The Hunt for the Gold
When the news of the tragedy reached the British Government they were in a panic. Britain could not afford the loss of £5,000,000 in gold bullion. It would have to be recovered and quickly. Munitions were urgently needed for the war effort and without them, the war could be lost.
There was only one man capable of retrieving the gold, and Commander Guybon Damant was that man. In 1906 Damant had set a world diving record of 210 feet during Naval endurance diving tests. His experiences as a salvage diver were well known to the Admiralty. Despite the danger and the fact that it was wartime, within a short period the 36-year-old Damant had gathered together a crack team of divers and crew. One of these was Augustus Dent. Damant knew Dent was a diver and had been aboard SS Laurentic when she sank. He sent for him at Whale Island, Portsmouth Harbour. Augustus recalled: “He said he wanted me to go with him because he knew I knew where the bullion room was."
This incredible feat of salvage was unequalled anywhere. Of the 3,211 ingots, Damant and his divers had recovered all but 25. Under the worst conditions possible, a White Star Liner, sunk at a depth of 40 metres, had been salvaged and not one life had been lost in the five thousand dives that had taken place. Total recoveries over the seven years were 3,186 bars of gold. Recoveries were as follows:
1917 Number of bars salved 542 - 1918 Number of bars salved 0
1919 Number of bars salved 31 - 1920 Number of bars salved 7
1921 Number of bars salved 43 - 1922 Number of bars salved 895
1923 Number of bars salved 1,255 - 1924 Number of bars salved 129
Commander Damant died at his home on the Isle of Wight in 1954.
In 1932 there was a further salvage operation mounted by the Mallet Salvage Company using first the salvage ship Estoy and then later the Attendant who despite having no compression chamber or an air-lift tube did recover five more bars of gold with only crow bars as tools. The Gold was found on the port side under 18 inches of shingle. It was outside Damant's 200 square yard working area but because it was laying under the ships plating on the sea floor they were unable to progress further and the work was abandoned as the company had run out of money.
Total Number of bars salved by Commander Guybon Damant's team 3,186
Total Number of Bars salved by Mallet Salvage Company 5
Number of bars that went down in the wreck 3,211
To watch an underwater film of the Laurentic wreck Click Here
There remain 20 gold ingots in the wreck lying Lough Swilly in County Donegal worth an estimated £10m