Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Sunken Gold

  • A Story of World War I Espionage and the Greatest Treasure Salvage in History
  • By: Joseph A. Williams
  • Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
  • Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (14 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Sunken Gold cover art

The Sunken Gold

By: Joseph A. Williams
Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Hunt and Kill cover art
The Shipwreck Hunter cover art
The Scrap Iron Flotilla cover art
Sinkable cover art
The Ice Diaries cover art
The Man Who Sank Titanic cover art
History Smashers: The Mayflower cover art
Torpedo Run cover art
Running Deep cover art
The Ghost Ships of Archangel cover art
Mysteries of the Sea cover art
The Trial of the Edmund Fitzgerald cover art
The Frontier Below cover art
Battle of the Atlantic cover art
Collision Course cover art
All Present and Accounted For cover art

Summary

On January 25, 1917, HMS Laurentic struck two German mines off the coast of Ireland and sank. The ship was carrying 44 tons of gold bullion to the still-neutral United States via Canada in order to finance the war effort for Britain and its allies. Britain desperately needed that sunken treasure, but any salvage had to be secret, since the British government dared not alert the Germans to the presence of the gold.

Lieutenant Commander Guybon Damant was the most qualified officer to head the risky mission. Wild gales battered the wreck into the shape of an accordion, turning the operation into a multiyear struggle of man versus nature. As the war raged on, Damant was called off the salvage to lead a team of covert divers to investigate and search through the contents of recently sunk U-boats for ciphers, minefield schematics, and other secrets. The information they obtained, once in the hands of British intelligence, proved critical toward Allied efforts to defeat the U-boats and win the war.

But Damant had become obsessed with completing his long-deferred mission. His team struggled for five more years as it became apparent that the work could be accomplished only by muscle, grit, and persistence.

Using newly discovered sources, author Joseph A. Williams provides the first full-length account of the quest for the Laurentic's gold. More than an incredible story about undersea diving adventure, The Sunken Gold is a story of human persistence, bravery, and patriotism.

©2017 Joseph A. Williams (P)2017 HighBridge, a Division of Recorded Books
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about The Sunken Gold

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Important story -but poor reader.

This is a fascinating account of little-known historic events spoiled by the reading. Like some other US readers on Audible, he over emphasises words and changes rhythms, sometimes even declaiming the words rather than reading them. I began to wonder whether this was a computer generated voice. After a time , it became very difficult to listen to and I had to take breaks in order to continue. This was a shame because I DID want to hear the story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

fantastic book

loved all the detail on the start of salvage diving. great insight into diving of the wrecks

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

awesome life, great story, performance......hmmm.

Fascinating story pieced together from fragments before a partial autobiography was found. Fascinating insight into 1st world war naval salvage and the development of the staged decompression - which is still used in a refined form today ( i am a diver, I have suffered the bends and have done a lot of deep decompression diving).
The one minor gripe was pronunciation. The narrator had a cut glass English accent but then used American pronunciations. This was jarring in the extreme. I have heard this style before on Audible and it hurts the ear! Yes there are more Americans listening than Brits, but please English accent with English pronunciations, American accent with American pronunciations.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!