The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1923-08-30
SAVES3O,OOO,OOO
FROM SUNK Liner
Divers Salvage Gold Bars on the
Laurentic, Torpedoed Off
Ireland by Germans.
FOUGHT HUNGRY DoGFIsH
Menace Divers After Gold on British
Ship Sunk by U-6oat in War
Treasure is Located With
Divinina Spear.

London-All but about thirty bars
of the gold lost when the White Star
liner Laurentic was torpedoed by the
Germans off the coast of Ireland has
now been recovered and nearly $780,
600 900 worth of bullion has been
brought to the surface. The British
Admiralty ship Racer has been con-
stantly employed during the summer
months since 1918 on the salvage work
and it is hoped that in two weeks she
win have got up all that remains.
The work has been as dangerous as
1t has been difficult, but has been
greatly expedited by device for dis
covering the exact position of the bars
of gold after the boxes in which they
were originally packed had rotted
away and the wreck itself had been
disturbed by the explosions necessary
to break up its plates. The divers as
they trod the bottom of the sea have
been armed with a peculiar kind OF
spear With this they prodded the
mud and silt ahead of the mand as
the spear approached the precious
metal it acted on the same principle
as the old-fashioned divining-rod.
Wires from the spear were connected
with a galyometer on the deck OF the
Racer. If the spear touched iron, or
other base metal, the needle of the
galvometer swung left if it touched
gold it spun around to the right. 1t
was then simple for those supervising
the diving operations to telephone the
directions to the diver at work below
the surface.
The work, however, has been very
dangerous. The divers have had to
operate at depth of ninety feet amid
strong currents an Exposed to attacks
from huge dogfsh. 1t takes them only
one minute to descend, but so tremen-
dous is the pressure to which they are
TIM subjected that they are forced to
take from twenty to thirty minutes to
ascend, resting ten minutes when they
rise to get accustomed to the lessened
pressure The diving officer keeps
close watch of the work of the three
men under him. He permits them to
stay at the bottom for only forty min
utes, as it would be impossible for any
human frame to stand the strain any
longer.
The diving officer is the first man to
descend each morning, and he runs =
particular risk from the strange mon
sters of the deep. He must go down
early in order to inspect the wreck,
which is continually changing it's posi-
ton, and it seems that in so doing he
interferes with the breakfast hour Of
the dogfsh. Certain it is that they
are particularly fierce at s o'clock in
the morning, and the diving officer is
often obliged to make strenuous use
of the big knife he carries to drive
them away
various accidents have happened, and
a diver now and then has hos come to
the surface much too rapidly for safe
ty He is then in grave danger of
cramp, and the only way to treat him
is to rush him as fast as possible into
a big boiler, where he can be subjected
to high pressure to which he had be-
come accustomed while below the
water. This relieves his congestion
and he can be brought back to normal
by steady, systematic reduction of at
mospheric pressure in the boiler.
The bars of gold as they are uncov-
evered are brought to the surface
twelve to bucket and are repacked
in boxes on the Racer. They look
very much like rough bricks and
might easily be left about public high
ways without exciting any ones cupid
ity. AS a sufficient quantity is recov-
cred it is transferred to destroyer
and shipped to Chatham, from whence
it is carried in the most transformations
way possible to the vaults of the Bank
of England.
A quantity of silver coins worth per-
haps $4,000 900 were spilled all over
the bottom These were scraped up in
buckets mixed with sand and mud.
Gangs of sailors then went over them
and picked the specie out.