GOLD SEARCH ON OCEAN BED
SUNKEN EGYPT’S £1,000,000.
BREST (France), June 2. The first step in one of the most daring salvage qjperations ever undertaken began to-day when the Italian salvage tugs Artiglio and Rostro mapped out with buoys an area of thp ocean from which they hope to recover £839,000 in gold bars and £230,000 in silver ingots. This bullion, which was consigned to the Egyptian Treasury, went to the bottom on May 20, 1922, when the 8,000 tons P. and O. liner Egypt sank in the Bay of Biscay, with The loss of 87 lives after colliding with the French steamer Seine. Tho wreck lies in water 360 ft deep. I have been able to obtain on the spot to-day some remarkable details of the manner in which it is proposed to recover the sunken fortune—a task worthy of the imagination of a Jules Verne. DYNAMITE CHARGES. It has been decided that the only way to reach the liner’s treasure room is to dynamite right through tho wreck. The men who will place the charges and carry out this delicate work are Genoese diver's renowned for their physical endurance. As soon as they have definitely identied the Egypt six great caissons will be moored above and the Artiglio and Rostro made fast to them. The next step will be the shattering of the wreck with the dynamite charges, after which the sections of the ship will be brought to the surface by means of immensely powerful magnets, which will pick them up from: the sea bottom. The divers will use 20,000 candle power electric lamps, which, despite the great depth, will light up the ocean bed for 20 feet in front of them. The engineers and divers, who are supported by ’British engineers and advisers, are confident of success. ■ If their confidence pfoves justified "they will proceed su'bs'equently to "' the wreck of the Belgian liner Elizabethville, which was torpedoed by a German submarine in 240 feet of water off Bell Isle., ’on the Breton coast, with 13,000 carats of diamonds, worth £3,000,000, oh board. ! i ■ ■:
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Hokitika Guardian, 24 July 1929, Page 7
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347GOLD SEARCH ON OCEAN BED Hokitika Guardian, 24 July 1929, Page 7
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