The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-06-06
|DUnG ENGINEER IS
BEHIND TASK TO
RAISE MAINE
Il ,. Ferguson Is Confident Golfer
dam Plan Of Lifting Battleship
In Havana Harbor viii
Prove Successful.
Has Won Against Big Odds In His
Plan to Pull wreckage From
Ocean Bottom.
nv ROBERT WILSON.


HAVANA, June 6.--About the mid
die OF May, at almost any hour or the
day. there was seen out upon the top
OF the cofferdam surrounding the
wreck Of the battleship Maine, coat
less, black haired, olive-skinned young
man, attired In carefully creased
black trousers, shirt most brilliant
" white In the dazzling tropical sun
shine, fresh collar, faultless tie, and
the usual panama hat. :,
He alone was Bweatless In q small
world OF laborers out there In the
bay.
Occasionally the young man stop
ped and dug polished heel into the
hard clay Of the cofferdam, and AS
he noted that the impression was
slight he laughed q shade more Dig
nified than giggle. From the ire
quency Of these laughs, or giggles,
ono gathered thattthe young man was
& pleased.
The young ;man,was II. Il. Ferguson.
sometime Of North Carolina, but since
OF Santiago, Manila, Pek;n and hall
dozen OF other corners OF the earfh,
< captain In the u. s. corps OF engineers
the man who devised the cofferdam
scheme for raising the Maine, and the
man to whom Uncle Sam gave the
job Of raising her.
To understand Ferguson's pleasure
II must be known that he had Just
returned from a visit to Washington,
+ where he. had been taking examina-
lions for promotion in the service
Wien helleft Havana in April, the 3D.
foot cylindrical caissons, which, set
side by side in an egg-shaped line.
formed the cofferdam which was TO
part the, waters away from the wreck.
X were lust SO many big barrels OF pal.
pitatingl mud.
During his absence the 1000 tons
OF rock and clay, heaped up in each
barrei}ike caisson by the hydraulic
4 dredges, had settled down, the crush
ing weight of the material squeezing
out Its own Juice and knitting Itself
together into one huge watertight
hump, bound by 75foot slaves Of roll
ed steel and anchored by the stave
ends % feet in the sucking clay OF
the harbor bottom.
I'm betting on Ii now" said young
Ferguson. digging his. heel into the
tough surface, and then he laughed
again.
IL was only after the clay IN the
caissons had hardened, though, that
Ferguson did any betting, even
& verbally. on his own job. Before that
. II - doubtful IL he. or the other en-
gineers on the Job. figured there was
as much as an even chance for sue
cess with the cofferdam plan for lift
ing the Maine from the mud. Civilian
engineers In the States were openly
skepfical. -
Ferguson looks 35. No man on the
Job takes life less seriously, yet I'M
. der his careless manner he hides q
wide experience In the service and
the reputation of being one Of the
ablest engineers In the corps.
He was In Cuba before-as an en-
gineer with the army during the I'M
pleasantness with Spain and he was
mentioned In the dispatches moro
than once. Then he was sent to the
Philippines land was in at the capture
Of Manila. The allied armies moved
upon Pekm In the Boxer troubles,
and Ferguson was there. He wrote
monograph praising the efficiency
Of the Japanese, and thus became the
frst foreign ofiicer to recognize the
military ability OF the brown men.
Engineers everywhere are watching
the Maine job. The pressure on each
Of the 20 caissons of the dam is l.
300 tons. Each caisson, filled with
clay. weighs about 1000 tons. Each
one stands upright on the bottom, like
an appended barrel Only these big
barrels are anchored. The ends OF
the slaves, as the interlocking steel
piles may be termed, are driven down
~ feet into the bottom clay.
For time last winter IL looked as
though the present plan would GER.
tainly fail and as II, Uncle Sam had
lost his bet OF quarter Of q million
dollars or 90 on young Mr.. Ferguson's
ability Without warning the Gals.
son burst and dumped its 1000 OF
mud back into Havana harbor.
IL looked to Ferguson as II the bot.
tom clay In which the spiles we're
driven had moved out.
III that's the case, we might ma
well give up right now getting at the
ship"
Divers found that tho foundation
clay had not budged. The interlock
ING pilings dovetail together on their
edges like matched lumber. To make
the required length OF 20 feet for the
Maine Job. two piles were spliced to-
gcther In each case. On the cylinder
that broke some OF the pilinR had
missed the dovetailing slot AT the
splicing and simply bulgcd out rho
caiseon was rebuilt