THE LAURENTIC’S GOLD.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 10 December 1924, Page 3

THE LAURENTIC’S GOLD.

FINAL OPERATIONS

NINETY PEE. CENT.. EEpOVEHiEI)

BELFAST, Oct. 22. Tlie Admiralty ship Racer has just completed the salvage of the armed liner Laurentio, which was sunk by a U boat off the County Donegal coast during the late .war., At the beginning of this year there .were 154 bars of gold, remaining buried on the. wreck, and the isalvage vessel Racer arrivedon the spot iii the first days of April for the effort to recover as many of these as possible before .finally closing down. At an earlier period of the work all 1 the structure 1 of the ship and .wreckage had been removed riglit- down to the outer skin of the vessel, which formed, as it. were, a> carpet lying on formed, as it were, a carpet lying on the sea bed. This carpet had been swept clear : of gold, but it was cuiinpleci and, torn in many places. During the first month Of the present season a number of the' bars ivere obtained by digging on; and sifting the boulders and stiff clay where they were exposed at- holes, and as the excavations- were deepened and extended —!so that divers, could squeeze themselves right ■•underneath.."the. wreck—mb re gold was. discovered several feet from the tears and beneath the continuous plating. A very fine sprint and early summer favoured the undertaking, but with the late summer bad weather , set in. Soon- the disturbance of the surrounding wreckage caused stones and shingles to sweep int-o and over- the working- places faster than it ri>uld he; cleared out, and now any golcr that is left there ; is huried sev~ oral, feet-deep, about 25 bars in- all. Gf .the . £5,000,000 worth of specie sunk,. 90. per cent, has thus been, recovered and safely lodged in the Treasury. .