SALVAGE TRIUMPHS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 45, 17 November 1920, Page 7

SALVAGE TRIUMPHS

« • 410 U-BOAT VICTIMS RESCUED. The successful salving of H.M.S. Vindictive «t Ostend forms one of the outstanding features of the wolk of the Salvago Section of the Admiralty, says a correspondent of "The Times." To this department had been entrusted tho task of clearing the Belgian -harbours, and the removal of the-Vindictive from tho fairway at Ostend marks practically the completion of the work. At the outbreak of the war no Admiralty .salvage organisation existed, but the need for such a department became pressing, and early in 1016 the Lords of the Admiralty called in Captain P. W. Young as Naval Salvage Adviser to form such a section and to take charge of it. Captain Young, who had been for 30 years engaged in salvage, work in'the interests of underwriters, 'being ohief surveyor to the Liverpool Salvago. Association, was afterwards given the rank of commodore in the Royal Naval Reserve, which position hp still holds. Before tho formation of the salvage section, the naval-authorities liad availed themselves of . his assistance. He carried through., pliins for guarding our ports against enemy submarine's, and ho made sale anchorages where no such- anchorages had existed before. The salvage section was formed principally of the ships, officers., and 1 men of tho Livft'pool Salvage Association, which/ wore taken over,' while all other salvage companies in tho United Kingdom were also placed wider the charge of Captain Young, with a staff experienced in salvage operations. In addition, old composite gunboat?, especially suitable for tliQ purpose, were quickly converted into salvage vessels and equipped with every salving device that experience could suggest, so that within a short time the Admiralty had the finest salvage plant in existence. Tho section proved its value almost., at oiice, although' it wafj not until tho submarine menace, was at its height that it rendered its most valuable per.-ice. Mitch was done bv the section in helping to, defeat the U-boat campaign by salving tot-Dodoed merchantmen. It scarcely need be added, that the section found plenty to do. Its operations extended into many waters, nnd were so successful that in tho last three years of the war the section saved something like £'50,000,000 worth of shipping that would otherwise have been a total loss. x It wont to tho assistance of many vessels that had been damaged by the U-boats, and by moans of a special device Icnown as the "standard patch" enabled them to reach the repairing yards. If tho vessel went to the bottom and was worth raising, she was raised and returned to service. Close upon one,and three-quarter million tons 'ot merchant shipping was thus salved during.tho war. It does not require a very vivid imagination to grasp how I great a boon it was to the Allies that such a considerable fleet as this tonnage represents—about. 440 vessels in all—was literally snatched from "Daw Jones's locker." Among the most notable feats achieved by the salvage section was tho patching up. tho battle-cruiser Lion afltfr. the Dogger Bank fight. By constructing an ingenious coffer dam on her side, they enabjed bar to steam to the Tyne for lepair. tor this. Commodore Young received tho thanks of Admiral Beatty. Another remarkable piece of salvage whs the rawing of submarine IC 13 in Gair Loch, and resoumg 35 of tho men who were entombs in . her. Commodore loung alhO adopted find, introduced tho submersible motor pump, which Admiral ■Tcllicoe ordered to be fitted as standard to all ships in the Grand Fleet. Bv the use of compressed air the first-class battleship Conqueror was salved when she had been giv&n up as a total lose, and the saving of the hospital shin Astunos is to the credit of the section. liut perhaps the most spectacular of the Admiralty 6alvape poi'torruancos during the war were tho lifting of the Araby *fter she had been sunk in Boulogne Harlwur and the.bringing of : her back to the Ihames in two pieces, and tho hauling upright ot a sunken transport at Folkestone by .means of four railway engines. Later the collier Bedalo was lifted in the Firth of Forth, whore she had sunk in the way of tho battlecruiser squadron. Upon this occasion. a dead-weight of 3000 tons was literally hauled to the surface. This was the heaviest "lift" ever performed bv salvers until the Brussels was raised. Sho weighed about tho same. In the early part of 1018,. too, tho salvage section refloated within a week four ships that hiid gone ashore oil' tho Irish coast. At tho req lies'; of the Belgian Government the Admiralty Salvage Section "undertook the clearing of the Belgian harbours, and by tho raising of the Vindictive they have carried through tho largest marine salvago undertaking ever embarked upon. Tuis involved, bosides tho Vindictive at Ostend, the raising of Captain Fryatt's Brussels, tho removal of tho blockships lphgenia, Thetis, aud Intrepid from tho mouth of the Bruges Canal, 'anil the carrying out of many other exceedingly difficult operations. Only those who know how battered and broken the Vindictive was can havo any adequate conception of what a remarkable piece of marino salvage was her removal. ' Great risks attended it; for if once the hull of. tho vessel liad slipped down into tlio .fairway—and only oxceji- • tionally skilful handling -proveuted it doing 60—Ostend Harbour would have been "bottled up" for months. In recognition .of his work Commodore Young was decorated bv the King of tlio Belgians anil by the Government of the United Stales of America.