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"Then the artifacts will be quickly turned over to facilities equipped to preserve thee after so many years of immersion At that time we'll announce the discovery and stand back while the bureaucrats froht over it"

"And Qin Shang?" Perlmutter probed deeper "What happens when he shows up on site with his own salvage ship?"

Pitt grinned deviously "We'll give hi qualities"

52

THE OCEAN RETRIEVER, with Pitt, Giordino, Gunn and Julia on board, was the first to arrive and position herself over the wreck of the Princess Dou Wan The Canadian salvage ship from Deep Abyss Systems Limited out of Montreal, Hudson Bay, arrived only four hours later She was an older vessel converted froboat Aided by clear weather and se of the art treasures commenced immediately

The underwater part of the project was handled by sub articulated arms in cooperation with divers encased in deep-water at systems called Newtsuits that were similar in appearance to the Michelin tire nesium, and self-propelled, the suit enabled a diver inside to work for long periods of time at the four-hundred-foot-plus depth without concern over decompression

The artifacts were beginning to coularity once a routine was established The operation continued at an even e vessel Dean Hawes ca down from the north end of the lake two days earlier than expected and took up station beside the other two ships She was considered new, only two years from her launch date, and was constructed especially for deep-water work, the recovery of submarines in particular

An i its hull was parked in place by use of the global positioning syste to the lake bed a short distance from the forward section of the Princess Dou Wan Then crane operators, working fro underwater cameras, manipulated the clamshell claws on the end of their winch cables, deftly recovering the crates exposed on the outer decks of the ship, those deep inside the cargo holds and the artifacts littering the bottoether with their contents, were then lifted onto the sunken barge When it was fully loaded, the ballast tanks were filled with pressurized air and the barge rose to the surface A tugboat then took it in tow for the trip to the Port of Chicago, where it was e of the art treasures They very carefully re cases and immediately immersed them in temporary conservation tanks until they could be transported to a more permanent preservation facility

No sooner was one fully loaded barge towed off site than another one wasthe process

Six submersibles, three owned by NUMA, one by the Canadians and two by the Navy worked in har the crates with their invaluable contents into the specially designed cargo coe

To facilitate the removal of the artwork froh the steel plates with state-of-the-art torch systems thatwas made, the submersibles moved in and lifted out the treasures, aided by the clamshell claws from the cranes on the surface

The entire operation was observed and directed from a control room on board the Ocean Retriever Video screens linked to caic locations around the wreck revealed every stage of the recovery project The high-resolution video systeed the intricate deployment of men and equipment They worked twelve-hour shifts, as did the crews of all three vessels The around-the-clock project never stopped bringing up the s

eely endless mountain of artifacts on the bottom below

Pitt would have given his right arm to have worked on the wreck in one of the submersibles or Newtsuits, but as project director his experience was required to coordinate and guide the operation from the surface He watched one of thelifted into the Sappho TV sub and all Giordino had over seven hundred hours in sub was his favorite On this shift, the wily little Italian planned to take his sub deep into the Princess Dou Wan's superstructure after the bulkheads were cut away by the divers inside the Newtsuits

Pitt turned as Rudi Gunn stepped into the control rooh the doorway,the compartment, which had no ports or s "You here already? I'd swear you just walked out"