Mexico Missouri message., 1904-04-28
IIILl

The recovery of the body of Diver
William Hoar, after ninety-four hours
Of vigil over the waters Of the Rock
away river dam at Boonton, N. j.,
ended the suspense in one of the
most remarkable of cases. 1t is prob
able that Hoar lived twenty-one hours
under the water--that much is sur
missed from the signals. The struggle
to release him, hour after hour, was
full of incident, heroism, and sadness.
Every effort was made to save him.
1t was generally acknowledged that
Hoar was the victim of his own in
discretion. 1t was a tremendously
ticklish job he was sent to do. He
himself reported, after two trips he
made to the bottom, that he had never
been on such a "scary job" in his
life before, but that he had things
fixed down below so that he had no
fear Of any further accident.
story of the Accident.
In the middle of four-foot sluice
pipe, at the bottom of a shaft run
ming straight from the top of the
dam to the bottom. is a gate valve
by which the quantity of the water in
the dam is to be regulated.
This valve got out of order after
the dam had been filled up. 1t stuck
so that the gates were eighteen inches
apart and could not be opened or
closed. An expert from the works
in Troy where the valve was made,
came out and worked over it for a
week. The valve could not be bulged.
It became necessary to shut off the
flow of water at the mouth of the
pipe.
Now, the pipe does not begin at
the dam itself, but runs out under
water for a hundred feet and opens
on cement platform fifteen feet
square.
The mouth of the pipe is in a per-
pendicular wall which rises ten feet
opening effectively this plan was de-
vised: A great ball. made of wood,
flfty-two inches in diameter, or four
inches larger that the inlet opening
in the apron, was weighted with lead
and lowered toward the opening. It
was hoped that the suction would
catch the ball, draw 1t into the hole
and cut off the flow of water through
the pipe.
At the first attempt the ball broke
away from the rope by which it was
lowered. Chief Engineer George G..
Harness, who had devised the plan,
sent to ]. S. Bundick, master diver,
for a diver. Bundick sent out Bill
Hoar, who found the ball on the bot
tom of the dam and connected it again
with the lowering cable. The ball
was lowered again, and this time
rolled into the inlet opening, and was
caught by the suction.
But the water did not stop flowing
from the outlet pipe on the other
side of the dam. 1t came out in
diminished volume, but still in a
torrent which made it out Of the ques-
ton to attempt to reach the broken
valve which was making all the
trouble. Bill Hoar was sent for
again, to find out what was wrong.
When he came up he reported that a
five-inch hawser. which had been tied
into one end of the ball to make 1t
easier to handle, had got in between
the downstream side OF the ball and
the bottom of the pipe and kept the
opening from being closed altogether.
There was a consultation of engi-
nees, and it was decided to try to fill
kla npaxHnae boAwyaay Aha ggda. aud
bottom Of the ball ana the edges Of
the pipe with sand bags; for Hoar had
reported that any diver who attempt
ed to reach the damned rope or 10
cut it would be drawn in and crushed
to death by the suction.
Hoar went down with, eight sand
bags. He came to the surface and
said that he had stopped all leakage
on one side of the ball and that
there was no suction on that side to
speak OF.
With more sand bags he went down
again, and when he came up he said
that there was now no danger at all
in walking around on the platform,
although there were several erevIces
through which the racing waters tug
ged mighty hard at everything within
reach. He thought that three more
bags would close them. At about 2
o'clock he started on the trip from
which he did not return.
Charley Dobson, who has worked
with Hoar for years and with whom
the diver had a code Of signals which
allowed them to understand one
another by jerks Of the rope al
most as clearly IS though they
were face to face on dry land.