The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1911-04-21
WRECK Or MAINE I'D
BEING REMOVED
FIRST STAGE OF WORK m ia
vANA HARBoR IL sUcoBss.
FULLY CONCLUDED.

HAVANA, Monday, April o,--in
the diving Of the last few intorlocking
steel piles Of the last OF the twonty
caissous forming the melosing wall Of
the huge basin or coGerdam surround.
ing the wreck Of the battleship
Maine the FIRST stage in the work Of
removing the shattered remains Of tho
warship has been brought to success.
full conclusion.
Tho work was accompanied with
rapidity aud its progress was unmarked
by a single mishap or hitch until the
introduction of the final pile, which
failed to iuterlock properly with those
on either side.
This gave rise to a rumor that the
stability Of the caisson was endangered
bit examination showed the trouble re-
suited from the pile being slightly do
formed by an accidental blow from the
iron bucket of dredge working along.
side. The extraction and replacing of
three piles served to repair the damage.
The second stage of the work, that
! of filing the caissons as fast as com
pleted with mud, clay and rock dredgod
from the harbor bottom, has been 60
ing ON for some time, and, now that
the ring is completed, is being pushed
forward with the utmost rapidity. The
steam dredge Norman Davis haned to
the government by the Huston-Trumbo
Dredging Company, and the United
States Army dredge Barnard are dump.
ing hundreds of tons of material into
the caisson.
Filling the CaissOns.
1t is expected that the filing of the
eaissons will be completed by the end
of April, and after that the most in,
teresting stage of the work--that Of
pumping out the great basin and leav-
ing exposed the hull of the battleship
in precisely the condition she was ON
the morning after her destruction thir-
teen years ago-will begin,
AS guarantee of the security of the
retaining wall around the basis, it is
probable that riprap will be dumped
around the exterior of the ellipse of
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which it rests is withdrawn the hull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 drydoek when INSULT
GENTLY secured.
AS soon as the wreck is fully ex-
posed the work of exploration in search
of human bodies will take precedence.
II is practically certain when this
stage of the work is reached United
States man-ofwar 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 tC
their final resting place.
. May Determine Cause.
After that will come an exhaustive
scrutiny of the shattered wreck by ex
perts, who, in the opinion of engineer
officers, will be able to determine be
yond all question precisely the charac
ter of the agency whereby the destrue
ton of the Maine was effected.
Probably many months will elapsC
before the final stage of the work
the extraction and disposition of the
wreck.
1t is known that the forward part OF
the ship, about one third of her length
is practically detached from the rest
and is so shattered it will have to bC
/, extracted piecemeal. When the after
part has been stripped so far as posi-
BILE of all heavy weights, including The
two turrets, weighing, with their pair
of ten-inch guns, about two hundred
, tons each, it is hoped it will be pos
sible to build bulkhead across tn,
shattered end and float the hulk oui
of the basin to be sunk, and in all prob
. ability hundreds of fathoms deep, il
tha Straits Of Florida
Finally will come the extraction Of
the thousands of steel piles composing
the twenty caissons and the dredgln.
of the material with which they wer'
filed. This may not be completed be
fore the end of the year.