Another astonishing feat performed by British salvage men was the raising of a collier that sank right in the fairway at Rosyth. The danger of other ships striking her and piling up was so great that her removal became imperative. To pick her up in the approved style by sweeping cables under her and using lifting craft to swing her clear of the bottom was the obvious way of clearing the channel. But she was a dead weight of 3000 tons, or about 1000 tons heavier than the heaviest wreck raised by such methods. If her cargo had been bales of cotton or something easy to handle, divers would have gone down and removed part of her burden in order to lighten her. But coal is about the worst thing in the world to deal with under water. Consequently the salvors tackled the job with a brace of lifting craft, which enabled them to master 2400 tons, and a couple of mighty pontoons, which provided the power to lift the remainder. Everything was fixed, and as the tide rose the salvors managed to drag the wreck out of the way of other ships, and eventually, after a terrific fight lasting a considerable time, succeeded in beaching her. Commodore Sir Frederick Young also mastered a weight of about 3000 tons in lifting Captain Fryatt’s ship, the _Brussels_, at Ostend, and these two feats performed by British salvage experts constitute a world’s record for the greatest deadweight ever raised in recent times from the bottom of the sea. CHAPTER XII The resources of the salvage experts in fighting for the life of a ship are amazing. They will cheerfully run the gravest risks, do the most extraordinary things to get her into port. But that they, whose avowed aim in life is to save ships, should deliberately sink them, savours of something akin to madness. Yet occasions arise when prompt decisions have to be made, when the salvage officer is literally between the devil and the deep sea. An outbreak of fire aboard a ship places him in this quandary. Damage to a ship by water can be remedied, but fire, once it gets a hold, consumes ship and cargo. Of two evils, the salvage man chooses the lesser, and if there is no other way of combating the fire he will calmly sink the ship as a preliminary to saving her. [Illustration: A GIANT OIL TANKER WHICH BLAZED FOR DAYS, BLOTTING OUT THE HEAVENS WITH DENSE CLOUDS OF SMOKE. THE SALVAGE MEN WERE EVENTUALLY COMPELLED TO SINK HER TO PUT OUT THE FIRE]