 1930 only £70,000 was obtained. The value of the smaller Friedrich der Grosse to-day is said to be £10">,000. The eliinrp in the price of copper alone at the time the Hindenburg wreck was sold resulted in a lose of more than £20,000 to the salvage firm. So the last of the scuttled warships has been drawn to its doom in the ship-breaking yard, and the strange story of a great fleet has ended.