The herald., 1898-11-03
WORkON SPANISH SHIPS
COSTS MORE MONEY THAN 1T is
WORTH
SWEDISH WRECKlNG COMPANY
Makes an Offer to Raise the Sunken
Cruisers and Also to Raise
the Maine
Associated Press Special Wire

NEW YORK, Nov. "A dispatch to the
Tribune from Washington says:
The Navy Department has practically de
cided to abandon wrecking operations under
existing contracts on the Spanish cruiser.
Crstobal Colon, Vizcaya and Almirante
Oquendo, near Santiago, which have become
GENEROUSLY expensive to the government anC
to approve the recommendations, in part at
least, of Naval Constructor Hobson and
other officers who have been experimenting
the work of rescuing these vessels. The de-
partment has reached the conclusion that
the, Nizcaya and Almrante Oquendo will
probably never be rescued, and the Cristobal
Colon, if saved at all, will not be brought to
the United States by the Merritt and Chap
man Wrecking Company of New York,
which has been working on this vessel under
special contract, involving the payment of
SS29.25 day since July 20, without visbly
improving the chances of the vessels sal
wage.
The same company since July G, when it
executed the first contract for the prosecu-
ton of wrecSing operations on the ships of
Cervera's squadron, has been receiving a
separate payment of $500 day, with the
single result that the Infanta Maria Teresa
is now on her way to Norfolk, where COM
mission will decide what additional compen-
sation, not exceeding $500, 1000, shall be paid
70 the wrecking company on her account
The Board OF Construction, to which the
matter was referred for consideration by
Secretary Long, after he had virtually de-
cided that the present arrangement was be-
coming lntolerable, assumed the responsible
ity of recommending that the contract for
the salvage OF the Colon be annnlled on No
vember 10th, and that new proposals for
righting and raising that vessel be publicly
sought by the Navy Department under re-
strictions which would involve the govern.
mo ip ,II;t;Np,1 Al.
attempt was altogether successful.
The department'wll send cable dispatch
to Captain Chester, a senior naval officer on
the south coast of Cuba, if the recommended
tions of the board are approved as they
will be without doubt, directing him to CON
centrate the wreckng work for the present
altogether on the Reina Mercedes, which is
raising, and that no further attention for
the present be paid to the Oquendo and Viz
caya.
Captain Chester will, in all probability. be
directed at once to destroy the collier Merri
mac, utilizing for this purpose the naval yes
sells under his command and their explosives,
this plan being calculated to relieve the gov
ernment of additional expense, while at the
same time giving naval seamen desirable
practice in countermininS and the REMOVAL
of channel obstructions. Naval officers have
not expressed any particular dissatisfaction
with the work of the Merritt & Chapman
Wrecking Company, which has received
$1,000 day for more than three months at
Santiago. but the experts are thoroughly
agreed that little more can be accomplished
beyond the raising of the Mercedes with the
present plant at Santiago, and they have
decided that further expense in other direc-
tions is unwarranted.
This decision has been influenced to some
extent by the arrival in Washington of rep
resentatives of a great Swedish wrecling
corporation, which succeeded in rescuing the
comparable with that OF the Urisrupai Cor
on, and which points to. a record of 45OO
ships which it has extricated from more
or less serious positions, nearly all of them
submerged at eOnsderabe dep DEPTHS; This
of is ability to bring the Crstobal Colon
and the other Spanish vessels to the United
States, but is ready to guarantee the, de
livery of the Maine in the big drydock at
the New York Navy Yard. The Swedish
wreckers propose to take all the risks OF
failure without expense to the government
and to rely, if they succeed, for compensa-
ton wholly on arbitration.