steam engine was unreliable, one of her propeller blades was missing and her hull constantly needed patching, but she seems to have been the only ship available. Claymore was fitted out with the chamber and a grab to convert her into a salvage ship. The salvagers based themselves at Whangārei and began operations on 15 December 1940. Claymore searched for the wreck by dragging her anchor across the seabed. Twice she fouled mines that Orion had planted, and was fortunate not to be sunk. Once the diving chamber became fouled with the anchor wire of one of the mines. On 2 February 1941 Claymore found Niagara. Niagara lies on her port side. The salvagers used explosives to try to blast open her hull, but with little success. Salvagers then used the grab to open the wreck bit by bit. One diver was lowered in the diving chamber to observe the grab, and passed instructions by telephone up to the grab operator aboard Claymore. The divers were John Johnstone and his brother William, who between them made 316 descents to the wreck. Eventually the operation exposed Niagaras strong room. In October 1941 the salvage crew used explosives to open the strong room door. The first two gold bars were recovered on 13 October. By December 1941 they had recovered 555 of the 590 gold bars. The salvage operation was ended on 8 December, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The diving chamber was later returned to Castlemaine, possibly early in the 1980s. It is now preserved and displayed in the historic Castlemaine Market Building. 1953 In 1953 Johnstone returned with a different salvage ship and more modern equipment. Foremost 17 had been built in 1911 as Port of London Authority No. 9, a hopper barge for the Port of London Authority. In 1925 the PLA sold her and her new owner renamed her Foremost 17. She passed through several private owners, until in 1940 the Admiralty bought her and had her converted into a salvage ship. In June 1944 she was at Gold Beach where Mulberry Harbour B was built to supply the Allied invasion of Normandy. In 1947 the Admiralty sold her to a British Company, Risdon Beazley, and by about 1952 she was in Australia. Foremost 17, like Claymore, was equipped with a diving chamber from which to direct work on the wreck. But instead of