The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1854-10-04
From the Buffalo Democracy Ausust q
FIoW tHo Duua1O DeuIcIacy Augugt y.
A Lirc Ynnkee- Raising Of the the Steam
Frigatc Missouri at Gibraltar.


Frigate Missouri at Gibraltar
The United States steam fripste Missouri,
was burned and sunk in Gibraltar harbor on
the 23d Of August, ls43. She careened as she
went down, and laying upon her beam ends,
presented one Of her shafts upwards, very near
the surface Of The water. This mass OF iron
was nineteen inches in diameter, and Of course
offered dangerous obstruction to the BAY
The existence, moreover, OF SD vast body az
the sunken trigate at the bottom of a harbor in
which the tides ebbed and flowed, and strong
currents continually shifting the sand, was not
10 be tolerated in an English port, SO important
10 the G. numerical and war marine Of Britain as
was G'braliar.-The Bri ish government ac-
c"rd'ngy presented the case to ours AT Wash
ington, aud requested US 10 remove the OBJ
struciion.-We agreed to do SO
The British Secretary, conceiving the job to
be very bad one kindly recommended 10
our government, Az very suitable engineers
tor the work, Messrs Low and Mar.halI.
These gentlemen had acquired great reputation
III England by raising the line-of- bat tle.ship,
the Royal George, which sank suddenly al
Sp'thead, and carried down with her hundreds
OF men and women. Our navy depar, ment
employed these engineers to Iaise the Missouri.
They vent to Gibraltar, and at tile noble hulk
under water, and then reported to the depart
ment at Washington that the Miss, uri could
not be raised by human means. They abandon
ed the enterprise and returned to En- gland.
The nee ssities Of The case induced Mr. Web
ster to take hold Of the matter, and find man
who would free Gibraltar harbor of that OBJ
| struclion. He lighted upon J.E Gowan, OF
Boston. his gentleman's documentary title
to the character of submarine engineer was
altogether in the certificate Of his birth as
Yankee, 10 be found in his rath-r's family bible
aufa nnr cha
SIX MS, nor other skin diplomas, to show to Mr.
| Webster but when asked by the grea, Secre
| tary II he could remove the wreck of the frigate
as she lay there IN forty feet Of water, he
said he could; When asked If he would enter
INTO $50. 900 bonds Tor the performance OF IA con
tract 10 raise her, he said he would When
asked It he would bind himself 10 have every
stick OF the frigate out the way within thre
years, he said he would bind himself TO accom-
Psh II within six months. Webster had found
his man contract was Immediately made.
Mr.. Gowen was already equipped with his
invaluable submarine armor. The removing
apparatus remained for him to construct. On
| rejecting, he decided to blow the frigate TO
pieces, and lift and remove the fragments in
| detail.
The case, on full inquiry and investigation,
proved TO be one Of peculiar difficulty. The
sand mad accumulated upon the wreck. II was
| fifteen feet over her.-Moreover, the English
engineer had hurt the job, and made in more
difficult, by using vast quantities of powder at
random among the engines and iron work
They had twisted and tangled up the machine
ry badly. Above the fifteen feet Of accumula-
ted sand was depth Of &c feet Of water to
..ork through.
| Mr.. Gowen devised metal cases, which we
believe, he atterw ards patented, to contain his
charges Of powder, and which of course, had 10
be placed under the frigate's bottom, and
through that fifteen feet of sand These cases
were Of cast iron, six feet long, fourteen inches
diameter, and held charge OF twohundred and
| fifty pounds Of powder. At the conic.e end
was a large thread like that about nest au--
ger, cast on the case, and 10 be used in boring
into the sand as with an auger-This lower
end was cast in a chill, and was SO hard and
strong, that it stood in one instance the test of
being bored through McAdam street, in
| Bal iinore, six feet into the earth. Mr. Gowen
took out with him lwenty.four Of these iron
powder cylinders. lie used only twelve of
them.-They made tooth. picks Of the Missouri
hull. His divers descended in their armor.
pointed the cylinders properly-they were
turned by shafts worked from above, and when
arrived under the We sells bottom, were fred by
an electric battery.
| The grea. qaan ity of AZ, 900 pounds Of pow.
l
two.,hirds were used in blowing off the iron
centres and arms from the shafts. She was q
side wheel steamer, and rad upon each Of the
cupboard shafts ninety.six iron arms, which.
weighed three hundred aud fifty pounds a
piece To break up this complicated mass of
powerful iron work, and get it detached, and
reduced so as to be lifted was really the labor
our Yankee ocean engineer had to do. This
part OF the job it was that the English engineer
had fooled W tn and injured. But Mr.. GoweD
knocked shafts, arms, centres, braces, and bolts
right and left, down there forty. one feet below
his hand, and took up and carried away the
great steamer, to the u'termost stick, and las,
visible spike. Nothing was lie for the sand to
form bar upon, and in five months from the
day Mr.. Gowen beg an the work, he fully CON-
ple'ed and performe d his contract.
| He raised 1000 tons Of iron and some 500
MS OF oysters that had grown TO the iron II
is interesting to know that the oysters tina,
grew next to copper, or upon Copper were
poisonous. Three men of Gibraltar died from
having eaten them The iron, of course, wa.
converted into punbago, by the action of the
sea water. In the heavy pieces this actor
TX ended mt, the depth OF an inch. Many
pieces were cut out entirely by the salt, save
few threads If resisting metal, running length
wise, and looking like the large fib.es OF cocoa
nut husks. Inc iron was mostly woit less.
The management Of Mr.. Gowens submarine
arnor was so perfect that not an accident hap
pened to one Of his divers. in all this grea
work, and without any Inconvenience the mer
could remain under water for twelve hours.
Can anything better illustrate the Yankee
resource, The Yankee energy, the Yankee con
tidencr, than this hastily sketched history, o
the removal Of the wreck of the Missouri W.
think not. The gentleman who, without dip
Tomas can thus teach lessons in the great art o
submarine engineering to the graduates OF the
Royal Woolwich College, is now in this city
closing up his accounts with the steamer Erie
whose remains BY his agency have recently
been lifted from the bottom OF our Lake, ane
brought into the Buffalo harbor.