Before the Great War the number of concerns specializing in salvage work were so few that probably all could be numbered on the fingers of both hands. Sweden had a fine salvage unit at Stockholm, a Danish company worked from Copenhagen, Germany possessed a very powerful salvage plant, while perhaps half a dozen salvage concerns operated in British waters, the most important being the Liverpool Salvage Association, the London Salvage Association and the famous firm of Henry Ensor, at Queenstown in Ireland. In the number of marine salvage units she could muster, Great Britain was thus particularly fortunate. The dangers of our coasts have long been regarded as a drawback, yet in time of crisis they proved a blessing in disguise, for the yearly toll of wrecks on our shores has provided fine experience for our salvage experts and made them second to none in the world. When the Germans hurled their challenge at humanity, all the salvage concerns operating in Great Britain were at once taken over by the Admiralty and placed under the command of Commodore F. W. Young. For long Commodore Young had acted as chief salvage officer to the Liverpool Salvage Association, and forty years’ experience of raising wrecks had given him a knowledge of the subject that was unique. Wandering round our shores in storm and shine, fighting to get ships off the rocks, struggling to save their cargoes, he learned to know our rugged coast better than the average man knows the lines on the palm of his hand. The reefs from which a ship might never escape, the sandy bays that provided shelter, the bars that lurked in wait for unwary ships, all were known to him. His knowledge was such that he was able to sum up the chances of a ship directly he heard where she was wrecked. Whatever blunders may have been made in appointing other men to other commands, the First Lords of the Admiralty made no mistake in selecting Commodore Young to be Director of Naval Salvage. Generals came and went, Admirals were moved up and down, but this one man was in control of the Admiralty Salvage Section throughout the whole war, bearing the grave responsibilities of a most important post from beginning to end. The first work of the Admiralty Salvage Section was purely naval. These were the men who laid the mines to guard our harbours, and upon them devolved the duty of laying down those long lanes of mighty nets to protect our troopships hurrying from England to France. When the _Lion_ was so sorely stricken at Jutland, it was one of the section’s salvage steamers that helped her into port, and they were men of the Salvage Section who patched her scars and made it possible for her to limp home.