Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1913-05-23
nd cracking ice seemed no deterrent

ing snow and cracking ice seemed no deterrent
to their frenzy.
Within a few days the battered craft had been
raised higher above the water and propelled to
shore on pontoons. She is soon to be hauled to
a shipbuilding yard near by, where she will be
partly rebuilt and put into shape for her last
splendid cruise on Lake Erie this summer.
On this cruise the Niagara will visit all the
principal ports of the great lakes, decked with
flags and varicolored bunting, and wallowing
splendidly as BELTS a ship of her size, entour and
noble achievement. She Is 10 feet long, has a
30-foot beam and is about 10 feet deep. There
is nothing of the clipper ship about her, but there
is a stanchness that kept her steady while she
emptied broadsides at a whole English fleet. In
her prime, at the time of the decisive battle Of
Lake Erie, she was a brig of the old-fashioned
sort, with an enormous spread of sail for those
days. She had single topgalantsails and, what
was more characteristic of the time, single top
sails. Thus, the number of her sails was not APP
parently great, but her actual spread of canvas
was very large for her day. Her rigging was all
of the old-style sort. Her main, fore and mizzen
tops were really fenced in for lookouts and she
had a spanker to aid her in maneuvering better
than her natural square rig would.
Capt. w. l.. Morrison of the United States
training ship Wolverine, who is an official of the
Perry centennial celebration and an authority on
historical facts relating to the Niagara, has made
the prediction that in the vessels hold will be
discovered many old buckles and revolvers: and
In a short time the world will know If he Is
right.
Raising the Niagara was the hardest kind Of
work. 1t is a big feather in the cap of the local
contractor, who succeeded in lifting the hulk
from the mud Of the lake bottom, where she had
lain for a hundred years. The task had to be
done in winter in order to use spring to get the
vessel in shape. Winter on the great lakes is
such as to make a naturally delicate job of this
sort we'll nigh impossible.
The interstate board of the centennial celebra-
ton had official charge of the work. To raise
the hulk took just three months. The original
contract called for the task to be done in thirty
days, but bad weather knocked this schedule sky
high.
1t was planned at first to sink pontoons along
side the Niagara and pump them out, bringing
the ship to the surface with them. Had the
would have been accomplished in contract time.
Storms, however. threatened the undertaking al
most every day and the contractor dared not
sink his pontoons lest he lose them. Therefore
four pontoons were anchored on either side OF
where the ship would lie when raised vertically
to the lakes surface. Other pontoons were sta
toned over her bow and stern. Chains were
made fast to the wreck by divers and she was
simply pulled up to the waters edge.
Ice piled up six feet high about the pontoons,
workmen were in constant danger of losing their
lives in the black and icy water. Several fell
vito airholes in thawing ice but were rescued.
feet Of water.
And now for something about the Niagara's
historic day.
The Niagara and Commodore Perry's flagship,
&C Lawrence, were the only two vessels In the
American fleet of six ships that, even in 1913,
could have been called men-of-war. They were
500 tons burden each, and each carried twenty