Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-02-18

Divers. cropping in the dim green
light that filters through a, mass OF
broken timbers, twisted iron and up
rooted piling of ruined drydock are
To-Day determining the fate OF Pearl
Harbor. These submarine explorers
are trying TO deduce from conditions
below the surface the real reason for
the chaos that appears above. On
their report depends whether another
effort will be made to conquer the
treaeherous coral beds Of the harbor,
or whether the present plans will be
abandoned and floating drydock sub
stituted.
Four years Of heroic effort were
wiped away at one blow yesterday
while the men Miiot had fought and
seemingly won the hardest engineer
ing fight in the history OF drydock con-
structiOn locked on, powerless to save.
and hardly able to realize the mean
lag Of the awful havoc that was being
wrought before them. Even today, IN
the light of cool investigation and
solid engineering knowledge, only one
fact stands ont as an absolute Ger
tainty-that where there was par
italy completed drydock there Is now
no drydock; nothing but huge basin
cluttered with smashed timbers and
overturned machinery.
The One vital Question.
While the total wreck of the dry
dock is an indisputable fact, there is
one point which must be settled before
the navy engineers and the drydock
contractors can turn again to the
fight. That is the actual location and
condition of the bottom under what
was former Section of the false
cribwork. When Section 2, which was
being pumped, was forced upward by
the pressure of the water below, and.
went crashing to destruction, Section
sank, and slid seward some twenty
feet, pushing the other section before
II toward the putboard end of the
dock. If this sinking of Section was
due to sudden caying away of the
harbor bottom, the problem Of building
a drydock on the present site is prac-
tically hopeless. If, on the other
hand, Section cayed in because the
supports were knocked from under it,
there will still be way to rebuild,
and make the bottom hold.
Eve can make no plans until the
divers have made their reports" said
Civil Engineer E. R. Gayler, the navy
engineer in charge of the entire Pear
Harbor project, as he picked his way
across the floating timbers Of Section
this morning. 'If we find that this
section sank because the bottom slid
away from under il, it looks like 8
hopeless Job to ever build drydock
here. If Il sank because the props
were knocked from under it, by the
upheaval and breakup of Section 2. 1t
will show that conditions of the bot
tom are not so bad after all. More
than that can't say Just now. This
Is the third and by far the greatest set
back that we have had on this job.
and it will take some time to estimate
the real cause and extent of the dam
age"
Awaiting Further Orders.
This was a busy morning at Pearl
Harbor, and a discouraging one for
sengineers and contractors. However,
the work of salvage has already been
started, and as the debris is cleared
away, and more extensive tests made,
il will be possible to see ahead. No
definite steps will be taken until in
structions an Ae from Washington,
which will 3D. be until a full report
has been ma d there, and an answer
received. Al kport of what actually
occurred hal cen cabled by Admiral
Cowles, but pbably the navy depart
ment will a 1t further cabled details
before send orders.
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