The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-04-10
COfferdam Surrounding the
Battleship Completed With
out Serious NIishap.
CAISS0NS BEING FILLED
WITH MUD, CLAY AND ROCK
Pumping Out the Great Basin
and Exposing the Hull
Will Come Next.

HAVANA April 3.-Tn the driving of
the last few interlocllins steel piles of the
last OF the twenty caissons forming the
enclosing wall OF the hugo basin or Golfer
dam surrounding the wreck of the battle
ship Maine. the first stage In the work
of removing the shattered remains of the
warship has been brought TO success
ful conclusion.
idity and Its progress was unmarked by
single mishap or hitch until the intro
duction of the final pile, which failed TO
intcrock properly with those on either
side.
This gave rise to a rumor that the sta
bllity OF the calsson was endangered.
but examination showed the trouble re-
suited from the pile being slightly de-
formed by an accidental blow from the
iron bucket of a dredge working along
side. The extraction and replacing OF
three piles served to repair the damage;
The second stage OF the work that OF
filling the caissons as fast as completed
with mud, clay and rock dredged from,
the harbor bottom. has been going on for
completed, is being pushed forward with
the utmost rapidity. The steam dredge
Norman Davis, loaned To the government
by the Huston -Trumbo Dredging com
pany, and the United States army dredge
Barnard are dumPingg hundreds OF tons
Of material into the caisson,
Hull Will Soon Be Exposed.
II is expected that the filling Of the
caissons will be completed by the end
OF April. and after that the most inter
esting stage OF the work-that OF pump
Ing out the great basin and leaving eX-
posed the hull OF the batteship In pre-
cisely the condition she was on the morn
ing after her destruction thirteen years
ago will begin.
AS guarantee Of the security Of the
retaining wall around the basin. 1t is
probable riprap will be dumped around
the exterior of the ellipse OF the caissons
before the pumping begins,
The wreck Itself will have TO be care
fully watched as the water level falls,
there being some danger that. as the
support OF the water and the mud In
which it rests is withdrawn. the hull
may careen, just as ships have been
known TO do In drydocks. when INSULT
clently secured.
AS soon as the wreck is fully exposed
the work OF explora tiop in search OF hu-
man bodies will take precedence.
1t is practically certain when this stage
of the work is finished a United States
man Of war will be ordered to Havana
and will lie close to the wreck to receive
the bodies as fast as they are recovered
and transport them to their final resting
place,
Great Question to Be Decided.
After that will come an exhaustive
scrutiny of the shattered wreck by cN-
perts who. in the opinion OF engineer
officers. will be able TO determine beyond
all question precisely the character OF
the agency whereby the destruction oil
the Maine was effected.
Probably many months VIII elapse be-
fore the final stage OF the work-the
extraction and disposition of the wreck.
II is known that the forward part OF
the ship, about one-thlrd OF her length.
is practically detached from the rest and
is so shattered that 1t will have 10 be
extracted pieccmeal. When the after
part has been stripped as far as possible
of all heavy weights, including the two
turrets. weighing with their pairs OF 10
Inch guns about 200 tons each. II is hoped
il will be possible TO build bulkhead
across the shattered end and float the
hulk out of the basin. 10 be sunk in all
proba bilty hundreds of fathoms deep In
the straits of Florida,
Finally will come the extraction of the
thousands of steel piles composing the
twenty cassons and the dredging OF the
material with which they were filed.
This may not be completed before the
end of the year.