Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-17
Report Of the Board as to Damage
Sustained.
INJURIES STATED IN DETAIL
Caused by Generally Careless and
UnskiI|fuI Docking.
REPAIRS RECOMMENDED

Commodore Selfridge, Naval Constructor
Bowles and Chief Engineer Farmer, the
special board appointed to examine the hull
of the cruiser Columbia at the New York
navy yard to determine the extent of the
damages she sustained by being docked at
Southampton, has reported to the Navy
Department.
'In general" the board says, "the actual
damage Is Slight it being confined to loose
and leaky riyets and few leaky butts and
seams In the fiat keel plates and to dents
in the fiat keel plates and garboards. These
dents occur evidently where the ship rested
on the keel blocks at Southampton, and are
all located at the outer edges Of it on the
fiat keel plate and In the seam of the keel
plates and cardboard, or at an average of
seventeen inches from the vertical keel
The starboard side has suffered markedly
more than the port. The damage to the
keel and cardboard is greatest at the fore
end, just abaft the buckle, where the keel
aft, until all damage, even to the cement,
disappears forward of the engine room.
Forward of the knuckfe nothing has been
injured. Five Of the seven long stanchions
in the fire room reaching from the protect
ed deck to the inner bottom, are buckled,
the worst having permanent set of ~
inches. No plates or angles are cracked.
Four rivets are sheared sharp off, which
within the double bottom.
Two brackets. two floor plates, two wa
ter-tight floors and the vertical keel are
buckled. none of them seriously. We find
no damage to the machinery has been Sus-
tained.
Cause of the Damage.
We find that the cause of the damage
and injury sustained by the hull of the
Columbia by the docking at Southampton
was generally careless and unskiliful dock
Ing, as shown by apparent neglect of most
elementary proportions to secure the uni
form support Of the keel of the ship. The
immediate cause of the dents and bruises
to the bottom plating of the Columbia was
that the keel blocks in Southampton were
not properly aligned, and did not bear
equally, and that each block was not
squared off to give support to the fiat and
level surface of the fiat keel. On the con-
trary the keel blocks had been repeatedly
used, and by bar keel vessels, so that they
were crushed down in the center to such
an extent, that. when examined, as soon
as the water was out of the dock at South
ampton, considerable number showed no
bearing whatever on the fiat part of the
Keel and only bore on the outer edges on
the bottom plating. Wedges were driven
between the keel and the center of these
blocks It the request of the officers Of the
Columbia. A vessel was floated out of the
Southampton dock just before the Column
bia was taken in.
A serious contributory cause to the dam
age was that the keel blocks were not
built up forward. where the forefoot is cut
away from a point 107 feet abaft the for
ward perpendicular. This very consider
able proportion of the length of the ship
was left entirely unsupported, and was
Only shored up some time after the dock
was pumped out, at the request of the
officers of the ship, an Intellectual method
Of taking the weight. if promptly and
properly done. No bilge blocks were used
and the bilge shores were only put in whac
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