J. R. W Taylor

Gold From The Sea is the story of the operation to recovery 8 tons (or half a billion dollars worth in today's money) of gold from the floor of the ocean in some 430 feet of water, a feat until then had never been undertaken. The SS Niagara was sunk in 1940 by a Nazi Sea Mine that had been laid off the cost of New Zealand, by 1941 it was deemed that an operation should be undertaken to recovery the gold, presumably to fund war efforts.

Written in 1942 this book is easily read by modern show more standards however does have language that dates it to the era, such as "Yes, we worked like niggers and we looked like niggers. There seemed to be oil and great everywhere." or when leaving the stokehold it is remarked one of the crew is "niggered all over with coal-dust". Asides for a handful of notably dated language the book however is not racist in its demeanor in and of itself.

I found the story to be remarkably interesting as they actually used a run down forsaken wreck of a boat to undertake it as other ships were all busy with the war effort, after recommissioning what was essentially a wreck they then had to invest new methods for what they needed to do as it had never been done before. It was also interesting to read about the obstacles they faced when merely trying to keep the ship in position, something that requires essentially no thought in today's world of GPS and navigation computers.

Overall, it was a very interesting look into a salvage operation undertake in the midst of World War 2. show less