SALVAGE AT SCAPA.

Waikato Times, Volume 110, Issue 18521, 29 December 1931, Page 10

SALVAGE AT SCAPA.

32 VESSELS RECOVERED. AN UNPROFITABLE VENTURE. (From a Correspondent.) LONDON, November 5. For the last seven years Messrs Cox and Danks have been engaged in salving the vessels of the ex-German fleet sunk at Scapa Flow In June, 1919. The firm have now decided not to attempt the raising of the dozen or so large vessels that still remain. Their salvage Is not impossible; but as they lie on their side or bottom up in depths of 20 fathoms and more, the heavy- costs of raising them wo-uld not he met by tho price obtained for Hie wrecks as scrap metal. Tho battleship- Prinz Regent Lultpold, the last vessel to be raised witn the battle-cruiser Yon der Tann, now lies bottom up on the shore near the old naval depot at Lyness, in the island of Hoy, Orkney, which was leased by the salvage firm in 1924 to provide workshop and storage accommodation and living quarters for the officials and 150 workmen employed. Here the remains of (lie German minelaying cruiser Rrcrnse, salved in November. 1929, are still being- demolished alongside the jetty. The Prinz Regent Luitpokl and Von der Tann, however, will be towed bottom up to Rosyth during 1932 to be reduced to scrap by the Alloa Shipbreaking Company. It was in 1922 that Mr E. F. Cox, the managing director of his firm of Iron and steel merchants, acquired the British battleships Orion and Erin for scrapping. They were duly demolished at Queenborough, near Sheerness, in 1923-24. Never before having undertaken the work of shipbreaking, however, Mr Cox first sought the advice of a frend who knew the business. It was his friend who suggested the salvage of some of the ships at Scapa. , Proceeding thither, the managing director surveyed the wrecks, returned to London, and acquired from the Admiralty four of the destroyers sunk in Gutter Sound, subsequently buying the remaining 21. The necessary plant, which included sections of an ex-German floating dock, was purchased at a cost of about £40,000, and work was started, the first destroyer being salved on August 1, 1924. Thereafter 24 more were raise) between August 13, 1924, and April 30, 1920, some being brought up from the bottom in less than a- fortnight. Sections of the dock were placed on cither side of the wrecks, which were hauled to the surface by wire hawsers rove under their bottoms. In some cases they were dragged to the surface by sheer manual labour with winches and tackles, though In most instances the wires were hove taut at low water, and the rise of the ‘tide provided lifting power. Carried gradually inshore and lifted at each successive high tide, they were eventually patched and refloated. Spurred by Success. Spurred on by [his success with the smaller craft, tire firm next tackled the heavier ships that were lying between 13 and IS fathoms deep. Most of 14cm lay bottom up, or on their sides, and in their case the method of salvage employed was file reverse of simple. 'Fail, cylindrical air-locks had first to he boiled to the sunken hulls, and men, working inside under airpressure, which kept the water from rising to more than a certain depth through the orifices in the decks below, gradually worked through the ships, cutting away pipes, ventilating shafts, and Die like, which passed through tlia bulkheads, and patching and making watertight the various compartments. This entailed months of work with oxyaeetylene apparatus, fathoms beneath the surface of the foetid atmosphere and horrible slime c-f ships that had been under water for several years. Moreover, there was always the risk of explosion, for decaying organic matter gives off a highly inflammable gas, and foul air may linger in the compartments of a submerged ship for years. Explosions did occur, tho-ugh only one was attended by loss of life. When everything was ready for lifting, the wrecks were raised to the surface, bow first or stern first, by air pumped Into the Interior, the necessary righting moment being obtained by admitting more pressure to certain of the compartments. By these methods the battle-cruiser Moltke was raised In June, 1927,' the Seydlitz in November, 1925, and the battleship Kaiser the following March. November, 1929, saw the salvage of the cruiser Bremse, and July and December, 1930, the lifting of the battlecruisers llindenburg and Von der Tann respectively. The last ship to be raised was the 26,000-ton battleship Prinz Regent Luitpold in Juiy last. Most Difficult Job. Tile 28,000-ton llindenburg presented the greatest difficulty of all. Stic was lying right side up on the bottom, with tier masts and funnels above water, and at first sight her salvage seemed comparatively easy. After 800 patches of all sizes had been placed by divers over tho orifices in her hull she was pumped to the surface. She threatened to capsize, and had lo be re-sunk. Several times, after one expedient after another had been tried lo keep her on an even keel on attaining buoyancy, the same thing happened. When she was finally brought to the surface in July, 1930, she had involved the Arm In a loss of about £30,000.

'ln all, about £ 130,000 has been spent on the work of salvage in a little more than seven years. Tho average pay bill being £3OO a week, about £182,000 of ibis sum lias been expended in salaries and Svages. The margin of profit lias been small. Now that 1 lie actual work of salvage has ceased the employees are being gradually paid off, and Hie depot at Lyness will presently relapse to Its former stale of loneliness. Messrs Cox and Danks, (heir officials and workmen, may congratulate themselves upon having achieved a record unique in salvage, work. In 1 924 the firm had never raised a slijp, Now, In the of seven yearn by methods largely novel, and in Hie face of Innumerable set-backs and disappointments, they have salved 32 vessels, six of which were of 20,000 tons displacement or more. The 28,000-ton llindenburg is slated to bo iho largest vessel ever raised from the bottom of tho sea.