Word: dredgers
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Hague to have another try. Billiton set up headquarters on Terschelling, hired 50 wooden-shod dredgermen from the village of Sliedrecht, sent out the Karimata, world's largest dredger, to claw a trench on the bottom...
...scoops of the Karimata brought up 400 tons an hour- sand, and nothing else. Then the scoops reached the wreck, tore away great iron ballast blocks from the hull. Said a Netherlander named Eelke Ryn de Beer last fortnight: "I was standing at the edge of the dredger when suddenly at three metres distance I saw how the gold glittered!" It was a bar weighing 120 ounces, worth about $4,000. The scoops had reached the treasure chamber. Then the sand caved in again over the ship; for three days the scoops worked furiously, finally last week brought...
Meanwhile, the gold bar was carried in procession through Terschelling, the Dutch fishermen following and cheering, to the house of the burgomaster. Flags went up all over the island. The dredger crew was given an extra issue of gin. Conspicuous among the jubilant Netherlanders was an unromantic representative of Lloyd's, who claimed title to 30% of the gold bar (Billiton Co. and The Netherlands Government will divide the rest) but who remembered that gold bars had been brought up from the Lutine before. Let a strong wind come up before the Karimata finishes work, and in the shallow...