The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-01-29
HOW SUNKEN SHIPS ARE RAISED,

readers that she can ever be tioated
again; but if she rests upon firm,
sandy bottom, without rocks, and the
weather is fair enough for time to
give the wreckers an opportunity, it is
even probable that she can be brought
into port.
In Boston, New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Norfolk and New Orleans,
large firms are established whose special
business it is to send assistance to dis
tressed vessels, and to save the cargo
if the vessels themselves cannot be
prevented from becoming total wrecks;
and these firms are known as wreckers
"a name which in the olden time was
given to class of heartless men dwell
ing on the coast who lured ships ashore
by false lights for the sake of the spoils
which the disaster brought them.
When a vessel is announced to be
ashore or sunk, the owners usually ap-
ply to the wreckers, and make a bar
gain with them that they shall receive
a certain proportion of her value if
they save her, and the wreckers then
proceed to the scene of the accident, TAX
ing with them powerful tug-boats, large
pontOons, immense iron cables and a
massive derrick.
Perhaps only the topmasts of the
wreck are visible when they reach it;
but even though she is quite out of
sight. she is not given up, if the sea is
calm and the wind favorable. One of
the men puts diving dress over his
suit of heavy flannels. The trousers
and Jacket are made of India-rubber
cloth, fitting close to the ankles, wrists,
and across the chest, which is further
protected by breast-plate. A copper
helmet with glass face is used for
covering the head, and is screwed on
to the breast-plate. One end of a coil
of strong rubber tubing is attached to
the back of the helmet, to the outside
of which a running cord is also at
tached, and continued down the side of
the dress to the divers right hand,
where he can use it for signaling his as
sistants when he is beneath the sur
face. His boots have leaden soles
! weighing about twenty-eight pounds;
and as this, with the helmet, is INSULT
cient to allow his descent, four blocks
of lead, weighing fifty pounds, are
slung over his shoulders; and water
proof bag containing hammer, a
chisel and dirk-knife is fastened over
his breast.
He is transferred from the steamer
that has brought him from the city to a
small boat, which is rowcd to a spot
over the wreck, and short iron ladder
is put over the side. down which he
steps; and when the last rung is
reached, he let's 60, and the water
bubbles and sparkles over his head as
he sinks deeper and deeper.
The immersion of the diver is more
thrilling to spectator than it is to
him. The rubber coil attached to his
helmet at one end is attached at the
other to an air-pump, which sends him
all the breath he needs, and if the sup
ply is irregular pull at the cord by
his right hand secures its adjustment.
He is not timid, and he knows that the
only thing he has to guard against is
nervousness, by which he might lose
his presence of mind. The fish dart
away from him at motion of his hand,
and even shark is terrified by the APP
partition of his strange globular helmet.
He is careful not to approach the wreck
too suddenly, as the tangled rigging
and splinters might twist or break the
air-pi pc and signal line; when his feet
touch the bottom he looks behind, be-
fore and above him before he advances
an inch.
Looming up before him like a phan-
tom in the foggy light is the ship; and
now, perhaps, if any of the crew have
gone down with her, the diver feels a
momentary horror; but if no one has
been lost he sets about his work and
huns cheerful tune.
It may be that the vessel has settled
low in the sand, that she is broken in
two, or that the hole in her bottom can
not be repaired. But we will suppose
that the circumstances are favorable,
that the sand is firm and the hull in an
asy position.
The diver signals to be hauled up,
makes his report, and in his next de-
scent he is accompanied by several 9TH
ers. who help him to drag massive
chains of iron underneath the ship, at
the bow. at the stern, and in the mid
die. This is a tedious and exhausting
operation, which sometimes takes many
days; and when it is completed, the
pontoons are towed into position at each
side of the ship.
The pontoons, simply described, are
hollow floats. They are oblong, built
of wood, and possess great buoyancy.
Some of them are over a hundred feet
long, eighteen feet wide and fourteen
feet deep; but their size, and the num-
Der of them used, depend on the length
of the vessel that is to be raised. Cir
cular tubes, or wells, extend through
them; and when the chains are secured
underneath the ship, the ends are in
serted in these wells by the divers, and
drawn up through them by hydraulic
power. The chains thus form series
of hoops like the common swing of the
playground, in which the ship rests;
and as they are shortened in being
drawn up through the wells, the ship
lifts. The ship lifts if all be well-if
the chains do not part. or some other
accident occur; but the wreckers need
great patience, and sometimes they see
the labor of weeks undone in a minute.
We are presupposing success, how
ever, and instead of sinking or capsiz-
ing the ship appears above the bubbline
water, and between the pontoons, which
groan and tremble with her weight.
As soon as her docks are above wa
ter, SO much of the cargo is removed as
is necessary to enable the divers to
reach the broken part of the hull, which
they patch with boards and canvas if
she is built of wood, or with iron plates
if she is of iron. This is the most per-
ilous part of the divers work, as there
are 50 many projections upon which his
air-tube may catch; but he finds it
almost as easy to ply his hammer and
drill in making repairs under water as
on shore.
The ship is next pumped out and
borne between the pontoons by power
full tugs to the nearest dry,dock'
where all the damages are finally re-
paired. and in q month or two she is
once more afloat, with nothing to indi-
cate her narrow escape.-Hosper's
Young People.