SALVAGE OF SHIPS.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 April 1920, Page 12

SALVAGE OF SHIPS.

MODERN "SHIP SURGERY." WARTIME WRECKS RAISED. A most interesting description of many cases of modern ''ship surgery,'' o.' salvage of ships wrecked, torpedoed, or otherwise disabled, was given at Auckland last Frid;:y h Captain J. W. Batchelor. 0.R.1v, win,' „.„<, had 30 years' experieiiee as one of die loading oflieerg of. tiie Liverpool Salvage Association. Cap- j tain, Ratcholor, with Commodore P. W. vimng, 0.1i.1v, has been instrumental in eii'ecting the salvage, of more .damaged and -anded vessels and their cargoes than any other salvage official of the Empire, and possibly of the world, while in the course of his work lie has visited practically every country. Although due to retirj wlien broke out, he was urged to remain on duty, us there was immediately an enormous increase of salvage work for the Admiralty, ana tor snipping interests throughout the Allied nations. Captain Balehelor's first war effort was the dispersal of an extraordinary accumulation of cotton at the Italian port of Genoa early in 1!)15. "When I readied Genoa," he said, "I found a remarkable, state of affairs, the whole port alisolately congested with cotton, on the quays, in the : warehouses, in lighters and hulks—everywhere. There was about £17,000,000 worth of it, and the most significant feature was that more than two-thirds was consigned to Germany aid Austria " The danger of conflagration wai enormous, and the facilities for protection entirely inadequate. Resolving that so far as he could prevent it none of the cotton should go to fill the enemy's need, Captain Batchelor approached the Italian Government, although Italy had not then entered the war, which agreed to the dispersal of the cotton, and refused to comply with the J demand of the enemy for its delivery. In order to deal with the congestion Captain Bat chelor created cotton ports all along the Italian coast, and in the course of time all the entire accumulation was removed. Not one fire occurred find, as far as the captain could tell, not me bale of the cotton got through to J Ilio enemy. j TORPEDOED BY U BOATS. I | Returning from Italy Captain Batche- ] '.or resumed salvage work, two notable successes being tke salving of the liners Explorer and Haverford, both of which had bsen almost blown to pieces by V boat torpedoes. While engaged in this work he received an urgent call to proceed to a port in which the torpedoed British battleship Audacious was being towedbytl.s Olympic. The vessel sank, however, before she could be taken into port. Work on the Haverford was particularly difficult, the vessel being reported a total loss, having been inadvertently beached en a quicksand when liken into port. Owing to the shortage of experienced divers, Captain Batchelor hr.d to go down himself to make the necessary examination, which disclosed a. huge rent, some f!oft. by 3">ft., in the ship's side. After a great deal of difficulty in securing divers and equipment, patching and pumping were at last effectively carried out. and in .Vi days the steamer was towed to Belfast. Captain Batchelor then proceeded to the Mediterranean, vhere submarines were working terrible havoc among the Allied shipping. There he salved ten or twelve ship-, constantly passing to and fro with t'nem through the worst submarine areas to the repairing leses at Malta and Algiers, with miraculous freedom from disaster. One interesting ease was that of ihe liner Antenor, hit by. a torpedo which passed through an inch plat-- of steel, and through the ship's cargo a elear f>oft. to the other side. "Von could have driven a horse and waggon through that hole quite easily," remarked the captain reminisecntly, "but we managed to patch her up and make her seaworthy again." SHIPS CUT IX HALF. One of the most notable case? of salvage ever recorded was that of the Milwaukee, a 12,00-ton steamer wrecked some years ago on the northern coast of Scotland. A huge mass of rock crashed through the bottom of the ship, standing over Bft. high in the main hold, and over Sflft. of the forward end was ripped open. The ship was thus secudely impaled on the rocks and, half submerged, experts were of opinion that to salve her in any way was a sheer., impossibility. After careful examination, Captain Batchelor came to the conclusion that the only hope was to cut the vessel in half by means of explosives, and if possible restcre to the owners two-thirds of her, this portion alone being worth about £IO,OOO. Although there was much opposition to the bold enterprise, it was duly carried out, over 17,<1001bs. of dynamite being used in the blasting, and in two weeks' time the larger half of the Milwaukee was steaming away, stern first, from the scene of the disaster. Later on, she was docked and fitted with a new bow, and is still running. This is the first case ever recorded of a ship being cut in two by explosives, the m>' other on record being that of the White Star liner Suevic, wrecked, on the Cornish coast in 11107, and salved by the i;amc men. Another underta\-in'. r which Captain liatchelor looks on with pride was the salving of the French transport, Canton, wrecked on the coast of Annam, whilei carrying troops from Haiphong, a French colony in the China Sea. The ship had been under water over four months, during which time the French Admiral had '';een striving unsuccessfully to move her. Captain Batchelor found a hole nearly "oft. long and oft. wide in her hold: he planked her up, protected her on the with concrete, pumped her out. and within three weeks was steaming her down to Singapore. ADVENTURE WITH CANNIBALS. In the course of his adventurous life, Captain Batchelor has had many extraordinary experiences, one which he recounted being his capture by cannibals while salving a mail steamer near Cape Raima*, on the Ivory Coast, in which wit and physical strength alone brought him out of a position of deadly peril. Many mysteries of the sea he has known, too, one of the most remarkable being that of an hinglish sailing-ship, missing for years, which drifted into a cove on the Palagonian coast, where he was working at the time. The story of the disaster was never made known; the only signs of damage were those of y.'urs of wind and weather, and in her bunks were found the skeletons of her crew.