SALVAGE OF EGYPT’S GOLD

Taranaki Daily News, 5 September 1930, Page 7

SALVAGE OF EGYPT’S GOLD

RAPID PROGRESS BY DIVERS

HOPE OF OTHER RECOVERIES NEW DIVING SUIT TESTED £10,000,000 IN NAVARINO BAY, By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. London, Sept. 3. Salvage work on the liner Egypt has been facilitated by a calm sea. Already the divers have removed the deck plates and entered the captain s cabin, whence they will bring the safe. They also entered the dining-room, recovering the silver. The divers hope soon to reach the third deck, where the strongroom is situated, with the gold ingots and registered mail packets. The success in discovering the liner has persuaded recovery companies to make other searches. Thus it is estimated that' £10,000,000 which has been in Navarino Bay for 100 years may be reached. Teets of the Peress diving suit are so promising that it will be used in a renewed endeavour at Navaiino Bay. Peress is now testing the suit in Loch Ness (Scotland) at a depth of 135 fathoms and believes that he can reach 250 fathoms and still more. The ships Persia and Arabia, which were submarined in the Mediterranean in war time with more than £1,000,000 aboard, and three Spanish galleons, bul-lion-laden, in Vigo Bay, are also to be brought within the possibility of recovery. EGYPT FOUNDERED QUICKLY. TREASURES ON OCEAN’S FLOOR. The Egypt was sunk on the evening of May 20, 1920, by -collision with the French steamer Seine, 28 miles off the Armen lighthouse, on the coast of Fin isterre. The Seine crashed into her port side in a thick fog, striking her abreast of the forward, funnel. The took a heavy list and sank quickly and more than 100 people were \drowncd. The sunken vessel canied o-old and silver valued at £1,054,000— five tons of gold and 45 tons of silver. Somewhere in her hull there are boxes of gold bars worth £674,000, gold coins, also in boxes, worth £165,000, and silver bars, 'loose, worth £215,000. The Italian haulage ships Artiglio and Rostrio completed their final preparations in June, 1929, at Brest for salvage work on the Egypt, which lies in nearly 400 feet of unsheltered water. It was stated at the time that the first problem of the salvage parties would be to find the Egypt. Her approximate position was known from bearings and observations taken with a sextant, and the Artiglio would be guided by directional wireless, but, even so, a wide area had to be searched. The wreck would have to be found by dragging - a steel hawser along the bottom between the two salvage ships and then it would have to be identified by a diver, for there was no lack of wrecks on that coast and there were plenty of submerged rocks as well. There were in the Artiglio complete plans and a sectional model to scale of, the sunken ship, and they were studied by the divers, who would know their way about as soon as they set foot on the wreck.' Work on the salvage of the Egypt has been proceeding .for a few years. It was intended to use six huge caissons, Genoese divers, and 20,000 can-dle-power lights to illuminate the sea bottom. It was reported last year that the ship had been definitely located. In addition to modern treasure ships such as the Elizabethville, sunk off Belle Isle and reputed to contain £3,000,000 in diamonds, the sea beds are literally littered with old-time treasure-ships. One hundred and eighteen years ago. the San Pedro de Alcantara sank in less than, a hundred feet of water off the American coast, taking with her to the bottom £2,000,000 in doubloons, besides precious stones and jewellery worth £500,000. Even the French ships sunk during the Battle of Trafalgar are supposed to have gone to the bottom with a sum of money estimated at over £1,000,000 Round the coasts of Britain about £15,000,000 is lost to the world in Comparatively shallow water, including £3,000,000 on the Lusitania, and another similar sum lost in the Spanish vessel Florencia. Vigo Bay has £20,000,000 in sunken gold, while strung out between the north of South America and West Africa lie the hulks of at least one immensely rich Spanish treasure fleet. The Spanish Main and the surrounding coasts, moreover, are reported to be worth at least £50,000,000.'