 When they returned, the found the "Laurentic" crushed like an accordion.Divers, who had been working inside the wreck, were now forced to excavate vertically until they came in touch with the gold again in June and continued salvage operations.By the time salvage was called off in September, Damant and his team had recovered 542 bars out of a total of 3,211 that had gone down with the ship.