OCEAN GOLD SEARCH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 720, 20 July 1929, Page 26

OCEAN GOLD SEARCH

GREAT SALVAGE SCHEME LINER'S RICH TREASURY The first step in one of the most daring salvage operations ever undertaken began recently, when the Italian salvage tugs Artiglio and Rostro mapped out withvbuoys an area of the 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 0. liner Egypt sank in the Bay of Biscay, with the loss of 87 lives, after colliding with the French steamer Seine. The wreck lies in water 360 feet deep. Remarkable details have been ob tained of. the manner in which it is proposed to recover the sunken fortune—a task worthy of the imagination of 3. Jules Verne.

It has been decided that the only way to reach the liner’s treasure room is to dynamite right through the wreck. The men who will place the charges and carry out this delicate work are Genoese divers, renowned for their physical endurance. .As soon as they have definitely identified the Egypt, six great caissons will be moored above and the Artiglio and Rostro made fast to them.

The next step will be the shatter-ing 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-calldle 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 proves justified they will proceed subsequently to the Wreck of the Belgian liner Elizabethville, which was torpedoed by 3. German submarine in 240 feet of Water of Bell Isle, on the Breton coast, with 13,000 carats of diamonds, Worth £3,000,000, on board.