The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-06-14
Too Much Suction Almost Com
pleted the Wreck of the
Sunken Ship.
BIG VACUUM WAS CREATED.
The Air-Pumps Only Worked at Half
Speed and We're the Cause of
All the Trouble.

The raising of the Blairmore nearly
ended in disaster yesterday. In the first
place the decks nearly gave way under the
pressure of the suction pumps and Cap
tain Whitelaw nearly lost his life. Cap
tain Burns considered both accidents as
birds of ill-omen and at once stopped all
work on the sunken ship. At 10 A. NJ the
the only sign of activity about the wreck
the exhaust steam from the air-pump
on tie WhiteIaw. eff there is no more
hitches," says Captain Burns, "the Blair
more will be up tomorrow (this) morn
ing"
When work ceased on the Blairmore last
Friday morning the stern of the sunken
ship had been raised at least foot and
everything pointed to a success. Captain
Burns does not want the stern up first,
however, as the bow points inshore and as
the Whitelaw is moored to the ships bow
it would be impossible to move her. All
efforts are therefore being made in the
direction OF getting the vessel up bow first.
In order to do this one hundred tons of
sand, in sacks, was piled on the stern OF
the snip and when the final attempt Is
made this morning it is expected that the
and that the bow will come up. In that
event the tug Monarch will be on hand
and the race for shallow water will begin.
| All OF Friday afternoon the crew of the
wrecker was engaged in getting the anchor
of the Blairmore aboard. They coiled the
chain on the lorecastle of the Whitelaw
and the anchor is now in position to drop
at any moment should the vessel break
adrift from her moorings
When work began yesterday morning
Captain Whitelaw went out to the wreck
to see that the centrifugal and suction
pumps were in good working order. He
climbed the superstructure raised on the
hull and, missing his footing, fell heavily.
He was partly stunned and being unable
to assist himself, rolled into the bay. One
of the divers was near al hand and he at
once went to the assistance of his chief
and pulled him back onto the side of the
ship. After a rundown and change of
clothes Captain Whitelaw was as well as
ever and went to work again.
! 1t was not long before every thing was in
perfect working order, and when the tide
| suited the pumps were all set a-going.
! The big plunger poured ont tons of water
and the Pinch centrifugal did its share.
As the water YVES Displaced great vacuum
was created, which the ir-pump was sup
posed 10 fill.
The latter was only working at half
speed owing to some mistake, however,
and in consequence for every pound of
water taken out th-re was not an ounce of
air pumped in. A creaking of the wood
work gave the warning, and Captain Burns
at once ordered the water-pumps stopped.
Then ne took boat and made Decline
for the Whitelaw. What he said to the
engineers remains to be told, but an hour
later the airpump was still going full
speed, and one thing is certain-it will be
in good working order this morning.
The removal of the water in the hold
! created an enormous suction, and as there
was no air to fill the vacuum the wonder
is that the vessels decks, or at least her
matches, did not yield to the pressure.
Should that have happened the Blairmore
would have been a total loss, and all the
money so far expended on the raising of
! her would have been wasted.
Everything was in perfect working or
der" said Captain Burns, 'but owing to
this unfortunate blunder our days work
| is wasted We went to work at o'clock
in the morning to weight down the YES
sells stern, so as to bring up her stem, and
Just when everything was working at its
best the hitch came. Never mind" said
he, recovering his good humor, ''we'n just
| try il AGAIN