The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-03
COSTS TOO MUCH MONEY
CONTRACT WORK ON CERvERA'S
SHIPS MAY BE ABANDONED.
WrecI<ing Company Has Received
$1,000 II Day for Three Months, and
Only One Vessel Has Been Raised.

NEW YORK, Nov. "A dispatch to the
Tribune from Washington says: THE Navy
Department has practically decided to aban-
don wrecking operations under existing con-
tracts on the Spanish cruisers Cristobal Co
Ion, Vizcaya and Almirante Oquendo, near
Santiago, which have become onerous and
expensive to the government, and to an
prove the recommendations, in part at least,
of Naval Constructor Hobson and other Off
GERS who have been experimenting the work
of rescuing these vessels. The department
has reached the conclusion that the Vizcaya
and the Almirante Oquendo will probably
never be rescued, and that the Cristobal
Colon, If saved at all. will not be brought
to the United States by the Merritt & Chap
man Wrecking Company, of New York,
which has been working on this vessel under
special contract involving the payment of
$S2925 a day since July 20, without visibly
improving the chances Of that vessels sal
wage. The same company, since July 6,
when it executed the first contract for the
prosecution of wrecking operations on the
ships of Cervera's squadron, has been re-
ceiving a separate payment of $500 a day,
with the single result that the Infanta Maria
Teresa is now on her way to Norfolk, where
commission will decide what additional
compensation, not exceeding $500, 900, shall
be paid TO the wrecking company on her
account.
1.-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 intolerable, assumed the responsible
ity of recommending that the contract for
the salvage of the Colon be annulled on
Nov. TO- and that new proposals for raising
that vessel be publicly sought by the Navy
Department under restrictions which would
involve the government in no additional ex-
pense unless the attempt was altogether
successful. The department will send a ca
BILE dispatch to Capt. Colby M. Chester,
senior naval officer on the south coast of
Cuba, if the recommendations Of the board
are approved, as they will be without doubt,
directing him to concentrate the wrecking
work for the present altogether on the
Reina Mercedes. which is submerged in still
water and capable of ready raising, and
that no further attention for the present be
paid to the Oquendo and the Vizcaya.
Captain Chester will also, i'll all prob
ability, be directed to proceed at once to
destroy the collier Merrimac, utilizing for
this purpose the naval vessels under his
command and their explosives, this plan be-
ing calculated to relieve the government of
additional expense, while at the same time
giving naval Seamen desirable practice in
countermining and the removal of channel
distractions.
NAVAL officials have not expressed any
particular dissatisfaction with the work Of
the Merritt & Chapman Wrecking Company,
which has received 81 600 a day for more
than three months at Santiago but the ex-
perts are thoroughly agreed that little more
can be accomplished beyond the raising of
the Mercedes with the present plant at Sam
tiago. and they have decided that further
expense in other directions is unwarranted.
This decision has been influenced to some
extent by the arrival in Washington of rep
resentatives of a great Swedish wrecking
corporation, which succeeded in r6ScninQ
the British battle ship Howe from a condi-
ton comparative with that of the Cristobal
Colon and which point to a record of over
five hundred ships which it has extricated
from more or less serious positions, nearly
all of them submerged at considerable
depths. This company, it appears, is not
only confident of its ability to bring the
Cristobal Colon and the other Spanish YES
sells to the United States, but is ready to
guarantee the delivery of the Maine in the
big dry dock at the navy yard, New York.
The Swedish wreckers propose to take all
the risks of failure, without expense to the
government, and to rely, If they succeed,
for compensation wholly on arbitration