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


dred and twenty-six feet long and one
hundred and ten feet wide. il was al.
most eight years from the time the
work was started until the first ship
was fioated into the finished dock.
/ When congress appropriated one mil
lion dollars for its construction, in
1905, ii was expected that the dock
would be ready for use in two years.
1t seemed comparatively simple
task, at first After all. a drydoek is
merely lined hole in the shore with
water gates at one end and pumps
for emptying the dock when the ship
has been foated in and the gates
closed The building of such
dock had never. before attracted
more than passing attention; il 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 spadefuI of earth was turned,
when the mention of No. Four among
any group of engineers was the sig
nal for an argument.
As originally planned, the dock was
to be of masonry construction, built
on foundation OF piles driven deep
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 a 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 how
hard the drivers pounded them down,
| they came bobbing up to the surface
again. Soundings proved that there
was thick layer of quicksand under
lying the dock site at a 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-
tions 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
6urst and poured it's 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 put big jagged hole in the
Inhr
at the bottom with pools CT 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
its spade in hand and tackled the
quicksand. After studying the form
alton of the ground, it was decided to
build concrete wall on the west side
in an effort to stop the motion of the
! wall fail to overcome the shifting sand
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 ccllapsed 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
annulled the second contract The
second contracting firm, like the first,
left the drydcek contract financially
crippled and facing a score of law
suits. ."....
1t was chiefly during the two earlier
contracts that the dock earned the
name ''hoodoo," 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 all 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
hurt. But in the everyday course Of
construction the accidents were just
as numerous. Men fell from. seaffold-
ing, dropped 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 company's failure,
| the government altered it's 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. N. 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
II a