Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1855-02-17
Qbe polpnesian.
.yL From the Louisville Joumal.l
Removing the Sunken Ships at SebastopoI.

have been ordered WOOlwich for conveyance to Ses
topO to blow up the sunken ships at the mosthOf the
harbOr, have been completed and shipped for their de
tinatiOn. Each cylinder will contain 900 pounds of
powder, which is to be ignted by battery-L Tele-
graphic Dlspatch.1
The sinking of several ships at the entrance TO
the harbor of Sebastopol by the Russians has in
terfered with the operations and plans of the allies
II has therefore been determined to remove them.
This is work of no small labor, and rs the man
ner of efecting the removal of these ships that
have been thus sunk in twenty fathoms wafer NAV
not be know to some of our readers, we purpose
to say something of the plan by which this difficulty
is to be overcome.
In doing this, we shall not only exhibit the man
ner of performing the work, but shall also show
that the English engineers indebted to the ge-
MUS, ingenuity, and skill of an American for knowl-
edge of the means by which it can be readily accom-
lplished. The use of cast iron cylinders, with the
screw auger bits at the lower end of them, and the
ignition of the powder by battery, are American
applications.
The United States steam frigate Missouri was
burned and sunk in Gibraltar harbor en- the 23d of
August 1912. She careened as she went down. and,
lying upon her beam ends, preseBted one of her
shafts upward very near the surface Of TIE water.
This mass of iron nineteen inches in diameter.
and of course offered dangerous obstruction TO the
bay. The existence, moreover, Of so vast body
as the sunken fngate at the bottom Of harbor in
rents continually shifted the sand not to be tO
Grated in an English port important to the COM
mercial and war marine of Britain GIbraltar,-
The British Government accordingly presented the
lease to ours at Washington, and requested Us to
remove the obstruction. We agreed to do so.
| The British Secretary, conceiving the Job TO be
ery bad one, kindly recommended to our Gov
ernment as very suitable engineers for the work.
Messrs Low and Marshall. These gentlemen had
acquired great reputation in England by raising
the line -of-battle ship the Royal George, which
sank so suddenly at Spithead, and carried down
with her hundreds of men and women. Our Navy
! Department 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 reported 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 tind man who
would free Gibraltar harbor of that obstruction
He lighted on John E. Cowen, of Boston. This
gentlemen's documentary title to the character OF
a submarine engineer altogether in the certlh-
cate of his birth as a 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 frg-
ate ys she Law there in fory-one feet of water, he
7
ter into S5OO 600 bonds for the performance of con-
tract to raise her. he said he would. When asked
if he would bind himself to have every stick Of the
gate out of the way within three years. he said he
would bind himself to accomplish within SIX
months. Webster had found his man. A contract
was immediately made. .:...
! Mr. COwen was already equipped with his mval-
liable submarine armor. The removing apparatus
remained for him to construct. On reflection, he
decided to blow the frigate to pieces and lift and
remove the fragments IN detail, p. -,
The case. on full inquiry and ivestIgaton. proved
to be one of peculiar difficulty. The sand had ac-
cumulated upon the wreck. 1t was fifteen feet
over her, Moreover, the English engineers had
hurt the Job and made it much more difficult by US
ing vast quantities of powder at random among the
engines and iron work. They had twisted and tan
gled up the machinery badly. Above the fifteen
feet of accumulated sand depth of twenty-six
feet of water to work through
! Mr.. Cowen devised metal cases, which we be-
ieve he afterwards patented to contain his charges
of powder and which, of course, had TO be placed
under the frgate bottom, and through that hfteen
feet of sand These cases were of cast iron, six
! feet long fourteen inches diameter, and held a
charge of two hundred and fifty pounds OF powder.
All the conical end was a large thread, like that
about post augur cast on to the case, and TO be
used in boring into sand as with an augur. This
lower end was cast in chill, and was so hard and
| ing bored through a McAdam street, III Baltimore,
six feet into the earth. Mr. Cowen took out with
him twenty -four of these iron pOwdercyllnders. =
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 vessels bottom, were fired by
an electric battery.
The great quautitY of, forty-three THOUSAND
pounds cf powder was consumed IN TIE worn. OF
tLis, full two thirds were used in blowing off the
iron centres and arms from the shafts. She was
sideyheel steamer, and had Upon each ol the out
board shafts uinety-six iror arms, which weighed
three hundred and fifty pounds apiece. To break
up this complicated mass of powerful iron work,
and get it detached apd reduced SO as to be lted,
was really the labcr cf our Yankee OceaD-engneeT
had to do This part of the job it was that the
English engineers had fooled with and injured.
/ But Mr.. Cowen 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 tie ttermost stick arf
last visible spike. Nothing left for the sand
I TO form bar upon, and in five months from the
I dav Mr. CoweT began the work he fully compet-
ed and performed his contract.
! He raised about one thousand six hundred tons
of iron, and some eight hundred tons OF oysters
that had grown to the iron. IL Is interesting TO
know that the oysters that grew next TO the copper
or upon copper. were poisonous Three men of
Gibaralter died from having eaten them. The iron
Of course, was converted into plumbagg" ny q"
action of the sea water. In the heavy pieces THIS
action extended in to the depth of an INCH Many
pieces were cut out entirely BY the sat- save rev
threads of resisting metal running iength"lse' ana
4 looking like the large bbres OF cocoanut husks-
The iron was mostly worthless.
The management of Mr. CoWen: submarine
srmor was SO perfect that not an accident happen
ed to one Of the divers, in all this great WORK ana
without any Inconvenience, the men could remain
under water for he space of twelve hours
The orily difference between the cast iron GYM