THE SUNKEN GERMAN FLEET

Evening Star, Issue 20863, 5 August 1931, Page 9

THE SUNKEN GERMAN FLEET

SALVAGE WORK AT SGAPA FLOV/ During the past week I have been on board Messrs Cox and Dank’s floating dock watching the final preparations for the raising of the 25,390-ton exGerman battleship Prinz Regent Imitpold, which, with the other interned vessels of the German fleet, was scuttled on June 21, 1919 (writes a correspondent of ‘The Times ’). 1 ship lay upside-down _in about lb fathoms between the islands of Cava and Hoy, in the spot where she had been anchored since November, 1918. There were between 33ft and 48ft of water over her bottom. Her salvage was begun early this year. Excluding twenty-five destroyers, on which work was begun in 1924, t«e Prinz Regent Luitpold is the seventn ship that the firm has raised, the others being the battle-cruisers Moltke. Seydlitz, Hindenburg, and Von der Tann; the battleship Kaiser, and the mine-laying cruiser Brer The method of raising the majority or these vessels is as interests- as, I believe, it is novel on so large a scale. Mesa of them lay bottom up, and tho first step was to admit men to the hull through tho bottom to seal up and make airtight the various compartments. . . . There is an eerie feeling ia_ being m the bottom of a capsized ship lit by. electricity fathoms beneath tho surface. Rather alarming stories are told of tho peculiar effects caused by working, under considerable air pressure, such as bleeding noses, pressure on ear drums, and a general feeling of swollen heaaedness. But these men do not seem to nuud these things, and think nothing of their work. It is tho isolation of the various compartments _ and the making certain o£ their airtightness that take most of the time- in these salvage operations. HOW THE WORK BEGAN.

Mr E. F. Cox, the managing director, gave me some particulars of tho origin of his salvage work. In 1922 he bought the British battleships Erin and Orion for breaking up, and these were'demolished at Queenborough, near Sbeerness, in 1923. A Danish friend interested in shipbreaking suggested that he should salve certain of the German warships sunk at Scapa. After inspecting them he first bought four destroyers from the Admiralty, and started work in May, 1924. Then ha bought twenty-one more, and the ivholo lot were successfully raised. Their sale did not quite pay for the necessary salvage plant. Mr Cox’s fifth big ship, the Hindenburg, which lay right side up, with her gun turrets, upperworks, masts, and funnels above water, presented tho greatest difficulty. All the work bad to be done below the armoured deck, and time and time again when floated by air pressure she was in imminent danger of capsizing, and had to be resunk. Finally two nuge concrete blocks had to be constructed under her stern to form a sort of cradle, and after months of work the ship was finally, salved and taken to Rosyth for breaking up. Mr Cox bad lost £30,000. on tho Hindenburg, and found himself practically, ruined. He managed to collect enough capital to start on the .Von der Tann, which was successfully raised and now, lies bottom up awaiting' a purchaser; The firm has more or less paid its expenses now, and the sale of the Prina Regent Luitpold should represent profit. The trouble is that snipbreabers’* yards in England are overstocked with obsolete' British warships, which means a small demand for scrap metal.

Much of the non-ferrous metal and armourplato from these German vessels finds it way back to the country of their origin, while some armour goes to America, where it is made into all kinds of cutlery goods. To give an idea of the cost of the operation the tale is told of a diver who, while one ship was being raised, found himself sucked into an Sin inlet by the flow of water. Firmly attached to the hull Tby the seat of Ivis diving dress, he signalled to the surface, and the ship had to 1 be sunk at, an estimated cost of £4OO to release him, ,