Amazing and mysterious underwater treasures. Their mystery and fate have always excited the imagination …
Dangerous convoys of ships
In the Arctic, closer to the spring of 1942, a very serious situation developed. Heavy fighting was going on in the Murmansk direction. In these places, the Nazis had a whole squadron of large warships. All this serious accumulation of force was used to prevent convoys of transport ships from entering Murmansk. They received military materials, equipment, food and medicine from America and England. Of course, the convoys were protected, accompanied by warships, both British and Soviet. The convoys broke through, and there were no casualties. In 1941, 11 convoys passed safely, and in 1942 only in the first 2 months - 9 convoys.
Towards the end of April 1942, the convoy made its way back from Murmansk to England, headed by the British cruiser Edinburgh. It was a new (only 3 years had passed since it was launched), well-armed ship with a displacement of 10,000 tons. On board there were 730 people - crews and sailors from England from other ships who were returning to their homeland.
The "Edinburgh" had an extremely important and secret mission: there was a precious cargo on the cruiser in the powder magazine - 465 gold bars weighing 11-13 kilograms each! These bars were the payment of the USSR to Great Britain for military supplies. With high speed, "Edinburgh" pulled ahead, leaving behind the escort ships and on April 30 it was attacked by the German submarine U-456.
The death of the cruiser
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The ship was hit by the first torpedo, but it remained afloat and only got a roll to the port side. The German submarine managed to shoot at Edinburgh with a second torpedo. This time, the hit fell on the aft part of the cruiser. A powerful explosion damaged the propellers and rudder. The explosion of torpedoes on the cruiser killed sixty sailors. The cruiser lost speed.
Two British destroyers took over the protection of the wrecked ship. There was a real opportunity to take him in tow and take him to a safe place in the Kola Bay. So our command proposed to do so. But the commander of the Edinburgh, Rear Admiral Bonham-Carter, did not accept this proposal. The people from the cruiser were hastily evacuated to another ship and taken to Murmansk.
The moment was lost. Meanwhile, German destroyers appeared in the battle area. The guns spoke. Fearing that the enemy might get the gold reserves, the cruiser commander ordered the British destroyer to sink the "wounded" ship. Three explosions rumbled, and the cruiser, settling on one side, began to quickly plunge into cold water.
It was all over in a few minutes. Together with the huge ship went into the depths of the sea and gold bars, packed in wooden boxes.
Favorable contract
Years passed, but as before the golden cargo remained at the bottom of the Barents Sea. The cruiser sank at a depth of 260 meters. This depth remained inaccessible to divers for a long time. But underwater technology improved, and it became possible to raise gold.
39 years after the sinking of the Edinburgh, the British search vessel Dammator set off on a voyage. As prescribed by the Soviet-British agreement, a British firm specializing in underwater work, undertook to raise to the surface the gold that was in the womb of the sunken cruiser.
The agreement stated that after the successful completion of the operation, the gold was to be divided among its co-owners in the following proportion: our country received two thirds, and the British Ministry of Commerce received one third. For the firm that raised the gold bars, each side had to allocate 45 percent of its share.
On May 10, 1981, a search vessel arrived in the area where a fierce sea battle took place almost forty years ago. A robot with a TV camera was launched into the sea. On orders from above, he began to examine the seabed in search of the sunken cruiser. The examination lasted for several days. And finally, the outlines of the sunken ship appeared on the screen. He was lying on his left side. There was a huge hole in the side. Undoubtedly, it was exactly "Edinburgh".
As it was known, a powder magazine with gold ingots is adjacent to another room, which is loaded with anti-aircraft shells, mines, grenades and cartridges. And of course, such a "neighborhood" made matters very difficult. The search vessel by that time had fulfilled its role and could leave the Barents Sea. The place of "Dammator" was taken by another specially equipped vessel "Stefaniturm", with 25 qualified divers on board.
Fearless squad
The company has invited divers, so to speak, from all over the world: from Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Africa. Many of them served in the navy and knew how to handle mines and shells. The lifeguard "Stefaniturm" was still walking to our shores, and the divers had already begun to prepare for diving. Being in pressure chambers, they saturated their bodies in advance with artificial "air" - a helium-oxygen mixture (ordinary air at such a great depth would be fatal for people).
We started descending. The divers, three in each shift, moved into the deep-sea chamber, a kind of diving bell, equipped with the latest technology. The camera hovered on a cable over the defeated ship. Two divers went outside and swam to the cruiser, the third remained in the cell, ready, if necessary, to come to the aid of his comrades.
Dressed in black, tight-fitting wetsuits, with fins on their legs and a mask on their faces, they swam almost freely. Only bundles of thin cables and flexible conduits connected them to the camera and further to the ship. Telephone communication was maintained through cables, and a breathing gas mixture, oxygen for cutting metal and warm water for the heating system of divers were supplied through flexible tubes.
But alas, it was not possible to enter through the hole in the cruiser hull. This path turned out to be so cluttered with pieces of metal that it was decided to cut a new hole.
Happy ending
The hole was cut, but even here they stumbled upon rubble of debris. With difficulty we made our way through them, opened the bulkhead of the powder magazine with gold. Everything there was covered with fuel oil, silt deposits, and there were broken pipes all around. Where are the ingots?
The clearing of the rubble continued around the crescent. Often I had to work by touch, in clouds of silt. Finally, at noon on September 16, 1981, Australian diver John Rossi discovered the first ingot. What started when this ingot was taken up! Each tried to touch the heavy yellowish bar, he wanted to hold it in his hands.
By the beginning of October, 431 out of 465 ingots had been raised. Bad weather suspended work. And the divers are already noticeably tired. The search for the remaining ingots was planned to continue next spring. But it so happened that the new expedition took place only five years later, in the early autumn of 1986.
A search vessel called Deepwater 2 was now operating in the Barents Sea. The divers examined the premises of the deceased ship again and again. Another 29 ingots with a total weight of 345 kilograms were raised. Rumors that there was much more gold on the ship turned out to be wrong. However, no one could complain about the results of search operations. 460 bars were saved, or almost 99 percent of all the gold that sank in the Barents Sea! Five ingots, which were in the bow of the powder magazine, especially of the victim, remained at the bottom. Apparently, they will never be raised again. This is a tribute to Neptune, the god of the seas.
