The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-03-17

WARRINGTON, March II, 1886
To hs Editor Of the Onion:
CIR: An advertisement was publiahsd in Iss,
| - nights Union, the signature Of an indyid-
ual of notorious mendacity at home, in which pub
location in Of the New York papers Of Oct 70,
lS45, made by my direction las the proprietor OF
the balsnee-doc) Is assaed with charges Of false
hood in various forms Of gross and vulgar abuse.
experience some degree Of modification In noticing
the abuse Of such person at all II becomes, how
ever, here and at the present moment, duty which
will perform briefly as possible, and, necessau-
ly, in very brief space Of time; endeavorlng, too,
make its manner contrast with that of the assault
in about the same degree as the truth, worth, and
force Of its matter.
The charges are five in number. After have
gone through with them, every reader may Judge for
himself on the whole subject.
First charge.
That the publication in question grossly ex-
aggerated their claim Of lifting power for the sec
tional dock, by putting it at $3.50 tons, instead
Of 1850, which they say 1t ought TO be; this
being done for the purpose of unruly imputng false
hood to them in contrasting their claim with their
performance They say that the $50 claimed by
them includes their "endhoats," with their tanks;
while injustice has been done them by adding 40
tons OF claim Of pot0r for each end-Aost by which
the whole amount Of claim was raised TO 8, 1870.
They say that when they spoke Of 300 tons TO each
OF their seven smaller sections and $50 for the larger
one, the lifting power Of the floats was included,
and was not extra and they add: "Nor have they,
or any of them, under any circumstances, nor in
any statement or publication, claimed more"
Answer.
This is point on which these parties have al
ways shifted and shufiied in a manner making II no
easy task TO follow them. That they hare claimed
the said power apart from the floats IN more than
one Of their numerous publications, am certain,
even though possibly with some cunning vagueness
and sly reserve Of phrase At the moment cannot,
| Of course, lay my hand upon them. But II will be
sufficient TO refer to their publication to which
the one made on my behalf was a reply, and which
| is now quoted by themselves. They there say
1--WE have in our dock eight sections seven Ofwhich
| have clear lifting capacity Of 800 tons each, and
one Of $50 tons-making 2, $50 tons over and above
the weight Of the part Of the dock above water and
\ TO obtain this power, it would be necessary TO inn
merse but small portion Of the end-hoats"
Who would not read this as claiming this
power for the tanks themselves with but irifng il
any aid from the snd:fOats3 They have always pre-
tended to claim the ability to screw their floats
down very near to a total immersion, for auxiliary
llHing power. They now say that that power 10
obtain which they above state it to be necessary
to immerse but small portion Of the end-Aoats,
does in truth include all to which they are lever in
tended TO be submerged" and all the aid TO be de
rived from them. What then did they mean by
| talking of mmersng "bui small portion Of them, >
If there great deal Of seryiceabe power re
naming behind Out of their own mouths, in the
very act of their charge, they thus convict them
selves Of precisely what they impute, and them
selves exonerate the object of their own calumny.
Second Charge.
"As regards the statement Of the Balance .docl
| Company, that the Great Britain was raised onl,
u feet aft, and feet in the bows, we have only 4
say that il is unqualihedly false. IL be provet
by the most unquestonabe authority, that she wa
raised than feet aft, and feet forward,
Answer.
The article referred TO allowed them u feet an
and Al forward from which measurement it wa
shown that the whOls amount lifted did not exceed
about 500 tons.
The following letter from Col S. Sarkweather, o
New York, the correctness Of which | also mysel
fully attest, will settle this point:
"WAsHNerOS, March IT, 1916.
l"To alderman Gilbert:
"SR In consequence of severe indisposition, con
hning me to my bed, am unable to answer ysur re
quest fully desired. But state that on Sun.
day, in October last while the Great Britain or
the sectional dock, visited the with yoursel
and others, to witness its performance. Her pump,
| were started while we were in attendance for tina
purpose. few minutes thereafter, descended Il
the platform at the bows of the vessel. There, in
your presence, | measured her elevation by tn,
water line she bore into the dock. She was ther
elevated about feet TO- inches, which elevation
ascertained by my walking stick, which | after
wards accurately measured. The pumps Of the
! dock were then operated an hour and five minutes
by my watch, when the sections under the stern Of
the ship were exhausted, us was shown by the
pumps of those sections sucking air instead of water
| with liar at he IF thf
different sections. and have believe that
they were not all operated equally alike; but on the
contrary, | was then and am still convinced that
they were 80 operated uniformly along their whole
length, and were all equally exhausted. The pumps
we're then stopped, when walked with yourself
and others directly to the bows of the ship, and
requested II young gentleman to descend to the
staging at the bow and measure the elevation,
which he did IN our presence, and under our OBJ
servatlon, employing the same means which
had myself previously employed. The elevation,
thus ascertalned by measurement, was as then and
still believe, less than feet inches The ship then
OVERRIDE or protruded beyond the forward sec
ton, as near as could judge, some Is feet. This
projection added to the weight of the forebody of
the ship (known to be always far greater than the
stern porton) with an equal lifting power applied
to the several parts of the keel from the stern for
ward would throw her into the very position thus
cerained by measurement the elevation of the stern
being then shown by her marks to be y feet.
And venture to assert that, by correct mathe-
NAUTICAL calculation, the circumstances being here
stated, the sections of the dock, whose power was
expended equally from end to end on the keel
would, while raising her stern u feet be only equal
to raising her bow feet and 2 inches. This is a
calculation easily to be made by scientific gentle
men, if its accuracy should be called in question.
81 will add that, upon the invitation Of Commo-
dore Stewart, visited the Great Britain with him,
at about this time, while she was lying in the
slip near the dock, on which occasion
became acquainted with Captain Hosken. With
in a day or two after the Great Britain
came off the dock, meeting Captain Hosken
in Hanover street, we engaged in passing CONVEX
sation on the subject of his ship; in the course OF
which | asked him how high the ship had been
raised to admit the repairing of the propeller. He
replied, about u feet in the stern | then OBJ
served that Il believed she had been taken up about
half that height in the bows to which he replied
| yes, I believe it was little over feet It here
becomes me TO state that ! have the highest conf
dence in and respect for, the character Of Captain
Hosken, and can only account for the certificate
purporting to be his, published by the Sectional
dock Company on the supposton that if that GER
! re in h1,oha h,yth