MAW OF THE SEA

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 56, 7 March 1914, Page 9

MAW OF THE SEA

SALVAGING VARIOUS WRECKS PEARL SHELLING IN THE" NORTH WEST 1 EXCITING EXPERIENCES. ;

Denuded of all engines and fittings, and relieved of all accessible cargo, the hull of the Devon is to be loft to the restlessness of wind and wave. , Ever 6ince the ill-fated vessel struck at Pen* carrow Light, on a wild and.' dirty night tome months ago, thefcalvors have been at work stripping her of everything oi ' value, and now their work ,1s practically completed. The h'rst salvaging contract concerned only the machinery, -ntt-ings, and cargo above the water-line, but since that ta*>k was completed the Sydney tivtn of Contractors who set themselves ' the task of the submerged ,ma' chinery and the' cargo in her -flooded holds have been steadily at work, and have now practically completed the,salvaging operations. Their contract hu« not been an easy one. One of the contractors, Mr. John Anderson, and another experienced Sydney diver, have been intermittently carrying out the under' awter work, and four or live above-water workers have also been employed. Mr. Anderson has been for thirty years employed in the 'adventuresome occupations of diving and ealvagink', and during that long period has had some thrilling experiences. The previous wreck he was interested in salvaging, he told a Post reporter, was tho Lauderdale. which came to grief on the coast at Reetkm. Upon completing that contiact ,he came to Wellington, and has been diving at, the Devon, on and off, evei* since. Mostly the weather has been suitable for salvaging , work, he. slated, •bub one night last week, a violent southerly came up, ahd, after spending a miserable., dump, . and sleepless .time aboard, the salvaging party abandoned work ' until the weather modified. Mi 1 . Anderson treated the whole affair guile philosophically in the tolling of it. for to' him 'untoward experiences have beett of, frequent occurrence. /■;; ( ' ( ,^ ■ IN GRUESOME SURROUNDINGS, One of his most exciting .experiences (he recounted to the pressman) was while working 1 on the liner Quetta, which wa« wrecked in Albany Pass, Torres Straits, some twenty years ago, 'and toundeved in thirteen fathomo of water, with tho lous of 130 lives. While worktttg in. the vessel with its gruesome freight his lifeline got foul ot a projecting rail, and for two hours he struggled to release himself. At tho end of that time, jusb as' exhaustion was stealing .over him, he managed to free tho Hue, and, not wait' ing to let out any of the air in his suit, lx>6c to the surface with such a lorce that he shot hall out of the water. For twenty years Mr. Anderson was engaged in the pearl'fchell industry off the coast of North-Wcfctcru Australia. Tlw first year he worked as a diver, receiving so much per ton for shelly Then ho acquired four luggers of his own. ( Ewi) vessel earned about seven, men, including one' diver,' his four attendants,' and a cook. ' Those were the boom days, lnit .then came the Japanese divers with lliei? cheap wages, aVid drove many of the Europeans out of business/ When tho slumncame luggers which had cost £600 sometimes sold for jOiOOj and sonm of them were even left on the beach to ''ot. It was while engaged in diving in those parts, that Mr. Anderson made a close acquaintance with the deadly ham-mer-headed shark. ''The water was perfectly clear," Mr. Andei'soh narratod. "ahd I could see the whark paying a loi of attention to Tny air-lube. He came quitp clone, and 1 liied to aUr up tne Band ,li> sco if that would shake him oil. It was useless owing to the hard> bottom. Then 1 pulled out my valve to see if the noise of the escaping air would frighten him, but to no. uee. The only thing to do was to give .the signal to haul up and risk the chance of -the oh ark making a. chap. I 'got to the lop all right, and could then sec the ,shaik in the clear water away down below, me.'' ■ ' A TALE OF HAKD LUCK. ' • An exceptionally unlucky salvaging job fell. to Mr. Andeison's lot in cornier.' tion wilh the wreck of the eteamel\New Guinea at Green I'oint on the Australian Coast. Smooth w eather prevailed hr several day* while preparations for removing the cargo, were being made,' and then, just a-s e\erything was iv readi» ness to get it out of the stranded veti.sel, a sto'vm came up. In a single niglit the wreck went to pieoes, and the cavg?, including motor-cars and giog, and valued at £20,000, was flung a* flotsam an<* jetsam on to the beach. The fnrmeis came to the foreshore from miles around, and the sailors had to collect what' they could, _ A great quantity of cargo which, was rightly theirs thi^y lost altogether, in spite of the fact that a couple of poliea constables patrolled the shore to keep away intruders. , Among other- wrecks in which Mr. ,Anderson lia^ been ir.tereisted was the Knight of St. George, which was accv. dentally piled up on a. reef at Nukualofa over a year -ago. The- vessel was almost high and dry, and instead of employing hiany whites for salvaging work Mr. Anderson engaged mostly natives to retrieve whatever could bo saved from th* meiciless maw of the sea.