GRIM SALVAGE.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 July 1919, Page 12

GRIM SALVAGE.

ROMANCE OF THE SE*. .. A FLOATING FURNACE. •'. Inland undulations formed a belt of curving green above tho chalk cliffs, and, at their foot, bright-frocked children played on the pebble shore. Sea and sky competed to reveal the richest shade of blue; for all the world was bathed in copious sunshine. And against that tranquil background we found a strange, pathetic ship, foundered and half-submerged, and painted in bright colors, though not by man. Also did we i?ote a noise a smell, and another ship—sister vessel _to our own and anchored alongside the fantastic wreck. 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 w.hjeh, by restoring to Britain some 400 large cargo ships that had been sent to tho bottom of tho sea, has assisted invaluably to circumvent Hun piracy and maintain our food supply. As a first instalment of the astounding story of that wreck, 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 quickly coated 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.

DOWN THE HOLD. To peer down the main hold was to see a black confusion of twisted girders, charred casks, and burnt bales, all involved in a sort of carbon slime. The Buclion 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 smelU._s.uch poisonous gas as is generated, by rotting portions of a submerged cargo. And now note another factor in those strange proceedings. Two men slowly turned a kind of double-handled 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 watrr. Hard by was a duplicate of that apparatus, with its similar crew. In each case the five men ministered to a diver at work below on the ship's hu11.." 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 in dark and thick weather, whereupon the oiler burst into flames, and the 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. The oiler, emitting columns of smoke and fire, was towed into shallow -.vatcr, there to be scuttled, and afterwards salved, with some 8000 tons of her inflammable cargo. The small vessel, canopied with roaring flame, blundered through a chapter of catastrophes.

RUST, WEED AND BARNACLES. To begin with, her magazine blew up. But soon a tug's intrepid commander had fastened his haw,sor 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 slo-.vly 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 and pluck of H.M. Salvage Section. The rescce crews gritted their teeth and went on with the job. At last shallow Water was reached. 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 ]ust, seaweed and barnacles.