Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1918-09-19

start of the war is purely commercial. Salving
ships costs money. Building new ones costs
money. So long as the cost of salving was equal
or even slightly in excess of the cost of building
so long it 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, j
may instance discovery In chemistry which
has proved to be Of the utmost value in salvage
work, writes Fl. G. Ferraby in Country Life. It
is obvious that when Ship laden with grain,
beef, other perishable stutfs, gets water-ogged
with seawater, something very unpleasant is go
ing to happen to her cargo In point of fact, 1t
turns into miniature poison gas factory. Grain
produces sulphuretted hydrogen, and the salvage
men who stumble on pocket Of that in a
beached ship would be seized with violent sick
ness, would be partially blinded for some time.
and would turn a dull leaden color in the face.
Experiment brought an antidote to this trouble,
and now the cargo Of ship that is to be salved
can be sprayed with a special solution as 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 association, were
called in. War altered that, like many other
things in the maritime world, and today the
whole OF the salvage work around the United
Kingdom is carried out by an admiralty depart
ment But since the men manning that depart
Lent are without exception, the former heads
OF the salvage business the difference is mainly
In titles and not in methods.
in VIM Sc
done by the department in this direction cannot
De described. Its share in keeping the allies
suppned with merchant ships, however, is not
secret, and the record of work done since Octo-
per, 1915, is an, excellent one. Down to the end
OF 1917 the admiralty salvage section under the
guidance of Capt r. w. Young, had rescued 26O
wrecked, mined or torpedoed ships and sent them
IN Tor repairs All that time their experience
was growing New material was being built for
the work, new ideas were being put into prac-
teal shape, and the result is that the year 1918
mas so far seen remarkable increase in the
number of ships saved. The figures for the
early part of this year are: January IA: Febru-
airy, IL; March, 81; April, SO; May, 10; giving
total OF l47 Thus in 80 months 4O7 ships have
been restored to the worlds mercantile tonnage
The 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 1T 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 be patched up and it looks like job
that will take few days In the end YOU are.
perhaps, six months hanging around with that
one ship before you can get her to float. Wealth
er, tides and the condition of the cargo all play
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 SO
tired. Waiting is weary business
The weather is the worst enemy OF salvage
men. 1t Is very nice on fine summers day to
stand on the cliffs and look down at the busy
hurnming workshops that we call salvage steam
ers clustered round wreck that shines red with
rust in the sunlight. The motors of the pnmns
drone necessarily, and the great 12-inch pipes
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 a while in the sun to make report of their
{ progress below, receiving orders for the newt,
stage, or just resting. 1t is different when the
southwesterly gales blow, when rollers pour in
from the Atlantic and pound down like Naasmyth
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 still
silent hulk is left to weather the storm So LONG
as she Is firmly Embedded in the sand or shinpla
however, and there is plenty of water inside her
as well as outside, it takes a good many months
Oh SlorlnS TO KNOCK a snip to pieces. 1t is often
necessary, in order to wreck from the
effects Of weather, to flood compartments in her
that had remained watertight.
The problem of dealing with the water in
wrecks and in ships that have been holed Int
are still afloat has been advanced very far tovar
solution during the war by the general adoption
OF new British invention, which has been de-
scribed as miracle of modern electrical engi-
neering Described simply, it is an electricailv
driven pump which can be entirely submerged
and will stir pump as efficiently as If it were
above water. The submersible pump as II IS
called, does things that no one ever believed
pump could do. saw one in the hold Of a
wreck recently, covered with black evil-smell-