Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1919. SALVAGE OF SHIPPING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1958, 29 March 1919, Page 2

Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1919. SALVAGE OF SHIPPING.

A TOTAL of 500 ships, worth Avith their cargoes ,i’-10,000,000, were salved during - the war by the .Admiralty Salvage Department, under Commodore A onng, R.N.R., of the Lia - - erpool Salvage Association. A fleet of 14 salvage vessels, Avith 150 divers and 2,000 officers and crew, lias been at avoHc in various Avalers. Of the ships salved a large proportion have been merchant vessels, some of which have been torpedoed twice and three limes afterwards, and have again been re-(l"aled ami repaired. Great quantities of butter, flour, and grain bare been recovered in usable condition. Erom other cargo vessels, copper, steel, lead, ammunition, guns, rubber, and a hundred other commodities have been salved at various other times, iu nearly all eases by refloating the ships. .Many torpedoed cargo ships have still to be dealt Avith, and a list is being compiled of those considered to be commercially profitable to rise. Most of the sunken ships arc the properly of the CroAvn, Avliieh lias paid a total loss to the owners under the war risks scheme. The Linnet and Banger, Avliieh, at the beginning of the war blocked I he entrance to Portland-Harbour by capsizing HALS. Hood there, looked after H.M.S. Lion Avhen she Avas hit, floated HALS. Britannia from a perilous position by means of compressed air, and brought in the first: German submarine . UCS, after she bad run {{shore. When the hospital ship Asturias aaxis torpedoed off Bolt head the Ranger avus at work again. After drifting on the rocks the Asturias avus raised by means

of submersible ami oilier pumps, compressed air, and other appliances. ,One of the last works of the Salvage Department will be the raising of ships with which the harbours of Ostend and Zeebruggo were blocked.