Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1923-09-01
mated that five thousand delegates
and visitors are in attendance at the
convention and extra lodging facilities
were badly needed for delegates.
$4,000 SAVED FROM SUNKEN
LINER.
Divers Salvage Gold Bars on the Laur-
entic. Torpedoed on Ireland
By Germans.
WORK IN 80 FEET OF WATER
Treasure Is Located With Divining
Spear, the Dial Indicating
the Metal.

London, Aug. 24.-All but about
thirty bars of gold lost WREN the
White Star liner Laurentic was tor
pedoed by the Germans off the coast of
Ireland has now been recovered and
nearly S3O.O00,O00 worth of bullion
has been brought to the surface. The
British Admiralty ship Racer has
been constantly employed during the
Summer months since 1918 on the sal
wage work and it is hoped that in two
weeks she will have got up all that re
mairs.
The work has been as dangerous as
it has been difficult but has been great
ly expedited by device for discover
ing the exact position of the bars after
the boxes in which they were original
ly packed had rotted away and the
wreck itself had been disturbed by the
explosions necessary to break up it's
plates. The divers as they .trod the bot
tom of the sea have been armed with
a peculiar kind of spear. With this
they prodded the mud and silt ahead
of them and as the spear approaches
the precious metal it acted on the
same principal as the old-fash ;opeo
diving-rod. Wires from the spear were
connected with galvanometer on the
deck Of the Racer. If the spear touched
iron. or other base meta the needle
Of the galvanometer swung left, 1t
touched gold it spun round to the
right. 1t was then simple for those a.
pervising the diving operations to tele
phone the directions TO the diver at
work below the surface.
The work. however has been very
dangerous The divers have had %
operate at depth Of ninety feet amid
strong currents and exposed to attacks
from huge iogfish. 1t takes them only
one minute to descend, but so tremen-
dous Is the pressure to which they are
then 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 oflcer keepe
watch on the work Of the three men un
der him. He permits them to stay at
the bottom for only forty minutes. as
1t would be impossible for any human
frame to stand the strain longer.
The diving officer is the first man
to descend, each morning and he runs
a 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 its posi-
ton and 1t seems that in so doing he
Finterferes with the breakfast hour of
the dogfish. Certain 1t is that they
are particularly fierce at 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.
In spite Of all the care taken varI-
GUS accidents have happened. and a
diver now and then has come to the
surface much too rapidly for safety. 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 boil
er, where he can be subjected to high
pressure to which, he had become 40
customed while below the water This
relieves his congestion and he can be
brought back to normal by steady.
systematic reduction Of atmospheric
pressure in the boiler.
The bars Of gold as they are uncov.
cred 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 highways without ex
citing any ones cupidity. AS stuff
cfent quantity Is recovered NJ Is trans
ferred to destroyer and shipped to
Chatham, from whence 1t is carried in
the most unostentatious way possible
to the vaults of the Bank of England
A quantity of silver coins worth per
haps So 100000 were spilled ali over
the bottom. These were scraped I'D in
buckets mixed with sand and mud,
Gangs Of sailors then went over them
and picked the specie out.