Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-08-08
THE WILLIAM WINDOW.
Explanation Of the Delay In Bringing the
Boat Down.


The arrival of the William Win
dom has again been delayed. Like
her sister craft, built at the same
place, she seems to be unfortunate.
The Dubuque Herald gives this rea-
son:
"The Window did not get away
yesterday for the reason the process
Of tightening it was not completed,
but was interrupted by the breaking
OF chain. 1t is proposed to raise
the boat. which draws six feet six
inches Of water and weighs 400 tons,
three feet. This will be done by
means Of barges lao feet long, "a
feet wide. 6 feet deep. with a capac-
itv Of $50 tons. One of these is
placed on each side Of the cutter.
Two Pinch holes were boared in the
bottom and they were allowed to set
tie until the water reached the decks.
Then the holes were plugged up.
Six iron cased beams were then laid
across the cutter and extended out
over the barges. Chains were then
placed under the hull and securely
fastened to the beams. Piling was
then laid on the barges and built up
to the beams. 1t was then intended
| to pump the water out of the barges
and as they arose the cutter would
be raised with them. Yesterday
morning the Artemus Lamb and
Josephine drew up to the craft.
Each inserted syphon in barge
and started to pump out the water.
The Window was raised about foot
when the forward chain broke. This
| chain was a monster affair, its links
being of inch iron, and it seemed
almost impossible for any weight to
break it. 1t had, however, in addi-
ton to supporting the great weight
of the bow, extending 20 feet beyond
it, also lot of steam pipes and other
materials to be used in completing
the boat at St. Louis. The breaking
of the chains interrupted operations
and made it necessary to sink the
barge and begin all over again.
Further delay will be occasioned for
the reason a chain was not obtain
able to take the place of the broken
one. Frank Dickey telegraphed both
Chicago and st. Louis. but could not
obtain one readily large enough.
The Diamond 10 company has chains
at LeClaire, IS miles down the river.
LeClaire has neither railroad COM
munication nor telegraph. and the
only way of obtaining the chains is
by steamboat. The Artemus Lamb
was accordingly started out last
night and will return today. Mr..
Dickey says it will take but few
hours to raise the boat. and that it
will leave here Thursday afternoon"
River Riplets.
The stage Of the water at the Rock
Island bridge at noon was 1885; the
temperature, sc.
The West Rambo. C. w. Cowles, j.
X. Graves and f. Rutledge brought
down eight strings each Of logs.
The Pilot, Verne Swain and Pres
cote came down, and the West
Rambo. Pilot, Prescotte, f. Rutledge
and Verne Swain passed up.
The Pittsburgh, which left here at
daylight Monday morning. is laid up.
She reached Clinton at noon with
broken shaft, and was totally dis
abled when she reached Bellevue. 1t
was expected the Josephine would
take her passengers to st. Paul, but
she was in no condition to make the
run, SO the 1OS passengers were
ticketed through on the Milwaukee.
The accident occurred at LeClaire.
but the packet managed to reach
Clinton by working her starboard
engine and finally made Bellevue,
when assistance came. She is now
in the ice harbor at Dubuque. Her
wheel is dismantled, and the
shaft goes to the Iowa Iron Works
for welding or new shaft, as the
circumstances may warrant. The
repairs will take several days. If not
week, to put the steamer in condi-
ton again.