Documents

Lot 3152    SESSION 11 (4.30pm Thursday)    Documents

Estimate $250
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $750

THE AMERICAN SALVAGE COMPANY, one hundred shares (6) 18.5.16, certificate nos. 79-84, fifty shares (5) 28.8.16, certificate nos. 1160/61, 1164/65, 24.2.19, certificate no. 1979, all named to Arnold Barrett, together with prospectus for additional fundraising to cover the purchase and control of the Sisson Deep Sea Diving Machine. Two vertical folds in each note, extremely fine and scarce. (20)

This company was formed to salvage sunken ships. In the period 1911-17, 5,404 ships were sunk and only 108 were floated and repaired. Salvage operations were limited to a depth of 80 feet but most sunken ships were at an average depth of 150 feet. The newly invented Sisson Deep Sea Diving Machine could go to a depth of 800 feet so The American Salvage Company had tremendous prospects. In 1922 it sought permission to salvage the Luisitania and its cargo of gold however the ship's owner, Cunard Line, and the British Government claimed ownership and the U.S. Government refused to support The American Salvage Company's application for salvage rights. See Lot (2803) for further details on Arnold Barrett in whose name the shares were registered. Together with a booklet on the Sisson machine; a newspaper article on salvage of war-time ships sunk; magazine article on Sisson Diving Apparatus; Fact newspaper supplement, Sydney, Sunday, December 21, 1941; Gold Star Coupon Collection Book, war-time economy issue, a quantity of Green Coupons and Gold Coupons, some stuck together; a small number of MUH Australian stamps, mostly decimal.