TREASURE FROM THE SEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17253, 1 September 1919, Page 7

TREASURE FROM THE SEA.

SALVAGE OPERATIONS.

SUNKEN SHIPS RAISED.

U BOATS REFLOATED. By Telegraph—Press Association Copyright. (Received 5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON, Aug. 29. The Daily Chronicle states that under the direction of Rear-Admiral E. M. Phillpotts, the Admiralty has completed four years' salvage operations. Four hundred and forty vessels have been salved, and property, valued at £50,000,000, has been recovered. The Admiralty wholly relied upon steamers with extraordinary pumps and six lifting lighters. converted from hopper dredgers, which with 9in wire cables were capable of supporting a strain of 2000 tons. In one instance a collier of 2700 tons was raised at Rosyth, and was recommissioned although she had been submerged for seven months.

The salving of £1,900,000 of bullion from the Laurentic involved the forcing of strong rooms with explosives, the divers working at a depth of 23 fathom?. In sjme instances patches like the lid of a rolltop desk were placed over torpedo wounds, and vessels were refloated. Some of the ships thus refloated were mined before they reached harbour, weeks of arduous work being thereby wasted.

Salvage craft within 10 days refloated a convoy of three merchantmen and two destroyers, which had grounded in a fog. Two of the vessels were recovered by the novel method of a destroyer racing around at top speed and creating a wash which lifted the stranded ships clear. A similar method was used in the case of the Narragansett, which was in danger of breaking up off the Isle of Wight.

Some U boats were raised, including one sunk 35 miles off the mouth of the Tyne, with a displacement of 700 tons. The authorities desired to examine the submarine closely. She was taken in tow and brought to the mouth of the Tyne, where she was held up for four hours before she was allowed to enter. During the delay the submarine slipped from the wires. She was agiin grappled up and brought into harbour. When the armistice was signed salvagers were engaged in examining a U boat which had become entangled in a defensive net and then mined. A diver who was seeking the papers of the submarine discovered that the crew were all officers. He found protruding from the hatchway a* pair of hands whose lifeless fingers clutched the documents he sought.