The Savannah morning news., 1900-07-19
SAVING BIG WRECK
Remarkable Work of Salvage Com
panfes on Ocean Liners.


From the New York Mail and Express
DO you consider the operation OF rails
ing the Saae. Main and Bremen an extra
ordinary wreckng job?' was asked tho
president of great marine underwriting
company by a reporter
mot in the least" was his prompt an
swer. 1.-THE ordinary floating Of a ship
means nothing to the wrecking companies
these days. When the st. Paul was haul
ed off the beach at Long Branch It was
believed by some % be a most remark
able feat of marine engineering. 1t GER
tainly was the first instance of a leviath-
an being saved on this side; but salving
of that kind is nothing in England. when
the wreckers have simply 10 get hauling
lines out and pull away to float craft
ID Is no more remarkable than an ant
dragging a crumb. 1t is a question of
power alone.
TN the case of the Saale and her two
sisters, the stopping up OF al holes, the
use of pontoons and immense cables and
The application Of pumps capable of dis
charging $500 tons of water per hour,
comprise the operation under which the
wreckers work. II is only when the
wreekers have to build artificial canals.
blow up rocks with dynamite. invent new
means of suction and buoyancy, that
wreckiug jobs become remarkable in these
days.
One OF the most successful wre cking op-
erations of recent years was done by
amaieu when the British warship Bon
adventure, attached TO the China station,
struck on the rocks last year; also, when
the Oregon recently stranded. The pumps
could not make any impression on the
water in the lower holds. The captain had
a hole cut in the armored deck From this
a let of water nine feet high came out.
screw nozzle was fitted to the hole and
an effort was made to force in air with
the diving pump, which theoretically
should have been able 10 do 1t, but would
not The chief engineer then proposed put
ting i'm torpedo air service. with this it
would have been possible to blow the
ship up. so "A safety valve made OF a piece
of india-rubber tubing which would burst
II the pressure rose 100 high, was fitted
TO the pipe.
In this way the water was forced out
through the two holes IL came In at, and
the air bubbling out showed the divers
where the holes were under the damaged
sheathing. The ship was saved in this
way.
famous wrecking job was that which
attended the stranding OF the steamer
Iowa off Cherbourg. She was bound 10
this city with $50 passengers. Shortly after
stranding she careened and seemed to be
lost altogthere. A London salvage com
pany sent out an expedition and borrowed
various appliances from the French gov
eminent dockyard at Cherboure The
frst thing to be done was 10 raise the
ship in an upright position. number
of steel posts or masts were rugged up
vertically, and at the top Of each was o
block and fall. The latter were attached
10 the masts OF the fallen craft, but the
ship could not be budged Three months
later the wreckers increased their power
and gear and after pumping the vessel out
and making her alright she practically
lifted herself to an even keel with the ris-
ing tide. The attempt that failed cost
$40 900, and the second and successful at
tempt only $4,000
Another extensive wrecking Job was
that of the Wick Bay. a British steamer.
which lay in thirty feet of mud near
Kings Lynn for your years bafiing all
attempts to remove her. When. az last,
she was raised 1880 tons OF mud were dis
charged from her with pumps, the divers
manipulating the suction pipes inside the
vessel
The saving OF the Markoma mia OF the
Hamburg American Line. which stranded
at Savanilla. United States of Colombia.
was another gigantic task. and was per-
formed by an American wrecking compa-
ny. The vessel was tightly weaged in a
valley Of coral reefs, which the wreckers