Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1893-04-25
DESTROYING WRECKS.
THE WORK OF THE YANTlC IN RE-
MOVING DISTRACTIONS.


She Has Blown Up Eleven sunken Yes
| sels. Each One of which Was Dam
| e.rous Menace to Navigation Along the
Coast-Dangers of the Work.
Few people, outside of those who nayi
! cate the waters along the north Atlantic
coast and the marine insurance people, ap
preciate the value of the employment In
4 which the sloop-of-war Yantic has been
engaged, destT Dying the sunken wrecks
which for long time have menaced the
safety of steam and sail vessels Ana lew
| people other than the officers and men
| who have been engaged in this work know
the difficulties and dangers which these
people encountered in finding the wrecks
/ and DESTROYING them with the powerful
! agencies of gunpowder, gun cotton and
dynamite.
| In the four months which the 4antic
was employed in the destructive work she
| blew up and destroyed eleven snnken
wrecked vessels, the benefit from which
| cannot be measured by the cost of the la
Dor and the use of materials in accomplish
1 ing it, Most of the wrecks were found
| lying on the bottom Of the ocean, with
| from ten to twenty fathoms of water over
| them, and they were nearly all large iron
vessels, with their masts and rigging stand
/
af1oat.
Upon finding the wreck, the officers had
to watch the opportunity of good weather
| to remove it, and even when the sea was
| comparatively smooth the natural swell
made the work dangerous, especially when
| the eyes of the rigging or the top of the
| lower masts were below the surface of the
water The first thing necessary was to
cut the rigging, for even if the masts them
| was blown
ging on either side would hold it upright.
Leutenants Richman, Mertz and Rose
| had direct supervision of the processes OF
destruction and it was of that dangerous
character as to make it necessary that each
should take part in the muscular work to
encourage the men under them.
HOW WRECKS ARE DESTROYED.
| As an illustration the iron vessel Har
| greaves, of more than 1900 tons displace-
ment was found with the top of her lower
mast, a spar thirty two inches in diame err,
| few feet above the water. Her wire
| rigging was from four to five inches in
| circumference.
Lieutenant Richman, with boats crew,
went from the ship to the wreck and
while two men held the boat up to the
mast, others with axes began to cut away
the rigging. The swell was a light one
| but sufficient to lift the boat up and down,
| so that at the second blow with the AK it
cut into the rigging four feet above the
| first blow. But after couple of days
| cutting and hacking away the rigging fell
| over on each side of the wreck to the bot
| tom of the ocean.
To complete the destruction a torpedo
was made fast to one of the hoops around
| the mast, and by this was lowered to it's
| foot, in position to demolish the deck and
to blow the mast out. Then the boat was
hauled off 500 feet, the electric battery was
| touched, and a terrific upheaval of the
| water showed that the torpedo had done
its work.
The wreck of the Viscaya gave much
| trouble to the Yahtic people because the
top of the lower mast was SO far below the
surface of the water. Lieutenant Rose had
charge of this. He successfully planted Il
torpedo at the foot of the mast, but not
without many vexatious attempts, aud
found, after blowing the lower mast out of
| its step, that the great spar simply leaned
over to one side, the rigging holding it in
that position. Later he was successful in
cutting the mast at the eyes of the rigging,
and the obstruction was thus destroyed
UTILIZING A WRECK.
An amusing incident occurred at The de-
struction of another wreck, the hull of
which was far below the depth that the
keel of the largest vessel would GO A gar
land of the explosive compound eucircled
the mast near the deck of the sunken ship,
and when the battery fired the mast
stood so long that Lieutenant Kelly re-
marked, "Well, the attempt has failetlp
But he had hardly uttered the words be-
fore the mast fell over and sunk to the
bottom. The mast had been cut so per-
fectly at its circumference that it stood for
several seconds until the swell of the ocean
disturbed its equilibrium, and then it went
over.
One of the sunken wrecks is now doing
duty at Wachpweague inlet, on the Vir-
ginia coast, as danger buoy. 1t is Il large
iron vessel which would be dangerous to
navigation unless entirely removed, and as
1t does not materially contract the navin-
able waters Lieutenant Richman concluded
that 1t would make a first class danger
buoy, and mariners have declared it to be
the best and most useful one on the coast
he cut the top of the mast off leaving sew
eral feet standing above water, upon which
he painted black and white stripes al
ternately.
These special instances noted will give a
general idea of what has been successfully
accomplished by a naval vessel that mas
been declared obsolete, and by officers who.
1t is thought by some, have very easy and
enjoyable life away from their homes and
families, living on sailed and canned meats
and canned and desiccated vegetables
New York Tribune.