The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-11-08
FOR THE BIGGEST wAR-sHIPs.

FOR THE BIGGEST WAR-sHIPs.
At Puget Sound Navy Yard a Great
Coaling Wharf is Building.
Over at the Puget Sound Navy Yard
a piece oE construction work is being
carried on by the Puget Sound Bridg-
ing and Dredging company that is full
of interest in itself, as an example of
the latest move in modern engineering
methods, and also significant in its
magnitude of the place which the gov
eminent forseees for the Bremerton
yard among the naval stations of the
country. The work consists of the con-
struction of coaling wharf and storage
shed adapted to unloading coal brought
to the wharf by Golfers, storing it until
| it is wanted, and then redelivering it to
the war-ships at the rate of two hun
dred tons per hour. The entire struc-
ture, including the coaling plant and the
wharf beyond, will have a length of ap-
prOXimately thirteen hundred feet, or
nearly a quarter of a mile. This will
| bring the end of the wharf into thirty
feet of water at low tide, and will make
|
| ship in the navy at any time.
! When this plant is completed the Pu-
get Sound yard will not only be highly
| efficient, but it's advantage over Mare
Island is lower cost of maintenance
will be even more conspicuous than it is
now. For while at Mare Island the
government is under continual expense
! in keeping open the ship channels which
the shifting bottom of the harbor con-
tinually strives to close, in Puget Sound
the conditions are such that permanent
improvements in widening and deepen
ing the channels are so in fact as we'll
as in name.
| Specifications for the work were sent
out in May, and on August IA, 1902, the
plans and estimates prepared by the
Puget Sound Bridging and Dregding
company were accepted, the contract
was signed, and work began immediate
| ly. Under the terms of the contract the
! work is to be done for $3.50, $50, and is to
be completed in ten months from the
time of beginning.
The new plant will be at the western
end of the navy yard, about one hun
dred yards east of the boundary. 1t
will consist of two principal parts, the
storage shed and coaling plant, which
will be six hundred and twenty feet in
length from the shore end, and the
wharf which will extend for six hun
bred and fifty feet beyond the outer end
of the shed. The shed or storage plant
will be divided into bins of suitable size
for handling coal easily and quickly
and will be connected with the outer
wharf by an electrician system. The
shed will be ninety-two feet wide, fifty
five feet high and six hundred and
twenty feet long, with storage capac-
ity of twenty-five thousand long tons.
The wharf where the actual coaling OPP
erations will be carried on will be sup
piled with two movable steel towers
which will operate along the outer three
hundred and fifty feet of the wharf,
leaving about three hundred feet of
trestle carrying the car tracks from the
main shed to the outer wharf. The
towers will be eighty feet In height and
will have arms or booms Of sixty feet in
length that can be swung out over the
deck of a collier. In coaling a war-ship
the coal will be run through chutes
from bins at the end of the wharf di-
lrectly into the bunkers of the ship.
For three hundred and fifty feet along
the ccaling wharf a channel will be
dredged one hundred feet wide, three
hundred and fifty feet long and thirty
feet deep The material secured by the
dredging will be used to fill in under
rEo ho
the shed will be put practically on solid
ground.
AS soon as the contract was signed
the contractors began the work Of prep
aration for carrying on the work by the
most improved methods Of construction.
Buildings were erected near the scene
of the work, and little colony Of work
lmen moved in and took possession.
Sleeping quarters and a mess-house
were built for the men, general office
building for the company, and an office
for the government inspector, together
with a power house and shop building.
Everything possible is being done by
machinery. The plant for driving the
five thousand piles that will be required
is made of two land pile drivers with
double drum engines, and three thou
sand pound hammers, and two floating
pile drivers of heaviest construction.
One of these floating pile drivers is
equipped with Warning tom Nesmyth
st cam hammer. This is the first time
this steam hammer has been used in
contract work in the northwest The
hammer itself weighs five tons, and
rests directly an the head of the pile,
striking seventy blows a minute and
keeping the pile constantly in motion
until it has been driven to the desired
depth. This method Is particularly de-
sirable where the pile must be driven
through packed sand, for the practical
lily constant motion prevents the sand
from settling under the bottom of the
Ipile.
For building the shed a timber tower
sixty feet in height has been erected,
equipped with four-spool bridge
erecting engine. The equipment also in
cludes a steam cutoff saw for cutting
and squaring all timbers used in con-
struction, an air-compressing plant
which will furnish power for driving all
wood boring tools, and air hammers for
driving spikes.
The materials to be used will include
three and one-half million feet of Puget
Sound fir, five thousand piles and five
| hundred tons of iron and steel The