A SALVAGE PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 138, 14 June 1939, Page 4

A SALVAGE PROBLEM

The announcement that two trawlers, sunk in the Humber, Yorkshire, were to be salvaged by a German firm has caused many people in Britain to ask why the work was not to be done by a British firm. Was Britain short of salvage apparatus? The Hull Insurance Company, who joined with a London firm in giving the order to Germany, replied when asked this question: "It looks like it." The order is worth £10,000 to the Hamburg firm who have undertaken the job. "We asked five British firms, four on the Humber and one on the Mersey," said a representative of the insurance company. I "It was not a question of price, but some had not the necessary lifting craft, and others were apparently not interested. At least they did not send anyone to see the wrecks. It may be that the Mersey firm did not want to be away from their own river so long. They would have had to come to us either by the North of Scotland or the South of England, and stay perhaps a month. We should not have given the work to Germany if there had been an offer from a British firm." In shipping circles it was denied that, there is any shortage of British salvage firms or equipment.