The Sunken Gold: A Story of World War I Espionage and the Greatest Treasure Salvage in History

by Joseph A. Williams

Overview

On January 25, 1917, HMS Laurentic struck two German mines off the coast of Ireland and sank. The ship was carrying 44 tons of gold bullion to the still-neutral United States via Canada in order to finance the war effort for Britain and its allies. Britain desperately needed that sunken treasure, but any salvage had to be secret since the British government dared not alert the Germans to the presence of the gold.
 
Lieutenant Commander Guybon Damant was the most qualified officer to head the risky mission. Wild gales battered the wreck into the shape of an accordion, turning the operation into a multiyear struggle of man versus nature. As the war raged on, Damant was called off the salvage to lead a team of covert divers to investigate and search through the contents of recently sunk U-boats for ciphers, minefield schematics, and other secrets. The information they obtained, once in the hands of British intelligence, proved critical toward Allied efforts to defeat the U-boats and win the war.

But Damant had become obsessed with completing his long-deferred mission. His team struggled for five more years as it became apparent that the work could only be accomplished by muscle, grit, and persistence. Using newly discovered sources, author Joseph A. Williams provides the first full-length account of the quest for the Laurentic’s gold. More than an incredible story about undersea diving adventure, The Sunken Gold is a story of human persistence, bravery, and patriotism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613737583
Publisher:	Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/01/2017
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Joseph A. Williams is the deputy director of the Greenwich (CT) Library and the author of Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster and Four Years Before the Mast: A History of New York’s Maritime College. 

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Part I

1 The Titanic in Miniature 3

2 The Damants of Cowes 11

3 The U-Boat War 17

4 "I Have No Good Word to Say for It" 23

5 The Lake of Shadows 29

6 Through the Looking Glass 33

7 Spark 39

8 Suffer 42

9 SOS 52

10 Loch Striven 55

11 Abandon Ship! 67

12 The Inspector 71

13 The Gold Sea 83

14 The Fortunes of House Damant 86

Part II

15 The Council of the Sea Lords 95

18 Twenty Fathoms Deep 102

17 The Path to the Strong Room 112

18 The Storm 119

19 "Give Me More Air" 126

Part III

20 Schooling in Salvage 143

21 Codes and Ciphers 157

22 The U-Boat Hunter 166

23 Underwater Espionage 175

Part IV

24 "Every Prospect of Success" 201

25 The Return to Lough Swilly 210

26 Invincible 223

27 "A Pity to Give Up" 236

28 "Like Lambs" 246

29 "His Sturdy Optimism" 262

30 Rewards 273

31 Speculating in Gold 280

Acknowledgments 295

Notes 297

Bibliography 321

Index 327

Editorial Reviews

"Joseph A. Williams makes history come alive in his latest book, as though the readers are standing on the slanting decks of the sinking Laurentic. His thorough investigation into the aftermath that leads to the recovery of gold deals with all the behind-the-scenes politics and advances in technology at that point in history. This book is a valuable resource on many fronts.” —Michael Poirier, coauthor of Into the Danger Zone: Sea Crossings of the First World War


“Joseph A. Williams has uncovered one of the greatest stories of World War I, a tale of U-boats, lost treasure, and the tenacious diver determined to recover it at all costs. Simply put, this book is a real gem.” —James M. Scott, 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor


“A wild and wooly tale of pressurized goats, black arts, and maritime gold, all beautifully told. Williams has a real gift for fleshing out the human story from arcane historical facts. I was taken by the whole thing, and devoured the whole of it in two thrill-filled nights.” —James Nestor, author of Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves


“A fascinating, meticulously researched, historical adventure of gold salvaged under impending doom of War and Wind.” —Bernie Chowdhury, author of The Last Dive


“A well-told tale of naval exploits in which gold is the MacGuffin.” —Kirkus Reviews



“…recounts an American naval officer’s obsessive quest to recover 44 tons of gold from a sunken ship off the coast of Ireland during WWI.”—Publishers Weekly


"The Sunken Gold is a masterclass in how to research a subject and write about it.” —Underwater Contractor International


"It's also a story of human persistence and bravery, showcasing the lives of men that pushed every boundary of body and science in their resolute refusal to be denied."—American Digger Magazine

From the Publisher

2017-07-03
The history of the sinking of a trans-Atlantic liner and the hunt for the 43 tons of gold it was carrying.Early in 1917, the Laurentic, an elegant passenger ship refitted for wartime service, set sail from Northern Ireland bound for the United States, laden with gold ingots to finance Britain's effort in World War I. Before the vessel left the Irish coast, it was sunk by a German submarine as part of Germany's U-boat campaign. Along with details on submarine development, Williams (Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster, 2015) writes like a truly sober sailor, with a vocabulary that includes "coaming," "paravane," and "splicing the mainbrace." The author graphically recounts the sinking and provides a biography of Guybon Damant (1881-1963), the naval officer who undertook the salvage for the Admiralty. Though Damant loved the task, it was not a simple assignment. Clad in inflated canvas diving dress, heavy boots, and globular metal helmets and tethered by lifelines and air pipes that tended to tangle, divers were subject to the bends. Damant became an expert in the practice of recompression. The wreck of the Laurentic was compressed accordionlike and shifting in rough water. Tons of plating and bulkheads required exploding and removal. There was also Admiralty red tape, shifting sand, silt, and crumbling wreckage. Winter weather was bad, and diving was restricted to summers. The effort took seven years, but, eventually, Damant's group was successful. After he retired, he became a commander of the British Empire. Ultimately, the crew recovered 3,186 of the 3,211 ingots that went down with the ship. Others have since searched, unsuccessfully, and there are still a few bars of gold deep down in what is now an Irish historic site. A well-told tale of naval exploits in which gold is the MacGuffin.

Kirkus Reviews