SUNKEN GOLD

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 32, 30 September 1931, Page 4

SUNKEN GOLD

a Correspondent.)

ATTEMPT TO SALVAGE RICH CARGO LOST WHEN "ISLANDER" SANK.

(From

SEATTLE. Three millions in gold dust and nuggets which sank when the steamship "Islander" went down in Steven's Passage, Alaska, more than 29 years ago, may reach Unele Sam's mint after all. Curtis-Wiley salvage expedition, headed by Frank Curtis, of Portland and Seattle, hegan grappling for the sunken treasure early in June and will have it safely in the bank shortly if the plans work out successfully. Divers Busy. The gold, which was being shipped from Skagway - following the "cleanup" in the Klondike, went down when the "Slander" struck an iceberg early on the morning of August 15, 1901. The sunken vessel lie3 in 365 feet of water nine miles out of Juneau and as early as thc. fall of 1930 divers in the newly developed Wiley diving bell recovered articles from her upper decks. With f orty winches attached, twenty to each side of the, lifting ship Griffson, Curtis expects to lift the "Islander" hodily and heach her on the edge of Douglas Island, two miles distant, after a series of lifts. He and his crew of 23 men are now preparing to attach cables from these winches to the sunken hull. Completing this sucessfully, he will await the first incoming tide for the first lift. An 18-foot average tide- exists in the Passage and each lift is expected to move the "Islander" approximately. fiye or six feet vertically and as far a3 possible toward the heach, Tide to Aid. An idea of the lifting power of the winches to be used in an emergency if the salvagers encounter a drift while lifting to boat, is gained from the fact that each can lift ten tons to a 75pound pull on the levers. After a lift, slaek will he taken up in the cable3 to await the next fiood tide. The pressure of the Pacifie waters at 365 feet is slightly more than 11 times that at sea level, or more than 165 pounds per square inch. Displacement of the lifting ship Griflson is slightly more than 500 tpns as compared with the Tslander's" original 2000 tons, part of which has been removed by preliminary operations.