SUNKEN TREASURE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20342, 27 June 1934, Page 5

SUNKEN TREASURE.

Success of Italian Salvage Company. PAID 24 P.C. DIVIDEND. (Special to the “ Star.”) LONDON, May 25. Scattered far and wide over the floor of the deep seas lie ships loaded jvith incalculable treasure. The holds of many of them are filled with gold, silver and valuable cargoes. Who are to gather these spoils of war and calamity? The remarkable success that attended the raising of £1,000,000 worth of gold coins and bullion from the P. and O. liner Egypt, which lay at a depth of 420 ft near Ushant, oil the coast of Brittany, has fired the Sorima (Societa Ricuperi Maritime) Company, the Italian salvage experts, to attempt a number of similar feats. Operations of this company last year resulted in a profit of £300,000, and a dividend of approximately 24 per cent was paid. Now the company’s divers are striving to recover a cargo of tin and other metals, valued at £1,200,000, from the Glenarty, a British ship of 7263 tons, which was sunk by a German submarine in 1918 ten miles off the African coast, near Cape Bon. She lies at a depth of 816 feet. Vessels Located. At the same time the enterprising Italians are seeking vast treasure that lies at the bottom of the sea off the south coast of Ireland. They have already located two large vessels, one of them being the Harrison liner Spectator, sunk in 1917 by a German submarine. Close secrecy is being maintained as to the terms of any agreement which exists between the British Government and the Italian salvage company in respect of the Glenarty or the wrecks off Southern Ireland. Experts in this country are of the opinion that, no matter how satisfactory such agreements may appear to be, it would be more enterprising—and, indeed, more profitable—for the Government to acquire salvage apparatus capable of carrying, out the work.