The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-28
Methods That May Be Used In
 Raising Repub ic
VARIOUS DEVICES IN USE
Notable Feats In Submarine Engineer ing, Forcing King Neptune to Give Up the Goods-Work
 For Divers.
From the Omaha Bee.

fIoiu tue Ofnana Bee.
 Though she is lying in more than 15O feet of water, and in part of the North Atlantic beset by numerous and tremen- dous storms there is yet more than a bare possibility that the wrecked steamer Republic may be raised and lowed to New York.
 few years ago the attempt would have seemed sheer madness, but recently there have been great improvements in the methods of salvage.
 Only last year. for instance. most grati- flying success resulted from a new method of refoatng sunken ships-a method which will. it is believed. revolutionize salvage work The new process was first successfully adopted with the Allan liner Bayarian, which. after lying stranded on the rocks in the St. Lawrence river for more than a year, was brought off some 14 or 15 months ago.
 The idea was conceived from the "com- pressed air method of building piers be- low the water line. The vessel to be worked upon has all it's upper works made perfectly tight, and then air under great pressure is forced into the holds By this means the water is gradually driven out at the leaxy holes and the vessel thus being artificially and temporarily lighter than water. rises to the surface.
 The Bavarian, vessel of 1O,Ss7 tons burden, worth s650,0O0, stranded in the deep water of the St Lawrence at the commencement of November 1905. For many months underwriters had employed every known salvage but in vain. The pontoon method had been tried for weeks together, without success. Lighters and |, chains had been used, but had quite failed and the slowing of empty air chambers in the holds had also been tried without effect, until the underwriters had at length abandoned hope and had settled a total loss upon it.
 New Method.
 Then the discoverers of the new sal wage method asked to be allowed to work upon the Bavarian, and at the ex- penditure of only $30,000 it was safely brought up in the spring of last year.
 A feat which MT. J. Sandeman Allen. chairman of the Liverpool Salvage as- sociation, said made a record in salvage work was successfully accomp- lished about eight or nine months ag go.
 It was the case of the steamer Vero- nese, which, with a valuable cargo, sank off the Spanish coast with hole in its bow. The question was whethe CT the old method of discharging the cargo and patching the vessel from the inside would have to be adopted whether it could be avoided. It was decided to repair the damage under water, utilizing pneumatic tools which have recently come Into use.
 Divers took the measure of the dam. a md cfa afnl, da board the salvage steamer. Working on a platform 2S feet below water divers drilled the necessary holes in the ship. The plate was then sent down and fixed at once by patent bolts invented by the association's surveyor. The cargo was not disturbed, and the ship was brought back to Liverpool through the Bay of Biscay in variable weather. without starting leak
 If for nothing else than the ingenuity displayed by the salvage people, the rescue of the British cruiser Victorious Is well worth recording. Early in 1899 the Victorious, vessel of 15,000 tons. went aground off Port Said in a heavy gale. It ran on to a bank of sticky mud and sand, and every effort to get 1t off with its own engines and by pow erful tugs proved unavailing.
 It was the engineer-in-chief of the Suez canal who solved the problem He sug- gested placing a dredger on each side of it's keel, and at the same time employing two tank boats to force heavy jets of water under the bottom of the stranded ship and keep the sand from settling back. This device proved completely suc- cessful, and within forty eight hours the Victorious safe in thirty-fve feet of water.
 How dangerous its position was may be judged from the fact that another vessel which ran upon the same sand bed a few years previously sank in 1t up to the masthead and lies there buried for all | time.
 Dynamited From the Rocks.
 One of the most celebrated instances of | salvage engineering occurred in connec- 1 tion with the great British tramp steamer i Milwaukee. It was a brand new vessel of i 1900 tons when. upon its first voyage, it 1 ran hard and fast upon the granite crags of the Scotch coast. There 1t lay, damned hard and fast. and exposed to the scud of | a heavy swell which within the first twenty-four hours twisted it's bows to | pieces.
 Captain Bachelor who was intrusted with the task of salving 1t. saw at first glance that the forepart of the ship was beyond hope and resolved upon a des- perate expedient. He hung belt of small