SCUTTLED SHIPS SALVED

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 1, 26 September 1919, Page 7

SCUTTLED SHIPS SALVED

21 TO HE OVEKIIAULFJ) IN DRY DOCK. Twenty-one ships of the scuttled German fleet at Scapa Flow have been raised and are awaiting overhauling in dry dock. The salved vessels are:

One battleship, Baden, built during the war.

Threo light cruisers, the Emdcn, Frankfurt, and Nurnberg. • Seventeen dostrovers.

The only other ship it is possible to salve, is the Hiwlenburg, llio funnels and masts of which nre just showing above water. To recover her .would be a big undertaking, and the decision whether this shall be undertaken will rest with,, the Pence Conference.

All the other ships lie in deeper water, and it is hopeless to attempt to salve them. .

The Baden was beached by a British bearding parly after the watertight doors had been closed. The Nurnberg was beached on a rocky bottom off Cava Island, and the Kmden and Frankfort on a sandy bottom, by our own boarding parties'. Some members of the German crows were kept on board to close the sea-cocks.

The salvage was carried out by ■ closing the trap-doors and pumping out the water. It was found that the Germans had opened tho torpedo tubes of the destroyers.

It is stated that the salvage department of tho Admiralty started operations tho day after the ships were scuttled, but later hnnded the work over to the Liverpool Salvage Association.

The German battle-cruiser Graf von Spee. built during the war. has been launched at Danzig, and after receiving her armament will be handed over to the Entente— "Daily Mail."