AN EPIC OF SALVAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24850, 25 February 1942, Page 4

AN EPIC OF SALVAGE

The story of the recovery of the Niagara's gold is one that we may reasonably hope will soon be told, for leisurely reading, in< much greater detail than has so far been possible. It undoubtedly merits presentation in permanent book form, as much for its romantic as for its scientific interest. In this hazardous venture courageous and competent men riskedtheir lives to retrieve from the seabed a rich fortune in gold bars. They had to overcome quite extraordinary difficulties, not so much in locating the sunken liner, which was found lying in a forbidding depth of water, as in forcing a passage to the strongroom and bringing the bullion to the surface. To these normal obstacles to easy performance of highly specialised work were added the dangers of frequent contact with derelict mines—the grim agents which sent the Niagara to her doom a few hours after her departure from Auckland for Vancouver on the night of June 18, 1940. It is said, indeed, that in the course of the salvage operations, which occupied a year in all, the divers counted no fewer than 15u mines spread around the ship. More than once one of . these deadly contrivances fouled portion of the salvage gear and threatened the salvage vessel herself with swift destruction. The coldly precise and nerve-racking handling and manoeuvring demanded of the divers as well as the surface crew on such occasions may well be imagined. Perhaps the most impressive feature of the whole remarkable undertaking was the extent to which probable difficulties were foreseen and provided against by those responsible for the planning of the operations. Improvisation, nevertheless, had its part, as it was bound to have in a venture offering so much scope for the unexpected. The-divers had to work at depths hitherto deemed impracticable from the salvage point of view, the spectral hull had to be lighted around the scene of operations, while the manipulation of explosives for blasting through steel plate 438 feet beneath the sea's surface without barring access to the treasure presented for solution some pretty problems of method. We are pleased to have been able to give our readers a specially written account of this unrivalled feat of salvage, from which its magnitude appears and which makes it possible to assess in more or less true degree the skill, resource, and pertinacity of those responsible for the resounding success that has been achieved by them. One inquiry only is prompted, relating to the attitude of an uncertain censorship towards a

story possessing a wholly unusual news interest for New Zealand and Australian readers. An account of the operations, which concluded in December last, was published in British and United States newspapers some two or three weeks ago. It was not until Monday of this week that publication was permitted in papers in New Zealand, and, presumably, also in Australia. If there is a satisfactory explanation of this seeming vagary it should be given to the public.