The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-09-05
ITO RAISE maine,
. CANT TELL HOW |
Army Engineers Determined to
Get the Old Battleship
Afloat.

New York, September 4-Colonel
William NJ. Black, corps engineers, u.
8. A., head OF the board Of engineers
the old battleship Maine from the
muddy grave in which she has rested
since she was blown UP in Havana har-
Dor just before the outbreak of the
Spanish-Amerlcan War, Will sail for
Havana this week to preside over the
sessions OF the board that are to be
held in that city.
The members OF the board are not
talking about what they expect to do,
but they will go into the question from
every standpoint. and II there is any
way by which the old battleship can
be hauled out Of the muu and above
water they mean to find 1t.
Tho board will also have at it's dis
posal the suggestions Of more than 600
outsiders. every one of whom asserts
that he has found the only way to
raise the Maine These suggestions are
contained IN box of about 675 bulky
letters that were packed up at the
Army building, in Whitehall Street,
ten days. ago. and expressed to Mobile
for Captain Harley B. Ferguson. Corps
OF Engineers, who is to be the recorder
OF the board, to take to Havana with
him Captain ferguson sailed from
Mobile with the cargo Of suggestions
q few days ago. lie has already ar
rived in Havana.
Whether the engineers will have to
read or listen to the reading OF this
great bulk of gratuitous advice is a
problem not yet solved, but there are
engineers on the board who are afraid
that 1t Will be one of the duties they
Will have to fill while in Havana. The
letters OF advice and suggestions, 1t
Is said. range all the way from the
sublime to the ridiculous, and repre-
sent the idea Of battleship raising
geniuses of every nation on earth, ex-
cept q few inland countries where
naval craft are unknown.
One Of the most interesting of these
suggestions as to the feasible way to
raise the Maine came to the War De-
partment from subject OF the Kaiser
He had read all about the wreck and
the controversies that have arisen in
recent years as to the manner of her
sinking, and became greatly Interested
At last he solved the problem and gave
the solution, free of charge, to the
government.
He invented, in his Imagination. a
system of balloons made Of a certain
touSH Indterlal tHaL could be placed In
all parts Of the wreck The balloons
were to be placed about the wreck
when collapsed, and as soon as made
secure they were to be connected with
o special continuance that would in
| fate them When all were full of gas
they would create a buoyancy so great
| that what is left of the battleship, af-
| ter all the years would jump up out
| Of the water, and the problem of what
sent her to the bottom in 1898 would
be solved. The, engineers, it is said,
| don't think much of this plan.
| In other letters derricks, big and
little of all kinds and descriptions, are
described, every one of which can
I, raise the Maine in mountaineering
| time. so far as brevity and cheapness
lis concerned In scores of others COM
pressed air is featured. Every mag
Unable kind of marine cradle is to pc
found in the collection, while In a few
| real live animal power-the mule pre-
| ferred-is suggested.
| But despite all this free advice, the
board will go about its task in it's own
way.
. nal, and I believe they will raise the
| Maine" an officer of another arm or
the service said, the other day, when
The was asked If he thought the engi-
]neers would succeed in bringing the
/ Maine to the surface of Havana Har-
/ Dor.