SALVAGE IN WAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23869, 21 January 1941, Page 9

SALVAGE IN WAR

RAISING SUNKEN SHIPS ! i GREAT BRITISH SERVICE |j MANY REMARKABLE FEATS [rilOM orH OWN courkspondknt] LONDON, Dec. 10 When enemy submarines scored a j record week against our shipping—as j they did recently—we read about it.! writes Mr. A. P. Luscoinbc-Whyte in J a London paper, but we hear li-t.lej about the immense tonnage of our ship- j ping which is being brought up from J the sea bottom. Even the Admiralty Salvage Section belongs obviously to the Silent Service. In peacetime our Government—unlike some others —does not support a national salvage service. Its Salvage Section lies dormant between wars. Hence the pre-war dominance of German, Italian and Dutch companies which used to work in our waters. The Admiralty faced an immense task in rebuilding its Salvage Section in September, 1939. Scores of Ships Raised It has succeeded admirably. Already a large number of ships sunk around our coasts have been salved. Hanging from small coasters to large vessels of I liner tonnage, their total value with cargo was £ll.ooo,ooo—of which ships represented £'6.000,000 and cargo £5 000,000. Scores of torpedoed, mined, bombed and just plain "sunk ' hulls have been raised, towed to port, repaired, sometimes re-enginod; and aie now sailing once more. Valuable cargoes of tood. fuels, machinery, cement, timber and general goods have been rescued. During the last war a total of 500 ships was dealt with —of a. total value of £50,000.000 (£5,000.000 of it in bar gold taken from the torpedoed Laurentic sunk de ;p in stormy seas off Ireland). This time the Salvage Section, armed with new scientific apparatus, is capable of even greater figures, if unfortunately they should be necessary. Arduous, Dangerous Work At present the salvage men are concentrating on wrecks lying in fairly shallow water with not more than 30ft. of water over them. Each salvage job has to be studied individually and special methods evolved. There are few hard-and-fast rules. In many cases a sunk ship can be 1 raised without disturbing its cargo, j towed into dock discharge and be rej paired for sea again. Ii is astounding what, the dockyard* can do with a battered hull. Ships blown clean in half have been raiser! and joined together again. Ships with their bows blown off have been fitted with new ones, and on one occasion during the last war the stern half of one destroyed was joined to th<> bow half of her sister-ship. It is arduous, uncomfortable, and often dangerous work that the salvage men do. Often weather holds them up for weeks; for rough seas put an end to salvage work. Recently, too. the enemy has become envious, in spite of the Royal Air Force aircraft which keep a protective eye on all operations, and divers have been pulled up more rapidly than tliev like.