If only she had settled at high tide, the _Westmoreland_ might have proved an easy case for the Salvage Section to deal with. But with the usual perversity of things, she went down at low water, and as the tide rose, the sea began to pour out of the broken hold along the shelter deck and over the tops of the bulkheads into all the other holds. Unluckily her bulkheads had not been built right up to the top deck. Instead, they reached only to the previous deck, the shelter deck, and there was nothing to prevent the seas washing the whole length of the shelter deck, which was just what they did. The consequence was that the whole ship filled with water, and at high tide she was quite submerged, with her top deck 30 feet below the surface. Commander Kay hastened to the spot and surveyed the wreck. Quickly he saw that the only way of raising the ship and getting her to port was to prevent the seas from washing out of the damaged hold into the sound holds. It appeared simple, but the men who began to strive to carry out the scheme had the struggle of their lives. It was February, when the weather was just as bad as it could be. The heavy seas and strong currents effectually prevented any work being done for three or four days a week, and on the other days it was only possible to work for two or three hours at low tide. Watching their opportunities, the divers scrambled into the wreck and gradually timbered in a mighty hole, 40 feet across, that was blown in the shelter deck by the force of the explosion. The first step in their struggle with the sea was looked upon as won. Barely was the work completed when the sea, frothing with fury, raged through the hole in the hull and battered continuously at the underside of the work until the timbering was reduced to matchwood. I have already mentioned that salvage men are sparing of words, and, if they said but little on this occasion, no doubt what they said was to the point. With that patience which is beyond all praise, they resumed their efforts with a firm determination not to be again cheated by the sea, so they used steel to counter the force of the waves. Whenever tide and weather served, they worked with might and main to build watertight walls--or a steel trunkway, as the salvors called it--from the shelter deck of the damaged hold right up to the top deck in order to confine the sea to that hold and prevent it from washing over the tops of the other bulkheads. By then the salvors realized that it was quite hopeless to attempt to patch the hull of the ship to prevent the seas from entering, for no temporary work could withstand the full force of the Atlantic gales. Consequently, the divers concentrated on building their trunkway, and in a month it was completed and the water was effectually shut off from washing into the other holds.