GERMAN SHIPS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 July 1924, Page 13

GERMAN SHIPS.

START OF SALVING OPERATIONS. AT SOAP A FLOW. The following article is by the special correspondent ol the London Times at Queen borough, on April 18:The first stage of an ambitious scheme for raising from -the bottom of the sea the German Fleet, which was scuttled at Scapa Flow on June 21. 1919, while interned there, is just being concluded here; and directly after Easter a huge floating workshop was to go north from the shipbreaking yards of Messrs Cox and Danks to begin operations at Scapa. For obvious reasons it is undesirable to leave the anchorage at- Scapa Flow permanently encumbered with the slowly rusting hulks of the German bleet-, and many salvage and shipbreaking firms have considered the question of stripping the vessels of all the valuable fittings. But the actual removal of the vessels themselves is needed, and it has remained for Mr Ei. F. Cox, the managing director of this firm, to secure the opportunity to try and raise the vessels as well as break them up. It is estimated that the task of completely clearing Scapa Flow in this way may occupy some eight or nine years, and the magnitude of the task will be realised when it is recalled that of the 74 vessels interned at Scapa Flow all sank at the time except four of the large ships and a few destroyers. In all there were interned 11 battleships, 5 battle-cruis-ers, 8 light cruisers, and 50 destroyers. The present agreement, however, covers only 24 torpedo-boat destroyers and two battle-cruisers, the Hindenburg and the Seydlitz (27,000 tons), and until these have been disposed of, or Mr Cox has found the task of moving the big boats beyond him, the question of the remaining vessels will remain in abeyance. It is expected that the programme of work at Scapa. Flow outlined above will be completed by the end of the year. The key to the whole plan is the floating dock which was being fitted out at Queenborough. This is the huge German submarine dock, which was surrendered at Harwich, and is now to serve a purpose certainly never dreamed of by the designer's. The central chamber—which is very much like a- section of a tube railway—has been broken up and one of the side containing walls removed, giving the dock , a curiously lopsided smpearance. Powerful winches and running gear have been erected along the one side of the floating base, a crane is installed on a railway track where a submarine used to lie, and the remaining containing wall has been fitted out with a machine shopman eectrie power generating plant, an air compressor, and other gear pertaining to salving and shipbreaking work. JOURNEY TO THE ORKNEYS. This provides what is practically a floating workshop, 400 ft. long, and on Wednesday two powerful tugs will start to tow the ungainly mass to the Orkneys. It is expected that it will take at leasl a week to drag it north, and once there it will be cut into two pontoons, each 2(HJft in length and each, with .its own workshop, so that the sunken vessel can be tackled from both sides. Yesterday the workmen were still finishing the watertight bulkheads at the dividing point, and the separation will be made by means of oxy-acetylene pressure jets, which can cut- their way through the heavy steel plates much as wire cuts through cheese.

Within a week after arrival it is hoped to start on the destroyers, and the plain to haul them bodily up to the surface by the winch gear at the date of one boat every two days. But the real task, and thei main prize, lies 66ft deep on' the rock and slnngle. This is the Hiiidenburg, ancltif Mr Cox is successful here he will have done something which, - he says, has not been accomplished before from that depth. It was the fact that he had bought the dock in order to break it up that enabled him to put forward the present plan, which is simple in essence. It remains to be seen whether unexpected difficulties will hinder its application. Divers working from the pontoon will go down to the hull of the Hindenburg, the funnels and masts of which are just above water, and sytematically stop every hole in her from hatchways down to the seacocks which enabled the Germans so dramatically to bury their fleet beneath the water. These present the biggest difficulty, as the shipbreakers have no plans of their actual position, and will have to bunrow in the shingle in the engine-room section to locate them. Weodplugs, concrete, and metal patches will be used, and, when all the known orifices have been closed, a six-foot diameter .steel tube will be sunk on to the deck of the vessel and bolted down. A hole will then be cut through the deck, and other holes will then be cut through each deck until the bottom of the battle-cruiser is reached. Down this caisson will be lowered powerful electric pumps, capable of ejecting in all some -5000 tons of water an hour, and the task of clearing the vessel will begin. The level of the wateiv in the tube will tell the engineer’s whether they have been successful in finding every sea. inlet, and if they make no impivssion oi. the water another search of the hull will become necessary. CRUISERS AS GREAT PONTOONS. Once the vessel begins to lift by its own buoyancy, it will be taken on each side nearer the shallower water until it is in a convenient position to float normally. The chief difficulty foreseen is that the heavy top weight of the guns and turrets may make it awkward to keep her upon an even keel, and this is why it is desired to settle her in shallow water. All the heavy top hamper will be taken off her, and she will then become, in Mr Cox’s words, “the biggest and finest pontoon 1 could want to raise the other ships.” Already over £30,000, it is stated, Las been expended on preparing for the work, and it is evident that Mr Cox is convinced that if the Hindenberg can be raised the whole problem ol getting up every big ship i here is practically solved. The Hindenberg has been chosen t.o start with, as she is fortunately upright, but the next vessel on the list, the Seydlitz, is lying on her side. It is impossible, therefore, to raise her so simply by merely pumping out the water, as in the case of the Hinclenberg, because she would turn bottom upwards, and that is why the Hindenberg afloat as a pontoon is essential. Her work will be to take the weight •of the turrets and guns of the Seydlitz while the hull is cleared of water and the vessel gradually brought into shallow water on each tide, in much the same way as the first battle-cruiser. Eventually, it is hoped to utilise both vessels as giant pontoons, and from then onwards the task should become easier still.

Twelve divers will, he ocupied tor possibly two months or more stopping up the various openings in the /findenberg, and ultimately about 100 men are expected to be at work this voar at Scapa. This class of work has orodueed its own special tools, mainly driven by pneumatic means, and it is even possible to cut out under water a 6ft circle in a battleship deck by means of a

cutting asm revolving round a central motor. It is obvious that the nonferrous metals in 'a big ship must amount to a large weight figure and be wortli a good price as “scran.”