Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-03-09
PEARL HARBOR
DRYDOCK EXPERT
HAS BIG RECORD
CONTINUED from Pare oneI

dred and twenty-six feet long and one
hundred and ten feet wide, it was al
most eight years from the time the
work was started until the first ship
was foated into the finished dock
When congress appropriated one mil-
lion dollars for its construction, In
1905, it was expected that the dock
would be ready for use in two years.
II seemed a comparatively simple
task, at first After all, drydock is
merely a lined Mole in the shore with
water gates at one end and pumps
for emptying the dock when the ship
has been floated in and the gates
closed The building of such a
dock had never before attracted
more than passing attention; it was
hardly more interesting than the lay
ing OF suburban trolley line But the
"hoodco dock asserted itself early in
its career. 1t was not long after the
first spAdeful of earth was turned,
when the mention of No. Fonr among
any group of engineers was the sig
nal for an argument.
As originally planned. the deck was
to be of masonry construction, built
on foundation of piles driven deeD
into the earth A certain big con-
tracing company planned to surround
the entire site of the dock with steel
sheet piling and thus secure large
open excavation The chief engineer
had hardly gone lower than the sur
face soil when every pile his men
drove showed strange desire to re-
turn to the surface. No matter hew
hard the drivers pounded them down.
they came bobbing up to the surface
again. SoHndings proved that there
was thick layer of quieksand under
lying the dock site at depth OF about
fifty feet. But the contractor finally
get down his steel piling and began to
excavate from inside this metal box
Then the quieksand began TO boil up
into the center of the excavation, slid
ing in from all around the sides. This
drew the soil from under the founda-
tons of several nearby navy shops
and the big buildings settled danger
ously.
This was not the worst Of the con-
tractors misfortunes. Two big sewers.
one six. and the other seven feet,
flowed past the dock site. One CT these
burst and poured its waters into the
excavation; then the other cracked
and added its share so that the con-
tractor had to stop all other work and
build concrete dam across the face
of one sewer, while he patched up the
other as best he could.
So far the great drydock was no
thing nut a big jagged hole in the
ground, Uttered with debris and filed
at the bottom with pools of sewer
leakage Hundreds of thousands of
dollars had been thrown into this hole
with little or nothing to show for it.
The quicksand had been too much for
the engineers; the contract was an
nulled three years after it was let, and
the contracting concern Is said to
have been impoverished through dam
age suits preferred by injured work
men and unforeseen expenses of fight
ing the shifting sands.
A second engineering company took
It's spade in hand and tackled the
quicksand. After studying the form
alton of the ground, it was decided to
build a concrete wall on the west side
In an effort to stop the motion Of the
sub-surface sands. Not only did this
wall fail to overcome the shifting SAINT
but under pressure of earth and water
it began to slide inward There was
more trouble with breaking sewers
and finally the big power plant at the
head of the dock site collapsed and
threatened to sink down into the
bowels of the earth, Several men
were hurt in this chain Of new mis-
fortunes and the government finally
annuIled the second contract The
second contracting firm, like the first,
left the drydeek contract Financially
crippled and facing score of law
suits.
It was chiefly duriHg,the two earlier
contracts that the dock earned the
name "hoodeo, although men contin-
ued to get themselves manned or
killed in the dock excavation almost
up to the day of its completion. A
strange fatality seemed to follow the
project. In nearly ali of the big set
backs that overlook the work, such as
the bursting CT sewers, the collapse OF
sidewalks and the sinking of build
1ngs, men were seriously or fatally
f1urt. But in the everyday course Of
construction the accidents were just
as numerous. Men fell from scaffold-
ing. cropped hammers or bolts on each
others heads. ladders broke, donkey
engines blew up, and in a hundred
ways Fate seemed determined that
the dock should never be built,
After the second conpany's failure,
the government altered its policy to-
ward the dock project. In addition to
letting the contract to a new firm, a
naval engineer was named to super
wise the work and advise with the con-
tractors Civil Engineer Frederick r.
Harris, u s. NJ, was given this posi-
ton, and between this naval officer
and the general manager OF third
firm of contractors, the credit for the
successful outcome may be divided.
Since the original appropriation, the