The Red Cloud chief., 1918-09-26

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gcrcy of the shipping shortage be.
came greater each month. The reason why the
British authorities were not fully equipped to
raise every ship that was sunk from the very
stnrt of the war is purely commercial. Salving
ships costs money. Building new ones costs
money. So long as the cost of saving was equal
or even slightly in excess of the cost Of building.
so long 1t was not worth the while of owners TO
order salvage operatiOns-juSt so long were In
vention and progress in the art of salvage de-
layed. When the salving of ships became urgent
In the course of 1916 inventors of new appli.
ances and new methods, salvage experts of many
years standing, set their brains to work. and the
result is that today ships can be raised and re-.
paired from positions that two years ago would
have been abandoned as hopeless.
AS showing how need stimulates invention. |
may instance II discovery in chemistry which
has proved to be Of the utmost value in salvage
work, writes Ii. Z. Ferruby III Country Life. 1t
Is obvious that when a ship, laden with grain.
beef, or other perTshuble SUITS. gets water-logged
with seawater something very unpleasant is GO
Ing to happen to her cargo. In point of fact, 1t
turns into miniature posoirgas factory. Grain
produces suiphuretted hydrogen, and the salvage
men who stumble on II pocket of that in n
beached ship would be seized with violent sick
ness, would be partially blinded for some time.
and would turn u duh lcaden color in the face.
Experiment brought an antidOte to this trouble,
and now the cargo of u ship that is to be salved
can be sprayed with Il special solution rs soon
as there Is any reason to suspect poison gas.
This spraying removes all danger.
Salvage work before the war was purely a
private enterprise. The admiralty had no salv-
age branch. and when warships went ashore or
were beached after collision the private firms,
like the Liverpool Salvage associations. were
called In. War altered that, like many other
things In the maritime world, md today the
whole OF the salvage work around the United
hligIOfn Is carried out by nm uumirulty D.purt-
ment. But since the men manning that depart
Lent are, without exception. the former heads
or The salvage business, the difference is mainly
In titles and not In methods.
Warship salving is confidential, and the work
done by the department IN this direction cannot
be described. Its share in keeping the allies
supplied with merchant ships, however, Is not
secret, ana the record of work done since Octo-
Der, 1915, Is an excellent one. Down to the end
of 1917 the admiralty salvage section, under the
guidance of Capt. i. w. Young, had rescued 2GO
wrecked, mined or %torpedoed ships and sent them
In for repairs. All that time their experience
was growing. New material was being built for
the work, new ideas were being put into pruc-
teal shape, and the result il tt.t the year 1913
mas so lar seen n remarkable increase in the
hulhber OF ships saved. The figures for the
early part of this year are: January, IA; Febru.
airy, Al; March, 81; April, Sc; May, 10; giving a
total of lit. Thus in 80 months 407 ships have
been restored TO the worlds mercantile Tonnage.
Inc Germans count all these and some of them
twice over, in their calculations of the tonnage
loss inflicted on the allies by the submarine
campaign.
Every salvage man will tell you that the only
thing certain about it Is that you never know
what Is going to happen. A ship may be ashore
In the simplest position. with just one big hole
In her to he patched up, and 1t looks like a Job
that will take II few days. In the end you are,
perhaps, six months hanging around with that
ono shin hpfprn pon t har 70 u,,, ty...t,
er. tides and the condition of the cargo all play
a leading part In the work. The only thing the
salvage man has got To do all the time is to be
patient. That, perhaps, is why they all look 80
tired. Waiting is a weary business.
The weather is the worst enemy of salvage
men. 1t Is very nice on n fine summers day TO
stand on the cliffs ana look down at the busy
drumming workshops that we call salvage steam
ers clustered round a wreck that shines red with
rust In the sunlight. The motors of the pumps
drOne necessarily, and the great 12inch pines
send out cascades of gray water whose stale
scent travels far before it is lost. The metal
helmeted divers Chamber up and down, sitting
FOR Il while In the sun to make report of their
progress below, receiving orders for the next
stage, or just resting. 1t is different when the
southwesterly gales blow, when rollers po,,r i'm
from the Atlantic and pound down like Nnasmytb
hammers on the decks of the wreck. The sal
wage boats and tugs all have TO run for shelter
work has to be abandoned, and only the sin
silent hulk is left to weather the storm. So lone
as she Is firmly Embedded in the sand or shInyle
however, and there is plenty OF water inside her
as well as outside, II takes a good mnny ,,ontho
of storms to knock n ship to pieces. IL IS often
necessary, in order to save u wreck from tho
effects of weather, to food compartments in bor
that had remained watertight.
The problem Of dealing with the wotor In
wrecks and In ships that have been hoIed but
are still afioat has been advanced very far toward
solution during the war by the general odon,Iou
OF a new British invention, which has been do.
scrlbed rs a miracle of modern electrical engi-
neering. Described simply. it is an electrIcnIIv
driven pump which can he entirely submerged
and Will stir pump as efficiently as If II were
above water. The subnersible pump, as II IL
called, does things that no one ever believed
IA pump could do. | saw one in the hold OF a
wreck recently. covered with Il black. evil-smell-