LAURENTIC’S GOLD

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 46, 18 November 1926, Page 11

LAURENTIC’S GOLD

DIVERS’ SEARCH AMONG WRECKAGE A SEVEN YEARS’ STRUGGLE When tho Laurentic was sunk by a German submarine in 1917, and went down .off Lough Swilly, with u loss oi 300 lives,'Xie took with her 1>5.500,(*00 in gold bars, which was needed in the United States to finance British purchases. The Admiralty at once ordered Commander G. C. C. Damant, commanding the mooring steamer \ olunteer, to recover the gold. Hif had at his disposal five divers and some pumping and hoisting gear, but nothing equal to tho elaborate salvage plants that were produced at-the end of the war. ibe Laurentic was discovered in 120 ft. water, in a spot fully exposed to the north and west, and not too well sheltered from the south. The gold, in 33)0 bars, neatly stacked .in wooden boxes, was stored in the second-class baggage-room; At first the, task seemed to be a simple affair of five or six weeks’ work, says Mr. Benne Coppiestone in tho September “Blackwood's.'’ The salvage crew had plans of the vessel The ship was found to bo lying on her port bilge, at an angle oi GOdeg. from the vertical, the entry port on the starboard side leading to the second-class baggage-roonl could be got nt, and prospects seemed to be bright. The plan was to blow in the entry'port , clear a wav to the baggage-room, force the door, and haul out the cases of gold. Tho first great trouble arose from the motion of the sea in tho depths. A short breaking sea affects only the surface, but the long, slow Atlantic swell transmits horizontal surges along the sea floor at the Laurentic depth of 10tt-, so that the divers had to cling to the sloping side of the wreck, but they were swept away. All loose tackle lasher like whips about them with the scend of the eea above. Though tho divers were swung about bv the surge, they managed to blow in tiie steel doors', and jams them in the tunnel behind. A way was made through casks and cases io the strong-room, which was opened, and tlie first box of five bars was hoisted; Then success w<is snatched from the vorkxjis grasp. After the first little box. a foot square, and six inches deep, had. been hoisted, a succession of gales arose, and when tho divers returned to work, they discovered that the violence of the ocean movement had swept away., suppm s, decks had collapsed, and the whole ship had "shut up like a concertina. The strong-room was found. 40ft; lowe ’’ than before, empty. Tho gold had os T .-aped to pert, been split and become mixed up and overlaid .with masses of steel wreckage. Bar by bar it bad to bo recovered from a deep chaos of steel. At everv gale the Atlantic swell churned and broke the tangled mass of steel more and more, and redistributed the w hidden within it and beneath it. Jno wrOck had to be cut through from top Io lidttom, and the steel lifted out bv piece. A charge placed on each side of a beam, but not each othei. cut the beam clean, and it was then hoisted ■ clear. Tho weight of tlie gold carried it ever deeper, and.the last-amt most difficult stage proved to bo tho 'searching of the sand by means of stiong hoses. The divers were forced to use •their bare hands in order to feel the soft, greasv sensation of the gold bars. Whole seasons wore passed with little result. Tho fruit of 193) was seven bars, and of 1921 « bars-->0 Bars, or ,£85.000 for two years of toil. Ao lives were lost, but divers suffered scveraly from ioint pains, bubbles in the blood, woto lost, but divers suffered severely of the air compressors, into winch they were put, while the air presslire was gradually reduced. Commander Damant reported that tho wen /‘behaved like an-cls” all the time, a result winch Mr Copplestono attributes to trepid leadership. He was always first down to reconnoitre an ugly piece of work. The gold, when recovered, waslanded at Stranraer, and, t le,,vpppd . a solitary representative-of the Bank or England—"total stranger, bowler hat, plausible manner’’ —who would appear with lorries and take it off to the tram. “Had this take been fiction, says Mr. Coppiestone, "he would, for once at least, have been a superlative erook out of)a kinema film.” Of 3211 bars. 30a/ were recovered, at a cost of less than — per cent. A sum of .£7OOO was distributed for reward among 70 officers ami men. who professed themselves well , content. ■ ■