SHIP

Hokitika Guardian, 18 December 1933, Page 6

SHIP

THE HAMPSHIRE SALVAGED

A GERMAN REPORT.

(United Press Association—Hr Electric Telegraph—-Copy right.)

(Received this day- at 12 noon). LONDON, December 17

That a German vessel is secretly salvaging the Kitchener death ship, (Hampshire, i s the startling assertion of the “Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung” nihich publishes a carefully documented of the operations and detailed statements of the divers, including an Australian, Costello who was injured •when one of three bombs exploded in the wreck .caused the unexpected explosion of the Hampshire’s ammuni.tian hurling .the divers into mud. Salyage. operations were unsuccessfully commenced in 1931, and were restarted in April, 1933. The salvage .ship .approached the Hampshire witli the greatest secrecy, the captain talcing a round about route from Kiel to avert suspicion,

Costello found the \Vreck .within three ;hours of descending. Whitefield, a deep sea expert, was the first to enter the Hampshire commanders room.. As the steel door opened, the body of a man rose from a chair, drawn by the and floated past Whitefield, and vanished into the .framework of the sunken ship Using ..oxyacetylene cutting apparatus, the crew raised ten. thousand sterling worth of .gold bars and personal papers relating to Kitchener’s Rusrsian missipn

, /British . Admiralty Were not aware .of the reported salvage.