The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-01-17
WRECKED VESSELS.
A Pisn by Which the Task of Raising
Them May BE SimpIided.

lHeh may he Sinpiued-
There seems to he a great deal of diff.
fculty encountered in the rising Of
wrecked vessels. Many expedients
have been resorted 10, and no end of
cost and trouble has attended many of
the experiments in this direction; but.
as rule, the plans adopted do not
meet with any very pronounced sue
cess.
Especially is this the case when yes
sells are stuck on sand-bars. Hosting
an air-flled apparatus are in many
cases useless for the purpose, and
wrecks have been abandoned or per-
mltted to break up because of the i'm
possibility of lifting the enormous
weight of the sand in which they are
imbedded
Why hasn't some inventive genius de-
vised system of utilizing a series of
hose-pipes to be used with n force
pump for dislodging the sand by which
the vessel is held? A stream of water
under heavy pressure will do more to-
ward lOosening the sand than any other
means which could be adopted. Divers,
arranged at suitable intervals, could so
direct rthese streams that the sand
along one entire side of the vessel could
be washed away in a few moments
If, then. a series of receptacles filed
with air could be attached to one
side, the vessel could be released
with very little difficulty and
braces or props could be placed
underneath to prevent the hull from
again burying itself in the sand. Then,
with the same process repeated on the
other side, the trou blesome mass would
be removed and nothing would stand in
the way of successful raising.
To do this, of course, would require a
good deal of machinery and some genius
in the way of applying il, but so valua-
bic are many of the submerged boats
and their cargoes that the cost of main
tanning wrecking plant of this sort
would not count as against its eff
cheney.
Experiments have been tried with
cylinders filed with compressed
air. which have been sunk and
attached to the vessel to be raised
but so strong is the grasp of the
sand that encircles the hull. that the
most powerful lifting apparatus has in
many cases proved insufficient. With
the addition of the hose-pipes and
heavy streams of water, there is but
little that the raising of wrecks could
be greatly simplified, and much less
time and cost might be involved in the
work.
There are many men, however, who
are engaged in such occupations whose
tenacity to tradition and usage will not
permit of their adopting new ideas.
They prefer to go in the old expensive
way, much more, however, 10 the
owners of the vessel than 70 the
wrecker But there are enterprising
people who are willing to take
up better ways and try all reasonable
experiments in the line of their bus
mess. To such men new processes and
improved methods are of great inter
est, and it is TO these that one must
look for everything in the line Of ad-
vanced appliances. whether for this
purpose or any other.
There has long been urgent need for
something better in the way Of wreck |
ing apparatus for heavy work and dlf- /
fcult tasks.
Some one is bound. sooner or later, 20 /
utilize this idea, and with il work a
complete revolution in the wrscking /
business y. Ledger