WORK AT SOAP A FLOW

Taranaki Daily News, 2 September 1933, Page 9

WORK AT SOAP A FLOW

TEN UNSALVED GERMAN SHIPS. LAST OF A “GAMBLE.” Thousands of spectators at Rosyth witnessed the berthing a few weeks ago of the Von der Tann,. the salved German battle cruiser which was towed from Scapa Flow keel uppermost Like the other salved vessels, she is to be broken up. The salvage, of the German warships sunk at Scapa Flow has now come to an end so far as Messrs. Cox and Danka are concerned. Mr. Cox, who accompanied the Von . der Tann from Lyness to Rosyth and , superintended the berthing operations in the dockyard, said he was glad that the work was now all over. In less than 10 years, he stated, his firm had lost £lO,OOO in connection with that salvage work. This loss was due partly to s sharp drop in the price of scrap meta) and partly to the fact that when, as one who had always been interested in engineering, he undertook the salvage of the scuttled German fleet, he had had little experience of that class of work “It has been a gamble,” Mr, Cox added, “which has not been a,success.” The German High Seas Fleet was scuttled by the crews at Scapa Flow in June, 1919, and salvage work was started five years later. Some 32 ships, including the 28,000-ton battleship Hindenburg, have been raised and towed to the yards of the breakers. Mr. Cox stated recently that he had decided to abandon the task of raising ■ the 10 German warships which still -re* main at the bottom of Scapa Flow,