article_snippet.sent: But as a delicate operation began to transfer the cases of treasure onto a waiting boat, one slipped and fell into the muddy waters.
article_snippet.sent: Edinburgh man Leonard H. Thomas recorded: 'No scuttles [were] allowed to be opened, but someone got a gleek out and saw mighty big steam locomotives smothered in soldiers, up and down the cleared area of the track, hundreds of soldiers, all with rifles and many with Tommy guns. '
article_snippet.sent: Our guards lined the deck, Our later heard, either side of a small derrick which handled the paravanes [mine
article_snippet.sent: detectors]. A huge, dark wagon was coaxed, nudged, and jogged until a small derrick which handled the paravanes [mine's fall was hanging vertically and a rope net was placed on the ground. '
article_snippet.sent: Officers approached huge, dark wagon and examined locks and bolts [with] armed troops literally surrounding huge, dark wagon.
article_snippet.sent: Then into the Wardroom [went the] harassed officials, who, our heard, lashed into the whisky "as if the whisky were free.
article_snippet.sent: Once back in the Clyde, after 'a fast run down the Minches', calamity was to come, however.
article_snippet.sent: Mr Thomas wrote: 'It was very late when we saw the welcoming but shaded lights of the Boom Control vessels, hauling left and right to usher we through the widening but regulated aperture, and suddenly the serenity of approaching a hallowed anchorage and being met by a small but important armada and a lighter. '
article_snippet.sent: our heard that troops and all sorts were organised to receive the bullion from where it had been man-handled onto the upper deck. '
article_snippet.sent: The paravane derrick was reeved [threaded] and a wire was taken with snatch blocks to a winch.
article_snippet.sent: Our Captain anxiously peered over the port wing of the bridge, Our Captain nose barely over the canvas dodger, to observe the last rites of the bullion from where it had been man-handled onto the upper deck. '
article_snippet.sent: And then the bullion from where it had been man-handled onto the upper deck happened.
article_snippet.sent: The first boxes, two in number, were being hauled toward the lighter, and who knows what happened, but one slipped and fell with a resounding thump and a splash into the Clyde. '
article_snippet.sent: The rest was capably transferred to a lighter, various bits of paper signed, exchanged, and pocketed, and a tug chuffed up to pull the lighter clear.'