The Sunken Gold: First World War Espionage and the Greatest Treasure Salvage in History

On 25 January 1917, HMS Laurentic struck two German mines off the coast of Ireland and sank. The ship was carrying 44 tons of gold bullion to the still-neutral United States in order to finance the war effort for Britain and its allies. Britain desperately needed that sunken treasure, but any salvage had to be secret since the British government dared not alert the Germans to the presence of the gold. Lieutenant Commander Guybon Damant was the most qualified officer to head the risky mission. Wild gales turned the operation into a multiyear struggle of man versus nature. As the war raged on, Damant was called off the salvage to lead a team of covert divers to investigate and search through the contents of recently sunk U-boats for ciphers, minefield schematics, and other secrets. The information they obtained proved critical towards Allied efforts to defeat the U-boats and win the war. But Damant had become obsessed with completing his long-deferred mission. Using newly discovered sources, author Joseph A. Williams provides the first full-length account of the quest for the Laurentic’s gold. More than an incredible story about undersea diving adventure, The Sunken Gold is a story of human persistence, bravery, and patriotism. AUTHOR: Joseph A. Williams is a librarian, archivist, and historian. He worked for several years as both the Head of the Collections and Assistant Director of the State University of New York Maritime College’s Stephen B. Luce Library, which specialises in nautical research. Currently, he is the Deputy Director of the Greenwich Library. He is the author of Seventeen Fathoms Deep (Chicago Review Press, 2015).