The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-01-07
TROUBLES BEGIN
 IN RAISING MAINE
Report That Golfer Dam is Slip
 ping in Mud
DIFFICULTY WAS PREDICTED
Condition of Wreck as SO Far
 Disclosed

The question of the success of the efforts to raise the Maine has beer brought up recently in engineering cir cles. Following the original objection that the cofferdam method of floating the vessel would not work on account of the soft character of the mud bot tom, reports have recently gone about that the cofferdaln installations are already showing signs of giving way.
 A keen controversy was waged for weeks among army engineers and en- gineering con tractors on this point, at the time when the appropriation for raising the Maine was granted, some months ago. The cofferdam method was advanced by the many engineers as the regular method sanctioned by long practice for employment in such cases. The O'ROurke Engineering Construction Company advanced a special method that it has devised purposely to meet the conditions in many unofficial critics of the plans be- lieved. were unfavorable to the use Of the cofferdam. The mud Of the har- Dor bottom was said to be deep and unusually soft. This. it was pointed out. might oblige the constructors of the cofferdam to sink their caissons so deep that these would not maintain their upright positions.
 As finally carried into effect. the plan for raising the vessel provided for an oval rotterdam arrangement to be sunk around the hull. <: The cais- sons were to be seventy feet deep and fifty feet through in the case of those nearest the ships sides. those at either end of the hull forty feet.
 The work was given directly into the hands of employees of the govern ment. It was expected that the en- gtneers of the Navy Department would carry out the task. but it was unex- pectedly turned over to the War De- pertinent. The legal adviser of the Navy Depar tment, it was said. eX- pressed an opinion that the work lay in the War Departments province, owing to the existence of a law dele gating to that department the duty of and harbors. An rriation of $500. 900 was made by Congress for the work. but it was freely predicted that the job would cost at least $500,000 in the end.
 At present thc work has been pro- ceeding for about two months. The steel for the cofferdam is reported to be partly in place The work was to have been completed in February, about the time of the anniversary of the sinking of the Maine. It is now reported. however, by those following
 
 tion that all goes we'll. the raising can not be effected before next May.
 Thus far nothing conclusive has been discovered in the course of the operations to show whether the Maine was sunk by an explosion from with in or from without. At least if any convincing evidence has been discoy- cred. the War Department has not published it's finds. Insulated wires were found lying in the mud in the neighborhood of the vessel in Noyen- Der. and these were at first supposed to be the remains of a shore connec- tion to an exploded mine under the Maine's anchorage. It was found, however. according to later reports. that the wire belonged to the ships own lighting system.
 Within a week past. word came that coal had been struck in the coursa of the work about the Maine's hull. The coal. >so 1t was said lay we'll outside the hull. suggesting that it might have been driven outward by an explosion from within. It was pointed out this lime that the coal might have been carried out from within the hull by the drifting action of the water.
 President Taft has extended an in- vitation to the Spanish Government to send a representative to be present at the raising of the vessel in order to give Spain the satisfaction of first hand knowledge of the exact way in which the incident provocative of the Cuban War was brought about.