I think the idea was to sink the ship by capsizing it, then bring up the intact bottles with free divers. Any mercury leaks would immediately sink, and would p

I think the idea was to sink the ship by capsizing it, then bring up the intact bottles with free divers. Any mercury leaks would immediately sink, and would probably stay inside the hold of the ship long enough to recover it. If it escaped, it would run into the nearest local minimum on the harbor bottom. If rock bottom, just scoop it up into fresh bottles. If sandy bottom, scoop up the sand with it and separate it on the surface. So they keep the wootz payment, they recover the cargo, and they don't lose reputation by just murdering the crew of a merchant vessel outright. If the merchants capsize instead, that's a shame, and a result of poor seamanship, and they'll just go ahead and pretend to be sad during the salvage operation.