The Detroit times., 1911-05-30
DRYDOCk BUILT
AROUND MAINE
Construction Of Cofferdam To Circle
Wreck Of Inflated Warship Is
Novel Engineers Feat.

HAVANA, May so.---As an engineer
Ing feat the dry-docking nf a sunken
vessel as she lays on the bottom Is
without parallel. That's what they
are doing to the battleship Maine IN
Havana harbor. They have surround
ed the battleship with an eiiptttcai
coffsrdam OF Auditing cylinders, 20
OF them, 90 feet Ia diameter, made oil
Ia ring OF jnterlocking steel piling.
driven deep into the bottom clay and
filed with hard packed clay TO the
top. three feet above the level OF the
bay. @
IL IL figured that the grip OF the
piling. 75 feet long. driven 40 feet In
to mud and clay, and the weight OF
4.5OO cubic yards OF rock and clay In
each cylinder, would stand up against
the pressure Of 35-foot depth OF wa
ter about the ship.
Col. w. NJ. Black. army engineer. OF
New York, headed the commission.
Lieut.. Col Mason NJ. Patrick. OF Nor
folk. Va, was another member. The
third army engineer on the commits
sicn--Capt. II. b. Fergusonr--was sent
to Havana last summer and given
charge Of the work. His first assis-
.tant has been A. G. Harper, a United
States engineer and II. =. Merrill, a
young man from Warrington. Fla Is
Junior engineer on the job. Charles
8. Boardman, inventor oil the pinns,
IL here, too. These piles are nat steel
bars which dovetail on their edges
like matched lumber. AApiling being
driven is started In Its groove In
the pile adjoining and then lowered
carefully into the water IL Is then
driven home In the clay. When a line
of them are in place they are thor
oughly interlocked.
The trick Is to make the last pile
needed to complete the circle meet
the dovetailing on both sides OF IL
Pile driving in a bay with strong tides
and considerable sea Ia none too &C
curate. Ten Of the 20 cylinders have
exactly 14S piles each, the number
specified None Of the other 10 varies
mere than six pieces.
Five thousand tons Of steel were
driven. A small village pf men tive
out beside the sunken Maine. Board
man and the government people lived
on a big Mississippi dfedge. Electric
are lights were strung and the vicin-
ity at night resembled factory on an
island in Havana harbor; 200 Spanish
Negroes, Jamaicans and Cubans work.
ing at the big tubes "a hours day
in three shifts.
The cofferdam has a long diameter
of 400 feet and IL 200 feet across the
short way. To give further strength
ares OF steel piliRg ware driven from
one cylinder 10 the next, some dis
lance outside the tangent points. The
egg-shaped dam, 200 by 900 feet clears
the ends OF the sunken vessel by 20
feet. On each side Il is co feet from
the nearest cylinder TO the vessel.
AS each completed cylinder filled
with clay became dry ground, shoOs
and equipment were placed on them,
and by May the engineers had a steel
braced island around the Maine.
After the difficult Job still ahead.
OF removing the wreck Of the Maine.
the cylinders of clay must be remoY.
ed, the piling drawn, and the whole
vicinity dredged. The obstruction 70
the small harbor that has become part
OF It's landscape viii then be no more.
Congress appropriated 100000 for
the work. II is expected that this
amount will carry the work only to
the start Of the removal Of the wreck
age. >