May 2, 1942: early morning. The cruiser HMS Edinburgh lies in Her death throes in the icy Barents Sea north of Murmansk after a running battle with a U-boat and German Destroyers. Of her crew of 850 all but 60, lying dead aboard, are saved; and minutes later a torpedo from a destroyer in Edinburgh's convoy, QP11, delivers the coup de garce. Down with her dead she takes a secret cargo - five tonnes of Russian gold, Stalin's payment for American weapons. Now, after nearly 40 years entombed in 800ft of water, Edinburgh (an official war grave) is to be disturbed. This week, using the very latest technology, a British attempt will be made to salvage her gold, now worth £40 million. Report By Barrie Penrose......
..... So for years HMS Edinburgh remained a sort of salvors' Holy Grail - a treasure infinitely desirable but always beyond reach....
.... Finally, on 16 September at 10.48pm, 19 days after the expedition sailed, through the loadspeaker in the control room comes the shout, distorted by helium, but unmistakable, 'I've found the gold, I've found the gold!'....
.... Just after midday last Wednesday we gathered on Stephaniturm's main deck in an impromptu ceremony to watch the first relic from HMS Edinburgh being hauled out of the icy Artic waters ....
.... Visibility at 800 feet beneath the surface of the Barents Sea is virtually nil, and inside the hull of a sunken ship strewn with tangled debris, where silt floats thicker than dust in the water, one piece of metal feels very much like another.... "I've found the gold! I've found the gold!" he shouted over the inter-com linking him with the diving control room far above on the ocean's surface ....
.... Despite the wreck of the 12,000 ton cruiser Edinburgh being an official war grave which should not be disturbed it is now considered highly possible by salvage experts the Russians have already raised the gold....
.... Risdon-Beazley’s cargo recovery manager, Mr Fergus Hinds, said last night that the company had considered attempting to recover the gold in 1953. But the company decided not to because at that time their divers had not gone so deep. It was also not known for certain whether the gold was still there. And there were political considerations ....
Attempts to retrieve gold bullion valued at about £50 million from the wreck of the British cruiser Edinburgh, 10,000 tons, sunk off Northern Russia during the 1939-45 war, are to begin this summer....
A BRITISH company will attempt to salvage more than £50 in gold from the wreck of the cruiser Edinburgh, sunk in the Barents Sea during the 1939-45 war....
...."I had letters and telegrams from about 200 survivors and from the families of chaps who have since died. And an overwhelming majority, around 80 percent, were quite adamant that the ship should remain as a war grave and be left in peace. It’s a decision I welcome. I wouldn’t like the grave of a close relative to be messed around, and our comrades who are entombed in that ship are entitled to the same protection and respect.” ....
