GRIM SALVAGE ROMANCE.

Taihape Daily Times, 11 September 1918, Page 6

GRIM SALVAGE ROMANCE.

A FLOATING FURNACE. ttAMMED, FIRED, SCUTTLED, AND THRICE MINED. inland undulations formed a belt of curving green above the chalk cliffs, and, at their foot, bright-trocked children played on the pebble shore. Sea and sKy competed to reveal the ricnest shade of blue; for all the world was bathed in copious sunshine. Ana against that tranquil background we found a strange, pathetic ship, foundered and half-submerged, and painted in bright colours, though not by man. Also did we note a noise, a smell, and another ship—sister vessel to our own and anchored alongside the fantastic wreck, writes the “Daily Chronicle’’

correspondent. The noise was strong pulsations of pumping machinery, whence sprouted great suction tubes, from whose raised extremities fountains of water gushed into the sea. We were viewing sample operations of the Admiralty Salvage section —a war created department which, by restoring to Britain some 400 large cargo ships that had been sent to the bottom of the sea, has assisted invaluably to circumvent Hun piracy and maintain our food supply. A STORY OF THE WRECK. As a first instalment of the astounding story of that wweek, let me mention that for many hours she drifted as a floating furnace aflame from bow to .stern. Thus all protective paint was burnt off, and the naked metal left to be coated quickly with

rust and with clinging forms of marine life, animal and vegetable. Fire also was the clue to certain grim features of the wreck revealed at close quarters. To peer down the main hold was to see a black confusion of twisted girders, charred casks and burnt hales, all involved in a sort of carbon slime. The suction tubes descended into that pit, and so they were drawing up, not merely a double deluge of foul water, but also (and this accounted for the smell) such noisome gas as is generated by rotting portions of a submerged cargo. And now note -..another factor in these strange proceedings. Two men slowly turned a kind of double-handed windlass —a pump for sending air along a rubber tube, which could be

traced through the guardianship of three men, and so over the side and down into the water. Hard by was a duplicate of that apapratus, with its similar crew. In each case the five men ministered to a diver at work below on the ship’s hull.

Among those other vessels was a huge oiler, which also had wavy decks and much crinkled plating. Its story was tangled with the story of the rusty and barnacled wreck. Denied navigation lights, they collided m dark and misty weather, whereupon the oiler burst into flames and her burning benzine swept across the other craft, whose crew, penned in by fire, were heard uttering loud cries for three minutes. Eight succeeded in jumping overboard and were afterwards rescued by a destroyer; but 32, Including the master, perished. CHAPTER OF CATASTROPHES.

The oiler, emitting columns of smoke and fire, was towed into shallow' w'ater, there to bo scuttled and afterwards salved, with some 8000 tons of her inflamable cargo. The small vessel, canopied with roaring flam«», blundered through a chapter of catastrophes.

To begin with, her magazine blew up But soon a tug’s intrepid commander had fastened his hawser to the burning ship’s starboard stern bollards. Then a mine was struck- and that hawser parted in the explosion. To the port stern bollards another tug fastened its towing gear. So once more the ship of tragedy voyaged slowly stern foremost towards the shore. Anon, however, she struck another mine, and injuries were sustained on her quarter. Still the salvage people persisted in their efforts, and a little more progress was made, after which another mine was struck and another battering was sustained by the hull. It was a contest between the colossal and apparently endless bad luck of that floating furnace and the dogged patience of H.M- Salvage Section. The rescue crews gritted their teeth and went on with the job. At last water was reeahcd. Then came the task of extinguishing the. flames. 'A destroyer was directed To scuttle the unfortunate vessel. Only after receiving some shots on her water line did she begin to settle, her actual foundering being delayed until the following morning . And salvage operations, as we have seen, are still proceeding on that wreck of rust, seaweed, and barnacles.