“At every gale the Atlantic swell churned and broke the tangled mass of steel more and more, and redistributed the gold hidden within it and beneath it” – The Orkney Herald, 1 September 1926.

On 25 January 1917, the AMC Laurentic was sunk off the coast of the northern coast of Ireland when she struck two German laid mines. Although the crew managed to abandon ship, 354 perished from hyperthermia in the lifeboats. Amongst the dead was Lieutenant William Alexander McNeill, son of Dr McNeill, who was the Minister of West United Free Church in Holm, Orkney. His grave is at Heisker Island, North Uist. The Orkney News has several articles about the McNeill’s of Holm.

The McNeills of Holm

121 survived the sinking of the Laurentic, but what she was carrying – 43 tons of gold bars sunk with her.

The Laurentic started off as transatlantic ocean liner. Launched in 1908 and built in Belfast. At the outbreak of World War I she was a troop carrier in 1914, until she was converted as an Armed Merchant Cruiser (AMC). The Laurentic was also shipping gold from Cape Town, South Africa, to Canada which was used to buy munitions from the United States.

When she sank on 25 January 1917, she was again carrying gold bullion. The weather was horrendous and although the lifeboats were launched successfully, the 354 who died succumbed to the freezing conditions before they could be rescued. Many bodies washed ashore. The 121 who managed to survived were given a civic reception, a ten shilling note, and a packet of cigarettes.

Recovering the gold, however, became the main task. It took 7 years.

The story of its recovery was retold in The Orkney Herald of September 1, 1926, details of which had been published in Blackwood’s Magazine.

Not long after the sinking, in March 1917, divers recovered a box of 5 gold bars from the vessel which was lying in 120 feet of water. In charge of the operation of salvage was Commander Guybon Chesney Castell Damant. They were able to retrieve in total 4 boxes of bullion before huge storms hit the wreck.

“Gales sprung up, and down below the action of the water was such that decks were piled on decks – the whole ship was found to have been shut up like a concertina . The heavy gold had made its way down to the lowest depths near the sea floor.”

This once great ocean liner “ was just a litter of crushed and split and tangled metal sprayed about on the sea floor and the gold bars, escaping from their wooden boxes, were no longer in one closed sealed room, but in 3,000 packets wherever they had fallen or crept.”

Damant had to cut right down through the wreckage and retrieve the gold, bar by bar. In two years the divers had managed to recover 542 bars of gold.

Over the following years the seas continued to mash up the remains of the wreck. In the Spring of 1922 when a diver went down he spotted a number of gold bars sticking up out of the sandy sea bed.

” Powerful hose pipes were used by the divers, who could thus drive away sand and stones with the nozzle in one hand, while with the other they felt for the gold….Leather gloves were offered but refused . Gloves, the divers declared, spoiled their sense of touch.. so they went on though their nails were worn down so far below the quick, and their wounds were tortured by day and night with the salt of the sea water.”

“By September 1924, all but 25 of the bars had been accounted for.”

The gold was taken by destroyer to a port where a representative of the Bank of England “would appear with lorries and take it off to the train.”

To date, the salvage is the largest recovery of sunken gold by weight in history.

Fiona Grahame

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