MARINE SALVAGE
1 WHERE BRITISH ENGINEERS LEAD THE WORLD
Until a few years ago the most expert maritime salvors were the Swedes. When we suflered our first submarine disaster by the loss of Submarine Al some twenty years ago a Swedish salvage ship and Swedish divers had to be employed to raise her. Now Britain takes the lead in marine salvage and the world's leading expert is a British seaman, Sir Frederick Young. During the war the Admiralty formed the most efficient marine salvage organisation ever got together Of this Sir Frederick Young was the professional head. Among the organisation’s activities was the examination of sunken U-boats in order to discover the secret warorders they contained. Many thrilling episodes happened during these investigations, and they provided the Naval Intelligence Department with much in : formation of the greatest value tn combating the U-boats. Next to raising the Hindenburg at Scapa the outstanding feat in raising warships’ stands to the credit of the Italians—the salving of the 21,500 tons batleship Leonardo de Vinci. The heaviest deadweight “lift” on record was that achieved in hauling a laden collier to the surface. in the Firth of Forth during the war The heaviest ship “lift” was the hoisting from the sea floor of Zeebrugge and carrying inshore of Captain Fryatt's Brussels, the vessel he commanded at the time the Germans captured and shot him Both stand to the credit of Sir Frederick Young. - It was he, too, who made salvage history by raising a wrecked K submarine in the Gairloch and rescuing a great part of her crew. “Lifting” is done by passing wire hawsers under the keel of a sunken ship and hauling her up by main force In big jobs the more usual practice is to fill the wreck with compressed air until she grows buoyant. Salvage apparatus has been greatly improved. A diver is no longer limited to a working depth of 300 feet. Bv donning a special dress he can go far deeper than that. ’He is also provided with a submarine searchlight to work by, pneumatic tools to use under water, and acetvlene flames that will burn under water for plate-cutting purposesAnother remarkable piece of salvage gear is an electric pump that can be lowered into a wreck to “pump her out.”
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Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 42, 13 November 1926, Page 24
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382MARINE SALVAGE Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 42, 13 November 1926, Page 24
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