GOLD AT BOTTOM OF SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 November 1919, Page 11

GOLD AT BOTTOM OF SEA.

LAUREXTIC-.3 LOST £6,000,000. SUCCESSFUL SALVAGE WORK. In a weather-beaten spot' off the entrance to Lough Swilly divers are defying almost insuperable difficulties in the efforts to salve the gold bullion carried 'by the ill-fated Laurentic. when she was torpedoed early in 1017. She is believed to have bad about £0,000,000 in gold ingots on board when she. was sunk, and of this total over fBOO,OOO has Iheen recovered. It is only since hostilties ceased that serious efforts have been possible to secure the wealth wliioh lies hi the battered hulk of the ship at a depth of. 40 fathoms. She rests abort four miles seaward of Fanad Head, and the position is exposed to the full fury of the i.ort> wcsterly gales. Tliu vessel is broken and compressed by the tremendous pressure of the water above her, and the depth is just about the limit at which the divers can work. Only in calm weather can the salvage operations he carried on, but in face of all these problems the authorities are fairly confident that all the gold can be recovered. The tragedy of the Laurentic lias never been fully told. Within two 'hours of leaving Lough Swilly one evening in February on her way to Canada she was lying at Xr.e bottom of the sea. Two torpedoes struck her—one giving her such a heavy list to starboard that the port boats: could not be launched, and the other putting her back on an even keel. There was time to arouse everybody on board, and all got away, although to many it meant a slow and painful death. A south-easterly hlizzard was blowing with such intensity that the boats were driven right out to the AtlanticFlares were burnt, but by the irony of fate none of the patrol boats was in the vicinity. The Lanrentic's boats continued their fearful journey, seas sweeping over and filling them, while the occupants slowly froze to death. Eventually 200 survivors were landed and between 70 and 80 dead