Evening star., 1930-09-11
DIVERS MAY LIFT
SHIPS GOLD ROOM
100 Per Cent Salvage Pos
sibiIity Encourages Egypt
Operators.
BY DAVID SCOTT.


Special Dispatch to The Star.
RREST, France, September 11.-While
the salvage ship Artiglio lay inactive at
sea all day in the rain, Alberto Giano
and his italian divers were deep In plans
for salvaging the $4,000, 900 treasure OF
the Peninsular Oriental liner Egypt. 400
feet beneath the surface of the ocean.
Already they have devised a scheme
which, If it succeeds should rank as one
of the most remarkable operations ever
performed in the history Of marine sal
wage
into the Egypt's hull as surgeon cuts
into a patients body, to remove the
bullion room as surgeon might remove
q patients appendix and bring it to the
surface without opening 1t and carry 1t
bodily to land. In this way they hope
to salvage the whole of its contents at
one stroke without losing penny by the
way.
Time Is Important.
The reasons for attempting this
are two. In the first place, there
Is the question of time. A whole
season of work will be needed to lay
the bullion room bare. If the room
were opened and its contents Scooped
up bit by bit, the work would run
into third year. The second reason
volve inevitable and perhaps heavy
loss. Scoop and graphing irons, no
matter how ingeniously designed and
cleverly used, cannot go into the COR
nerS and crannieS of q rectangular
chamber and pick up the last scraps
Of its contents. They can only get
o hold on the more exposed material
and must leave behind something like
so per cent.
H.
Is In wooden boxes which certainly
would be rotted after eight years un-
der water and would fall to pieces
when disturbed. Very large amounts
IA coin would inevitably be scattered
and lost. But If the bullion room it
self can be brought up In one oper-
alton 100 per cent Of its contents
should be saved
Obstacles Not InSuperabIe.
Difficult though It certainly win be,
the raising Of the bullion room need
not present insuperable obstaclea,
though much depends On its construc-
ton. The method proposed "a briefly
this: First, the whole Of the ship's
structure above the bullion room must
be cleared away some distance fore and
aft. This would have to be done in any
case, as 1t would be far too dangerous
70 Q1Op OIV6r l1JO CIl6 narrow nOle
with its overhanging edges to trap him
or cut his cable. What Is wanted is 70
open q crater so wide that the diver
cannot come in contact with its sides.
This attempt to raise the bullion room
viii involve no additional work before
hand.
When the clearance has been finished,
the bullion room, which Is q chamber a
feet long and feet wide by feet high,
will be left isolated, perched on q bulk
head which runs along its length below
and supported lateraIy by the deck on
which it stands. A piece of the deck hull
viii be blown away on each side so the
end of the bullion room will stand clear
will Lower Stirrups.
Next two slings or stirrups viii be
made Of heavy steel croSs-bars and
strong chains viii be lowered from the
surface and slipped over the exposed
ends, an operation well within the pow
er of the divers. A cylindrical caisson,
through which supporting chains will
pass, VIII next be lowered to within g
few feet Of the bullion room, where 1t
will automatically be locked by ratchet
gear on chains. Enough air will be
pumped into the caiSsons to take the
weight OF the bullion room, and the re-
naming deck bulkhead will then be
cut away. Finally the caisson and bull