The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-10
TEXAS GOES DOWN.
ACCIDENT YESTERDAY IN THE
BROOKLYN NAVY YARD.
Stream of Water Ii Inches in DIAM
eter Rushed Into the Starboard
Engine Room-Seems to Be Il Par
ticuIariy Unfortunate Vessel.

NEW YORK, Nov. 9.-The battleship
Texas added another to the list of her
misfortunes this morning, at the Cobb
dock in the Brooklyn navy yard. The
yoke of the valve of her main star
board injector gave way. The water
poured into the starboard engine room,
and the battleship went to the bottom.
There was less than 30 feet of water
in the dock and the Texas draws about
"A feet, SO she did not go down far.
She rested easily on the soft east river
mud, with her water line four feet
under the surface.
The Texas has been at the navy
yard for a week undergoing slight re-
pairs. The repairs included some
minor changes in the starboard injec-
tor and to make these the pipes con-
Meeting it with the condenser were dis
connected and the end covered with
temporary plates.
On Sunday afternoon Captain Glass
made an inspection of the entire ship.
He saw the injector with its valve and
condenser pipes and they seemed to be
all right. The injector is the apparatus
through which sea water is taken into
the condenser. 1t consists of 13-inch
pipe running from the bottom of the
ship to the starboard engine room,
where it ends in a bowl from which
the pipes lead to the condenSers. 1t
is furnished with a steel valve closing
against a hange to keep the water
out when it is not needed. This valve
is raised and lowered by a steel screw
operated by a wheel and working in a
yoke at the top of the bowl. The yoke
is of steel and weighs about 800 pounds.
The strain of water against the valve
proved too much for the yoke at 6:15
this morning and it broke short off,
allowing the valve to rise and thus
permitting the water to rush into the
bowl. The temporary caps over the
pipes were blown off, and the bonnet
of the bowl was dislodged. A stream
of water Is inches in diameter rushed
into the starboard engine room.
Engineer Higgins was in the engine
room when the yoke gave way and he
ran up on the deck when he saw what
a body of water was flowing in and
how serious the accident was. He gave
the alarm and the steam whistle was
blown, the signal to close water-tight
bulkheads. Then the gongs sounded
the call to general quarters and the
men came up on the run. Captain
Glass took personal command. The
order to close the bulkheads was
obeyed by the men as though they had
been at a drill and it was executed in
Two minutes ana ~ seconds. Inc water
continued to pour in until the starboard
engine compartment was completely
flooded. The longitudinal bulkhead di-
viding the engine rooms has several
small openings in it, and the water
leaked through and soon flooded the
port engine room, but the closing of the
transverse bulkheads prevented it from
reaching any other part of the ship.
When the Texas came to a stop on the
bottom of the river, her bow had sunk
about five feet and the stern a little
more. Captain Glass reported to Com
modore Sicard, the commandant of the
navy yard, and a report was at once
forwarded to Secretary Herbert, at
Washington. Then the work of raising
the ship was begun. Wrecking tugs
steamed alongside and diver was sent
down in the starboard engine room to
try to plug the injector and make it
possible for the water to be pumped
out Late in the afternoon the divers
succeeded in fitting plug into the end
OF the injector, and then the pumps
began to, make an impression on the
water in the engine room. At $3.50
o'clock the ship righted and soon after
that was fioated.
She was launched from the Norfolk
navy yard on June %, 1892, and went
into commission in the spring of 1895.
She has had many mishaps, several of
which have been of a more serious ma
ture than the present accident. She
has had more accidents than all the
rest of the North Atlantic squadron
put together.