Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-08-29
From the Buffalo Democracy of August %.
A Live Yankee--Raising Of the steam Frig-
ate Missouri at Gibraltar.

ate Missouri at Gibraltar.
The United States steam frgate Missouri
was burned and sank in Gibraltar harbor, on
| 23d of August, l843. She careened as she
| went down, and laying upon her beam ends,
presented one of her shafts upward, 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 so vast body as
the sunken frigate at the bottom of harbor in
which the tides ebbed and flowed, and strong
currents continually shifted the sand, was not
to be tolerated in an English port, so import
ant to the commercial and war marine of Bri-
tain as was Gibraltar. The British govern
ment accordingly presented the case to ours at
Washington, and requested US to remove the
obstruction. We agreed to do SO.
The British secretary conceiving the Job to
be very bad one, kindly recommended to our
government as very suitable engineers for the
work, Messrs. Low and Marshall. These gen.
| tlemen had acquired great reputation in Eng
land by raising the line-of-battle ship, the Royal
George, which sank so suddenly at Spithead,
and carried down with her hundreds and hun.
dreds Of men and women. Our navy depart
ment employed these engineers to raise the
Missouri. They went to Gibraltar, and worked
and strained faithfully and for three long years,
at the noble hulk under water-and then re-
ported to the department at Washington, that
the Missouri could not be raised, by human
means They abandoned the enterprise and
returned to England.
The necessities of the case induced Mr.. Web
ster to take hold of the matter, and find man
who would free Gibraltar haIbor of that OBJ
struction. He lighted on John E. Cowen, Of
Boston. This gentleman's documentary title
to the character of submarine engineer was
altogether in the certificate of his birth as
Yankee, to be found in his fathers family
Bible. He had no parchments, nor sheep
skins, ass-skin, nor other skin diplomas, to show
to Mr.. Webster; but when asked by the great
Secretary, if he could remove the wreck Of the
frigate as she lay there in forty-one feet of
water, he said that he could. When asked if he
would enter into $50, 900 bonds, for the perform
ance of a contract to raise her, he said he would
When asked if he would bind himself to
have every stick of the frigate out of the way
within three years, he said he would bind him
self to accomplish it within six months Web
SER had found his man. A contract was imme-
liatey 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 had accumulated upon the wreck. Il
was fifteen feet over her. Moreover, the En-
glish engineers had hurt the job, and made it
much more difficult, by using vast quantities
of powder at random among the engines and
iron work. They had twisted and tapgled up
the machinery badly. Above the fifteen feet
Of accumulated sand, was depth Of &c feet OF
water to work through.
Mr.. Gowen devised metal cases, which, we
believe, he afterward patented, to contain his
charges of powder, and which, of course, had
10 be placed under the frigates bottom, and
through that fifteen feet of sand. These cases
were of cast iron, six feet long, fourteen inches
diameter and held charge of two hundred
and fifty pounds of powder. At the conicle end
was large thread like that about post augur,
cast on to the case, and to be used in boring
into the sand as with an sugur. This lower
end was cast in chill, and was so hard and
strong, that it stood in one instance the test OF
being bored through McAdam street. in Bal
timore, six feet into the earth. Mr.. Gowen took
out with him twenty-four Of these iron powder
cylinders He used only twelve of them. They
made tooth-picks Of the Missouri's hull. His
divers descended in their armor, pointed the
cylinders properly-these were turned by shafts
worked from above, and when arrived under
the vessels bottom, were fired by an electric
battery.
The great quantity of $4,000 pounds of pow
der was consumed in the work. OF this, full
two-thirds were used in blowing off the iron
centres and arms from the shafts. She was a
side-wheel steamer, and had upon each of the
cupboard shafts ninety-six iron arms, which
weighed three hundred and fifty pounds piece.
To break up this complicated mass of power
full iron work, and get it detached, and reduced
SO as to be lifted, was really the labor our Yam
kee ocean engineer had to do. This part of the
Job it was, that the English engineers had fool
ed with and injured. But Mr.. Gowen 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 uttermost stick and last visible
spike. Nothing was left for the sand to form
a bar upon, and in FIVE months from the day
Mr.. Gowen began the work, he fully completed
and performed his contract.
He raised about 1000 tons Of iron, and some
800 tons Of oysters that had grown to the iron.
1t is interesting to know that the oysters that
grew next to copper or upon copper, we're poi
sonous. Three men Of Gibraltar died from
having eaten them. The iron, of course, was
converted into plumbago, by the action of the
sea water. In the heavy pieces this action ex-
tended in to the depth Of an inch. Many pieces
we're cutoutentirey by the salt, save few threads
of resisting metal, running lengthwise, and
looking like the large fbres Of cocoanut husks.
The iron was mostly worthless.
The management of Mr. Governs submarine
armer was SO perfect, that not an accident hap
peDed to one Of his divers, in all this great
work, and without any inconvenience the men
could remain under water for the space OF
twelve hours.
Can anything better illustrate the Yankee
resourse, the Yankee energy, the Yankee con.
6depce, than this hastily sketched history Of
the removal of the wreck Of the Missouri?
We think not. The gentleman who, without
diplomas, can thus teach lessons in the great
art of 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 bis agency have lately
been lifted from the bottom Of our lake, and