Description
This piece features 2 x salvage divers. The curve measures approximately 9 x 26 cm.
I made this using flat clear glass and kiln fired the background with Ochre coloured frit.
After the first firing it requires two further blasts to create the detail in the divers and to slump the glass onto a curved mould.
My great Uncle is one of the divers depicted.
But before Frank Cox and his team moved in, the Scapa Flow Salvage and Shipbreaking Company opened for business in 1923 and initially bought four destroyers. They hoped to raise these ships by running hawsers under the hull, so that when the rise and fall of the tide raised them up sufficiently to get them off the seabed, the salvagers could pull them into shallow water. They would repeat the process until the ship was above the surface at low tide, where the water in the hull would then be pumped out and the vessel could float off easily on the next high tide.
However, before they could start this enterprise, Cox moved in with all of the equipment and personnel required to raise a fleet of sunken ships. Cox had earned his fortune and reputation in the scrapping of railway engines and quickly recognised the potential on offer in Scapa.
