The patriot. (Glenmora, La.) 1918-1955, 1918-09-20

~MRM uSIh Lung AAS"~b C'~N'
#A/M been sunk, and restoring them TO
# seagoing condition., are among the
6n@ANM methods which have gradually been
pMAy8g9 improved in England as the strin-
gency of the shipping shortage be-
corna graater each month. The reason why the
British authorities were not fully equlppeu 10
raise every ship that was sunk from the very
start of the war is purely commercial. Saving
shins 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-
Iayed. 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, 4
may instance a discovery in chemistry which
has proved to be of the utmost value in salvage
work, writes II. c. Ferraby in Country Life. 1t
is obvious that when a ship, laden with grain,
beef, or other perishable stuffsp gets water-logged
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 Oh a pocket of that in q
5eached 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 a 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 saly-
age branch, and when warships went ashore or
were Deacf1ed 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
is carried out by an admiralty depart
nent. 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
with merchant ships, however, Is not
secret, and 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
of Capt. F. w. Young, had rescued 2G0
mined or torpedoed ships and sent them
in for repairs. All that time their experience
growing. New material was being built for
the work, new ideas were being put into prac-
tfcal shape, and the result is that the year 1918
has so far seen a remarkable increase in the
number of ships saved. The figures for the
early part of this year are: January, IA; Febru-
airy, fl; March, 81; April, So; May, 10; giving a
total of 147. Thus in 80 months 407 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
inflicted on the allies by the submarine
Everv saIvaoa M will tau ~ tI,o+ .ha onIr
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 be patched up, and it looks like a job
that will, take a 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
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 so
tired. Waiting Is a weary business.
The weather is the worst enemy of salvage
men. 1t is very nice on a fine summers day to
stand on the cliffs and look down at the busy
humming workshops that we call salvage steam
es clustered round a wreck that shines red with
rust In the sunlight. The motors Of the pumps
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
Tor a 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 pour In
from the Atlantic and pound down like Naasmyth
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 stiii.
silent hulk is left to weather the storm. So long
as she is firmly imbedded In the sand or sbingle.
however, and there is plenty Of water inside her
as Wen as outside, 1t takes a good many months
Of storms to knock a ship to pieces. 1t Is often
necessary, Ia order to save q wreck from the
effects Of weather. to food compartments In her
that had remained watertight.
The problem of dealing with fine water IN
wrecks and in ships that have been holed but
are still afoat has been advanced very far toward
during the war by the general adoption
Of a new British invention. which has been de-
scribed as a miracle of modern electrical enri-
neering. Described simply, 1t Is an electrically
driven pump which can he entirely submerged
and will stir pump as efficiently as If it were
above wafer. The subnersible pump, as II is
Goes things that no one ever believed
a pump could do. / saw enc In the hold of a
wreck recently. covered with q black, eyil-smeIl-