SALVAGE UNDER FIRE
Dutch Steamer Raised Off New Guinea Coast JAP. DIVE-BOMBER LOSSES Rec. 1 p.m. SYDNEY, this day. Despite repeated attacks by Japanese dive-bombers, Australian salvage men have raised the Dutch steamer Bantam from the mud of Oro Bay, New Guinea, on the northern coast, directly opposite Port Moresby. Regarded as irreplaceable, the vessel was ordered to be refloated at any cost, but the actual. expenditure was only £1500. Of 9000 tons, the. vessel was sunk by bombs in a big Japanese raid in March. Salvage equipment had to be sent by plane across the Owen Stanley Range. Nine weeks' work saw the Bantam raised and ready to be towed to Australia. In one attack by Japanese divebombers during the salvage operations, intercepting Lightnings shot down 13 of 15 raiding planes. Captain J. W. Herd and Chief Diver J. Johnstone, who earlier in the war retrieved over £2,000,000 in gold from the sunken Niagara off the New Zealand coast, were in charge of the work.
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Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 302, 21 December 1943, Page 3
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166SALVAGE UNDER FIRE Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 302, 21 December 1943, Page 3
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