SUNKEN WEALTH

Taranaki Daily News, 8 November 1932, Page 6

SUNKEN WEALTH

GOLD AND METAL CARGOES.

POSSIBLE SALVAGE EFFORTS.

Attempts may be made shortly to recover the valuable metal cargo of the steamer Cumberland, which was mined off Gabo Island, on the northleast coast of Victoria, near Cape Howe, early in the war. Later, an effort to recover the gold from the General Grant, wrecked on the Auckland Islands in 1866, may be' made. “To carry out. usual salvage work” is tfie aim set out in the prospectus of a salvage company just iormed, says a Sydney newspaper.' It is .reported, however, that it may tackle these more exciting jobs. Two sloops, formerly minesweepers of the Royal Australian Navy, may soon be engaged in the task of attempting to wrest the treasure from the sunken ships. .The firm has been registered as the Pacific Salvage Co., Ltd., with Captain A. H. Wood and Mr. J. C. Hirsack as directors, and one of its aims will be to salvage gold and ingot metal from sunken ships ✓in Australian and New Zealand waters. Consigned to .the hammers of the shipbreakers, the Marguerite and Mallow, lying alongside Cockatoo Island, have been granted a new lease of life, while the company is negotiating for their purchase. The company also plans to have a ship handy to salvage or refloat any vessels in trouble on the Australian coast. That the vessels would be snatched from the grasp of the shipbreaker has been mooted for some time. Weeks ago they passed out of naval hands and were taken alongside Cockatoo Island, but breaking up was postponed. The Cumberland, on July 6, 1917, struck a mine laid by the German raider Wolf. She was badly holed, but the captain managed to keep her afloat, with the pumps working at full pressure, until she was beached. On August 12 she was refloated, but sank going a few miles on her way to Eden. As the Cumberland is in deep water it is considered that some special apparatus will be necessary to get at her ingot metal. The recovery of the General Grant’s gold may be a tougher job —it certainly will be more romantic. One dark night in May, 1866, the ship ran into a gap in the cliffs of one of tjie Auckland Islands, south of New Zealand. She was bound from Melbourne to London. The General Grant carried 50,000 ounces of gold, worth £300,000 at present prices. Seas swept most of her S 3 passengers and crew over the side and they were either drowned or killed. The ship sank beneath the overhanging cliffs and the survivors drifted about in the boats for several days before they landed on Disappointment Island, a few miles awayHere they suffered' terrible privations, until rescued 18 months later.