GREAT SALVAGE FEAT

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1924, Page 4

GREAT SALVAGE FEAT

RECOVERING TIIE LAUEENTIC’S GOLD. When the news readied London in war-time that the liner Laureiitic, outward hound for America, had been sunk in 20 fathoms of water, off the Irish Coast, there were few men of cxporiencc in such matters who expected that any considerable part of her cargo would ever he recovered. In her cargo was a, trille over £o,000,("!<l of gold. The Laurcntic lay in 120 feet of water. The seas that surge around the Irish coast are not of those which are kind to a sunken ship, or make the task of the divers easy; hut as soon as the end of the war set men and equipment free, the Admiralty determined to salve the Laurcntic gold, says the “Daily Telegraph.” The task was long. The bullion had to lie hewn out of a hull battered and twisted bv tin explosion, h.v the pressure of 20 fathoms of water, by the tides ae:l storms. Yd ft the end of last year the divers, had recovered £L7.70.0!‘0 of the So.OTUIOC worth of gold. To do this tliev had removed all llte struct tire of the ship round the bullion room, and nothing remained hut a carpet of rusted steel plating on the bottom of the s-a. Somewhere beneath this, haying worked their wav through holes in the plates, were lot liars of gold. The unwearied (livers proceeded to cut HI) this plating •iikl y->nd it to I lie surface. I hex had Ofjoj) ;; (| , l:l re feet tints to deal with—in' light task on dry land, hut thev were „,7 the bed of the Atlantic. <>f Urn lot bars they recovered 120. and they might have had the rest if the weather had not broken and storms swept shingle into the working place faster than the divers could clear it out. It is a wonderful story of skill and patient effort and endurance.