The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1913-03-27


quite impossible to re1oat the cruiser Then two
young engineers, w. W. Wotherspoon and R. O.
King, attacked the task along new lines obtaining
the financial assistance of the late John Arbuckle
These enthusiasts-for such was the spirit in
which they approached what others had pro-
nounced hopeless-broke away from traditional
practice and resorted to the Of compressed air
as medium for salving the Yankee.
The ship had landed high on the reef and the
Jagged rocks had torn her bottom plating in many
places making it impossible to pump her out in
the usual way. These innovators sealed up the
hatchways leading to the various holds Then
they pumped compressed air into the compart-
ments, and the sea driven out again through
the rents by which 1t had entered The ship was
thus made buoyant enough to be dragged from
the rocks. Unfortunately she was run into and
sunk while being towed to harbor
An entirely new problem then presented itself.
Instead of making use of cumbersome pontoons
and other external buoyant auxiliaries, Messrs.
Wotherspoon and King settled upon the plan Of
turning the Yankee into her own salvage appara-
tus. In other words, 1t decided to utilize the
ships own compartments as buoyancy chambers
by draining them of the very water which had
carried the craft to the bottom
You will probably declare offhand that there is
nothing original in this; anybody knows that a
foundered vessel would rise if you could get the
water out of her. But don't be too hasty in your
conclusions. The difficulty lies in the danger
that when the air has forced the water out, the
pressure of the everything water will crush the
hull. How then, did these young engineers guard
against this danger?
They did not try to pump out the cruiser in the
literal sense of the word; they drove the water
out under the impulse of compressed air and they
balanced the contending forces nicely that the
ships structure was substantially neutral divi-
sion between them the air pressure being just
triie in excess of the pressure of the water
which 1t forced outward from the buoyancy com
partments. Do you realize the engineering cum
ming involved here? The compressed air actually
constituted stronger support for the burdened
deck than the water which had previously filled
the underlying space! AS the cruiser rose to
the surface the pressure was progressively re-
duced SO that it just maintained an excess of
force against the exterior water.
This method of floating the Yankee suggested
to Mr. Wotherspoon a medium by which the
structure of vessel not yet sunk could be utiliz
ed to keep her afoat when otherwise inrushing
water would certainly carry her to the bottom
Mr.. Wotherspoon's first adaptation Of this sys
tenn was for naval purposes, to provide means by
which an injured ship OF war could survive the
under water attack of either torpedoes or sub
marine mines, and probably be kept on an even
keel SO that she could still fire her guns effec-
lively against an enemy.
From the keel of fighting ship up to height
of several feet above the water line it is the prac.
tice to subdivide her as far as possible into
large number Of separate water-tght compart-
ments, the idea, of course, being to conine the
area OF injury By making use of these compart.
ments Mr.. Wotherspoons invention has robbed
the under water weapons Of much Of their terror;
1t has reduced the dangers incident to hitting an
uncharted rock; and it furnishes the commanding
officer of battle craft with means by which
he assure himself at any time that his ship
Is structurally sound
The naval constructor is miser when it comes
to apportioning pounds of a ships displacement
for auxiliary features This attitude is really ex
cusable, because stray pounds here and stray
pounds there very soon reach the aggregate dig
nifty of tons. When Mr. Wotherspoon submitted
his proposition to the navy department the off,
cials there grudgingly allowed him very small
total weight within which he was to make his
system applicable to twothirds of the 200 water
tight compartments of one of our armored cruis.
ers,
On the face OF 1t the prospect did not look en-.
,ouraging, but it was right here that Mr. Wother-
spoons ingenuity met the difficulty He chose to
make use OF existing facilities already provided
or other purposes This resourcefuness on his
part enabled him, when his work OF installation
t-.- !.