WILL NIAGARA KEEP HER GOLD?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 459, 9 April 1948, Page 6

WILL NIAGARA KEEP HER GOLD?

A Noted Diver Tells His Story

EW war stories can equal in ‘| ‘romantic quality that of the salvaging of the Niagara’s gold; few wartime jobs were better kept secrets; and probably few will retain their interest for so long after the event. For these reasons alone those who can tell the tale of Niagara will always find a ready audience, and doubtless, many will be drawn in from the garden next week to tune their radios to 1YA for a personal account of the salvage operations by Diver J. E. Johnstone. 2 But absorbing though an account of the retrieving of the gold is, there is another aspect of the story which intrigues people even more to-day. Despite the fact that the Niagara sank in 540 foot of water the diving operations were successful. Over 95 per cent.£2,379,000 worth-of the gold was recovered, but some of the bars were scattered into awkward places and could not be retrieved with the equipment available. Those bars total in value £150,000, a small sum compared with the value of the bars recovered, but otherwise far from negligible. "Will Niagara ever give up this treasure or is she always to guard it more securely than the most burglarproof bank vault?" This is the question in the minds of all who discuss the Niagara and so on the occasion of Mr. Johnstone’s visit to Auckland The Listener took the opportunity of seeking the opinion of the man best qualified to answer it. Mr. Johnstone revealed that the main reason

for his visit was to investigate the possibilities of making a further descent for the gold. It was, hé considered, a practical proposition so far as the actual operation was concerned, but he felt that the financial risk involved would probably preclude an attempt being made. He explained that half the gold recovered had to be returned to the bank. Then from the sum received. for the other half had to be met heavy taxation, expenditure on special equipment and expensive operating costs, and he doubted whether the possible reward was sufficient to warrant the gamble. "As it looks at the moment.I think I stand a better chance of making money by backing a winner at the races," Mr. Johnstone commented. However, he will report back to his syndicate, which includes his brother, who is also a diver and worked with him on the Niagara, and the group will make a decision. Like most New Zealanders, The Listener reporter knew of Mr. Johnstone’s work on the Niagara and that he had been called to assist in the refloating of the Wanganella, but what, Mr. Johnstone was asked, had he been doing in the years between the two New Zealand jobs? In the answer lay a story of wartime thrills, and interesting work in widely separated parts of the world. In February, 1942, Mr. Johnstone’s salvage party went to Darwin to help salvage a Japanese submarine of which the Australian Navy wanted particulars. While they were there fitting out their salvage ship, the big Japanese air raid occurred-50,000 tons of shipping was sunk in the first 10 minutes. "I was in diving rig when the bombers came over. My assistants hauled me

to the surface and I reckon I broke all records getting out of a diver’s rig. I experienced many _ bombing raids after that, but none was worse than the 20 minutes at Darwin. The raiders created havoc among shore installations as well as shipping. We lost most of our salvage gearequipment that was already in short supply. But that first ten minutes of bombing not only called a temporary halt to our work, but changed our whole programme. For the next five years the raising of ships became a full-time job. Of course, the work was not confined to Darwin. The Australian Government organised a salvage unit and we trained as divers 45 men from all walks of life. They were young fellows who wanted adventure and they certainly got all the adventure they wanted before the war ended.

"The decision to form a salvage unit resulted in my being sent to the United States to obtain equipment and ships. At the same time I was to gain experience and so I found myself working with American divers on the Normandie for six months." "Was that the biggest diving job you have been on?" "Yes, and I doubt if ever we shall see the like of it again. There were 110 divers working in shifts around the clock. The most we ever had on one job was 12 on the 6500-ton Santhia in Hooghly River, Calcutta." "How did you come to be in India?" Under the Enemy Nose "The Indien Government asked for Captain J. P. Williams and myself to inspect the wreck and report on prospects of salvage. I was in New Guinea in 1944 when I received word to return by air to Sydney. When I dropped in home and told my wife I was going to India in a couple of hours she accused me of having been drinking, said I'd better have a meal and told the children to keep quiet ‘because Daddy’s got a headache’! By the time I reached Calcutta I’d had more than enough of air travel. The Perth to Colombo hop was done direct by land plane in 27 hours. At the time the Japs had Singapore and a hush-hush service was being flown. right under their noses-with the odds against the planes" getting through, Really an amazing service that!"

"Did you succeed in raising the Santhia?" "Yes, and a very interesting job it was, though it took nearly a year to do. Our salvage party of 12 from Australia who came over later was augmepted with Italian prisoners of war and Indian labour-1,500 men all told." "Why so many?" "Well the Santhia lay over on her port side- and in order to right her we built, with huge haulks of timber, trestles 30-foot high on her side. From the top of these trestles we had six-inch wire hawsers running to specially constructed land winches. The operation of righting the ship had to be a con* tinuous one and relays from the labour force worked on those winches for three weeks. It was a case of hasten slowly, for the purchase was so great and 360 turns on the winch handles meant only an inch gain in the righting movement. But the gradual strain finally shifted the ship and with the decks exposed we then got the pumps to work and the ship afloat. "Another job which also involved the righting of a ship was the Air Force vessel Wanaka wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef about the same time, but she presented different problems and the salvage was tackled differently. In her case we used the tides to pull her over. By closing up the hatches and sealing all openings we pumped the ship dry at dead low water. Then with anchors (continued on next page) a

(continued from previous page) laid out we heaved her over with the rising tide. We had her safely back in port in 27. days. "Then in the previous year in the case of the Anshun it was a matter of getting out the cargo. This 6000-ton ship rolled over in Milne Bay, New Guinea, after a Jap cruiser one night in September, 1943, had sailed in and put seven six-inch shells into her. We took out that cargo, which included a battery of anti-aircraft guns, trucks, jeeps. and other military equipment. "As you see, not all cargoes were lost when ships were sunk. During the war years the salvage unit recovered £22,000,000 worth of cargo, while it would not be possible to estimate the value of the ships raised, repaired and put back into commission again. Nerve-Wracking Experience "Diving in New Guinea waters with the Jap planes concentrating on shipping to say the least was nerve-wrack-ing. Our native labour panicked badly at times and on one occasion I came up to find Captain Herd (who was also on the Niagara salvage) turning the wheels of the air pump, for the two natives had left the pump and dived over the side during a raid. "Of course attacks on shipping was not a one-sided affair and Japanese losses were enormous. We know of 217 wrecks in Rabaul Harbour — truly a graveyard of ships if ever there was one. I spent the best part of last year in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands looking over wrecks. One job we tackled was the salvage of the 10,000-ton Reynella, which ran into the side of a cliff of coral and wedged into a crevice hard and fast. There was 1,200 foot of water under the stern, so we had to work fast, blasting 700 tons of coral reef from under het. We successfully refloated her and towed her back to Sydney-a million pounds worth of ship and cargo saved. "In some ways it ‘was a similar job to the Wanganella, though the Wangan- ~’ ella was much more extensively damaged

and I don’t think any ship came closer to be a total loss. When I was below the movement of the torn plates created such a din that it was almost terrifying." Mr. Johnstone explained that the method used to refloat the Wanganella -lifting by compressed air was a "last desperate effort" and could be a dangercus business. If the Niagara project was decided against, Mr. Johnstone was asked, what then? "Heaven knows. You see, work like mine cannot usually be in advance. You hear of a job and within a matter of hours you are on your way to a wreck perhaps hundreds of miles from your home base. Then I might give diving a rest. My experiences have been interesting enough to be put into book form by James R. Taylor-it will be called "Dark Underworld"-so the point occurs that people may be interested in hearing a personal account of them and I am toying with the idea of making a lecture tour." Three Radio Talks Meantime the New Zealand public will have an opportunity to hear something of Mr. Johnstone’s 30 years’ experience in the series of talks he has recorded for broadcast from 1YA. The first two, to be heard at 3.30 p.m. on | Sunday, April 18, and Sunday, April | 25, will cover the Niagara salvage, Mr. | Johnstone will tell of ‘the difficulties faced in the year-long undertaking and will deal with lighter aspects of the operation such as the salvage ship’s crew playing threepenny poker on a table made of gold bars worth many thousands of pounds, and of taking the gold from the ship to the bank in the back of an unguarded greengrocer’s waggon. In the third talk, to be given-on Sunday, May 2, at the same time, he will tell of general diving experiences-meetings with an octopus with tentacles as thick as a man’s calves, the deadly groper and crocodiles, and something of the intriguing sights of that underwater world in which divers operate,