THERE'S STILL GOLD WHERE HE FOUND IT...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 392, 27 December 1946, Page 6

THERE'S STILL GOLD WHERE HE FOUND IT...

"Johnno" Johnstone and the Niagara's Bullion

THERE is gold still in the Niagara’s bullion-room, and the worldfamous diver, "Johnno" Johnstone, intends to recover it. With the experience gained during the war on some of the greatest salvage jobs in history, and with his improved diving-bell, he is confident of success. This interview with him was written for "The Listener’ by

PETER

MIDDLETON

EW ZEALANDERS | will recall without difficulty the keen _ interest aroused throughout the country by the story of the recovery of the bulk of the three million pounds in gold bars from the Niagara in 1941. And those who read James Taylor’s excellent book Gold From the Sea — and learned the true nature of the stupendous undertaking-will be speciaily interested by the news that "Johnno" Johnstone, who played such a vital and prominent part in the original enterprise, plans to return to the wreck next year to. bring up. the remainder of the | gold. | I met Johnstone in the lounge of the | Strand Hotel at Cairns, North Queensland’s tropical port-the crossroads and meeting-place of scores of interesting personalities from all over the worlda few nights ago, on his return from Kurumba, on the Gulf of Carpentaria, where he had been at work on the sea-. plane moorings. He was sitting quietly in a corner, smoking, alone. No one unaware of his profession and his history would have given him more than a casual glance. Yet his story is a most fascinating and adventurous one for all that he tells it modestly, almost reluctantly. Not Much Home Life He has enjoyed his life-he is now 54, and good, in his own words, "for another ten years" of active employment. Mrs. Johnstone could testify, with feeling, to her husband’s keenness for his work. He has been away from his Melbourne home so mlch in the past 20 years that he is looked upon as a sort of man who comes around. Having been engaged on big salvage jobs almost without a break from 1940 to 1944-on the Niagara, at Darwin during the first Jap attack, on the Normandie in New York Harbour, on innumerable jobs around the Australian coast and in the Pacific Islands-he arrived home’ unexpectedly one afternoon in November, 1944, and greeted his wife with the news that. he was on his way to India. And for India he left a few days later-in a Liberator -from Perth, W.A., arriving in Calcutta after a trip of 36 Those who followed the progress of the -- old recovery will be familiar the story of that mighty feat of salvage, in which men with international names-Captain John hams, James Herd, the Johnstone Brothers-performed what was generally considered to be an impossible task,

Ninety-six per cent. of the three million pounds’ worth of gold was raised from the record depth of 460ft. Since then, other records have been broken and other impossible tasks succéssfully performed by men like "Johnno," who take it as being all in the day's work. Seeking to refresh my memory with the name of the man who saved the whole Niagara enterprise, by carrying a line beneath the Claymore’s hull to free a live mine which was literally touching the side, I had to ask the question at three different points in the conversation before Johnstone admitted it was himself. Had that job been done in any of the three Services it would have earned him the V.C. At Work on the Normandie It was as Shipwright Surveyor to the Commonwealth Salvage Board that Johnstone went to Darwin and found himself an assignment with the small but valiant band of men who worked like heroes to minimise the effect of the Japanese aerial onslaught of February 19, 1942. And in this capacity he has served the Federal Government ever since. In

Marchy 1942, he was sent to the U.S. to attend the Deep-sea Diving School at Washington on submarine rescue work, where he qualified as an Operator, and while there he worked on the huge hull of the Normandie which lay on her side at her berth in New York for a year and nine months before being raisedin July, 1943. The record number of 110 American divers worked at this gigantic task, under the* direction of Captain W. A. Sullivan, Chief Salvage Officer of the U.S. Navy. Johnstone left the Normandie job in November, 1942, and in January of the next year was at work on the 8,000 ton Greek freighter Georges M. Emberecos, sunk by collison in Port Phillip Bay, carrying a cargo of iron ore. September, 1943, saw him in New Guinea, where he worked on a number of important salvage jobs, including the Anschun, sunk by enemy action in Milne Bay. "Johnno" is proud of the fact that eight 3.7 a/a guns, urgently needed at the time, were recovered’ intact from the Anschun and were in use against the enemy planes shortly afterwards. About this time, the R.A.A.F.* supply ship Wanaka went aground on Eden Reef in a cyclone which put six others on the teef at various places. The Wanaka was proclaimed a total loss. Nine lives had been lost when she struck; But, using the experience gained on the Normandie, the salvage men brought her into Cairns within 27 days. The U.S. troopship President Grant was a total loss on a reef south of (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) Samarai early in 1944, but they recovered her very valuable cargo of war stores. It was here that Captain Williams sustained a badly-fractured skull by a blow from a swinging boat davit. A member of the salvage crew was killed in the same accident. In January, 1944, with James Herd in charge, the biggest salvage job ever undertaken in Australian waters was successfully accomplished. The Rufus King with a £3,000,000 cargo of hospital equipment-enough for nine hospitalsand 10 bombers aboard, had broken her back on the rocks off Moreton. Bay. While salvage was proceeding, the two halves broke away, so the salvage men sealed off the forward half and floated her into Brisbane. Here she was eventually turned into a floating workshop by the American Navy and taken to Finchhaven, New Guinea, where she may still be seen, bearing the name "The Half Rufus." The recovery of this immensely valuable cargo, practically intact, won the personal thanks of General MacArthur. Stuck ia the Med In November, 1944, Johnstone went with Captain Williams on loan to the Indian Government, to try to raise the 6,500 ton troopship Santhia in the ‘Hooghly River at* Calcutta. A year and a-half before she had caught fire on the night of her departure, laden with West and East African troops. Under the weight of water poured into her to quench the flames she turned over at her berth, badly blocking the port. It took 14 months to raise her. The method employed was ingenious, if simple enough in principle, but the local conditions under which they had to work would have daunted less determined men. The Hooghly mud is of such consistency that by the time work was started on her, the silt that partly covered the Santhia had consolidated into clay, and the rate of deposit of this silt was such that every full tide deposited a two-inch layer of mud on the upper side of the hull. This layer had to be removed each time before work could proceed. A very unusual feature of this undertaking was the employment of 150 Italian Naval prisoners of war. These men, all highly skilled tradesmen, did a very creditable job under Johnstone’s supervision, not, however, without some forms of encouragement, perculiarly "Johnno’s" own. He reminded them that it was an Italian crew who performed the greatest feat in salvage history to that date, the recovery of the Egypt’s gold, and

~ this appeal to their national pride was most effective. The canteen that he promised them, financed by extra earnings which they could not receive in cash, was even more effective. An army of Indian women also worked on this operation, mainly employed in carrying silt and debris in baskets on their headsne

for the daily equivalent of about 1/6 (Australian money). While working on the Santhia, Johnstone contracted amoebic dysentery and had to be brought back to Australia, where he then took a well-earned rest of four months, following which he went on a round trip of the Islands, surveying wrecks. He visited Rabaul, which he describes as the biggest graveyard of ships in the world: 217 Japanese ships are known to lie here, including a large carrier and a cruiser, both of them losses which the Japs kept very quiet. Actually there are scores more hulls than the official figure discloses, strewn over the bed of this magnificent harbour, which fortunately, is of excellent depth, so that danger from fouling the wrecks is minimised to some extent. There will be many months of work here, however, blasting superstructures off those too near the surface for safety, and clearing hulls lying on their sides in the shallower waters. In Cairns, "Johnno" is working on the seaplane moorings, as he did at Kur-, , umba, on the Gulf. With him is his brother’s son Peter, who is learning the diving game under "Johnno’s"’ expert —

tuition, "He’ll make a rattling good diver -if he behaves himself,’ is his uncle’s verdict. His Last Job? After this-what? Johnstone will be free from Commonwealth service by the end of the year-he hopes. He’s scared to tell Mrs. Johnstone, but his heart is set on that last job which will provide the crown to a life crammed with interest and danger; he’s going back.to tackle the remainder of the Niagara’s gold. The Johnstone Brothers (Bill is in the Royal Australian Navy, at present in Sydney) have the right of recovery of the rest of the bullion-a mere £145,000 worth. But when "Johnno" says quietly "It’s not the money," you feel like believing him. He has to prove to himself, and the world, that his patent deep-sea diving bell, with its new important improvements, is as revolutionary as he thinks it is. He’s hoping, of course, that be can give Mrs. Johnstone a holiday im New Zealand while he goes to work; he has glowing memories himself of the hospitality of the North Auckland people, and he is keen to show his wife some of the beauty-spots. But he’s a bit sceptical, Mrs. Johnstone isn’t. keen to leave her beloved Melbourne.