In this wonderful way did a soldier, forsaking his own element, assist to salve a ship that broke in two, and so brilliantly successful was his work that he was “lent” to the Admiralty Salvage Section. On another occasion his genius was exercised upon a steamer which had a vast hole blown in her hull by a torpedo. Taking the case in hand, the soldier salvage officer determined to prove that ferro-concrete used under expert supervision would unite perfectly with the steel hull and make the ship as tight and sound as she had ever been. That concrete ships were possible was already proved, for there were one or two afloat to confound the sceptic, but the patching of a steel ship with concrete was not generally considered feasible. However, the engineer set to work, and under his supervision divers built a huge mould over the gaping wound. The engineer himself donned a diving dress and went to the bottom to inspect the work and see that everything had been carried out to make the experiment successful. The concrete, reinforced with steel rods, was rammed into the mould, where it set almost as hard as the iron with which its edges were solidly united. Concrete piers were moulded inside the ship to strengthen the back of the patch and enable it to sustain the force of the waves, and when the vessel was pumped out and floated officials of the seamen’s union, calling to inspect it, expressed their approval by certifying the ship as fit to go anywhere. It was an amazing new departure in salvage that proved an unqualified success. It was probably the first ship to be patched with concrete, although it was rumoured that the German cruiser _Goeben_, which gave us so much trouble in the Mediterranean, was also patched up with that material. [Illustration: HOW THE CONCRETE PATCH WAS STRENGTHENED WITH CONCRETE PIERS ON THE INSIDE OF THE SHIP TO WITHSTAND THE HAMMERING OF THE SEA] The _Araby_, however, was by no means the first ship to be salved in halves, for years ago Mr. Tom Armit, one of the cleverest salvage experts who ever tackled a wreck, undertook to recover the s.s. _Montgomery_ which had sunk and broken in two in the river Garonne. Under his instructions divers timbered in the open ends of the vessel to make them watertight, and eventually each end was pumped out and raised. They were afterwards taken to dock and joined together again without the ship being one whit the worse for her adventure. [Illustration: A VIEW OF THE CONCRETE PATCH IN THE SHIP’S SIDE AFTER SHE HAD BEEN PUMPED OUT]