St. Landry democrat., 1884-09-13
Barnacleso

Pacific Mail Company to reporter of
the Chronicle recently. s'You wouldn't
think it, but it's one of the biggest
items of expense in the repairs of these
steamers" continued he. ''1t's an
operation that every ships bottom goes
! through after every third trip across
| the Pacific, and you know that the lit
tie creatures which give us so much
trouble are thicker and attain their
growth more rapidly IN Pacific waters
| than they do in the Atlantic
The reporter and his informant were
in the vicinity of Hunters Point dry
dock, and on entering the yard the
City of New York was seen high and
dry on the supports, and q large num-
Der of men, each with gular-shaped
Scraper of hard metal in hand, were
working on her. These scrapers had
handles attached to the center and
were ground on each of their three
edges. The sound of the scraping re-
sembles that produced by masons'
troWels in spreading mortar, though
much louder, and there was also d
hacking and cutting noise occasionally,
as some more obstinate bunch of barna-
cles clung with greater tenacity than
their neighbors. It was wholesale
slaughter of these parasitic animals,
which in some spots incrusted the bot
tom of the ship to the depth of an inch
and half to two inches.
'sThey are only small clingers, these
barnacles, said the Pacific Mail man,
''but like feas on a nervous individual,
they are very much in the way, though
they are little. y
ITO what extent do they damage the
bottom of an iron ship?' asked the re-
porter.
at isn't for the damage to the ship
so much as the way they impede its
progress that they are complained of, "
was the reply.
"How much time each day of sailing
coating of barnacles on her bottom?"
''From fifteen to twenty-five miles. F"
'Do they not grow thicker on wooden
bottom vessels than on iron?'
eyes; but they are not SO thick on
copper bottoms, and that is one of the
chief objects in having vessels copper
bottomed. The pharmacies do not like
the poisonous nature of the copper and
do not begin to cling to it until it has
been partly neutralized by the action of
the salt water. Iron ships can not, OF
course, have copper bottoms, as the ex-
pense would be too great in making q
solid bottom of copper, and there is no
satisfactory way of attaching the
sheeting. To partly obviate the tend
ency OF barnacles to collect on iron
vessels strong solution of vcrdigris is
now mixed with other ingredients and
used on the bottom below the red water
line, and for this reason all the lower
outside surface of the steamers of this
company now have a green color, such
as you now see they are putting on the
underside of the New York STEM
The reporter watched the process of
scraping and observed that as fast as
large circle of the barnacle covered
surface was cleaned and the red iron
rust was made visible underneath, it
was washed clean by another set of men,
who were followed by the painters with
pots of steaming mixture from furnaces
along the ships side. Over each of
q green liquid that bubbled and Kissed
and sent forth an odor which one could
not but consider poisonous from the
nature of the compound whence it
issues.
elbow long does it take for gang of
workmen like this to remove the barn
acles from shifpP" asked the reporter.
''About two days. Sometimes they
put on as many men as can work con-
Teniently on a vessels bottom. You
see the idea is to save expense. 1t costs
"a vessel from $500 to $1,000 day, ac-
cording to her tonnage, to lie on
this dock, and the men who do the
work on this steamer are furnished by
the Mail Company, and are instructed
to push the job as fast as possible. It
would cost the company as much dock
age each day if only two men were en-
pIoyed in cleaning a bottom as it would
if there were 100 at work.
''Does the green mixture that they
are now applying act as q preventive
against the accumulation of the barna-
o1es?"
'Only in a measure 1t requires
but a few months fer the salt water to
dissolve it and eat into the iron and
form rough, rusty places, where the lit
tie clingers gather Tnd grow. They
spread very fast, and 10 a considerable
depth when vessel is lying still for
an extended period, bat often on the
trip to China and returning a vast
viii spread themselves all over
a steamers bottom. It is sometimes g
mystery how they collect so easily vixen
q vessel is in notion -
CsAre there not other and ehfectual
means for preventing their presence?'
E'There may be, was the reply, 'but
they have not yet been discovered. A
thousand different preparations have
hnnt, triad LII 90