The Portland daily press., 1900-04-09
TUNED W BUNIW.
The Californian Will
There Be Repaired.
Divers Worked on Ladders Hung
Over The Side.
Lumber, Cement and
Seaweed Used.
In Stopping the Big Holes In
the Ships Bottom.

Inc steamship Californian, the Allan
liner, which went ashore six weeks age
on Ram Island ledge and which was
fioatod from her rocky cradle after five
weeks Of work by the Boston Towboat
! company. sailed for Boston In tow of
several large tugs at II O'Clock Saturday
night. Shs viii be- put In the dock there
and repaired and will then be put back
into the service OF tho Allan line.
IRE wrecking crew on Its flnal day In
this port we're busily engaged from the
very moment when they started out
early In the morning until they had fn-
ished their labors early In ths afternoon.
As soon az the work was completed Cap
tain Humphreys sent word to Gap tain
enjamin W. Jones and Captain James
keazer, who are the port captains OF
this port. He also notified the officials Of
the Allan. line. Captains Jones and ksa-
ger quickly met Captain Barclay, the port
captain OF the Allan line, and the latter
made arrangements to charter the steam
or Eldorado Of the Casoo Bay Stssmb boat
company to take the party down to the
disabled steamer In order to formally
make n survey and to judge whether ths
steamer was 10 dit condition to be towsd
to Boston. Captain John W.
Desring and Captain John II. Hum
phroy, an agent of one OF the underwrit-
ing companies, were also In vitsd to assist
in the survey. These gentlemen left
Custom House wharf at q few minutes
before three O'Clock and after arriving
at the steamer and making full exAmi.
nation returned to the wharf shortly be-
fore six O'Clock. All OF the membe OF
the survey board expressed them selves
as highly pleased with the condition OF
affairs. Everything 10 satisfactory"
said Captain Barclay, land the steamer
win 60 out early in the morning.
at 10 of oourss very gratifying to
know thar We have accomplished our
work." said Captain Humphreys, the
manager of the Boston Towboat compa-
ny. IA great deal of hard WORK has
been done but all has gone along FIRST
rate. All that We were called upon to do
was to I'LL up the holes and this we have
done. We found the bottom In u very
bsd condition ;and for the " 1rk OF patch
ing up the holes We have used seventy
barrels of cement and something like
90. 600 feet Of lumber. Seaweed both in
bulk and bags has also besn used 10
stopping up these holes, this having
been found to be most excellent pro-
cess. There have been many barrels OF
seAweei which we have used In this way.
"The divers have had a dlffioult task
Co perform rs they have been quite gen.
orally obliged to bring ladders into ser
vice to aid In their work. The water
about the steamer has been SO deep that
it would have been entirely impossible
for the divers to stand on the bottom Of
the bay and do their work. But We quite
easily surmountsd this difficulty. TAX
Ing ladders we lowered them down over
the sides OF the steamer to . depth even
with Its bottom. We firmly tied these
ladders and then IL divers were able TO
stand on them and make the necessary
repairs. Three divers from Boston and
one diver from Portland were at work n
this manner yesterday. We have found
that the whole bottom OF the steamer is
more or less perforated and greatly in
dented. I don't thin that there Is more
than fifty feet OF the entire keel, Ssb feet
long, which 10 intact. 1t is either bsnt
or closed up so that 1t Is all out of shape.
The repsiring will be done in Boston and
will take several weeks.
''In finishing our work In this port /
want to say a good word for the people
of Portland" concluded Captain Hum.
phreyN "Thsy have been kind and oon-
siderate In the interest which they have
manifested in The work; and when we
pulled the steamer of the rocks and into
the harDor a week ago today, they seemed
to be just as munh pleased as II th sy had
done the work themselves.
While the work Of taking the steamer
on the rocks have been in progress and
also the work of repairs in the harbor,
there has been at all times from sixty to
seventy men employed. The crews Of the
tug boats have increased the mum Ter to
over one hundred men.