Raising the "Earl of Dalhousie" [pp. 232-237]

Raising the "Earl of Dalhousie."
dred and sixty feet long, thirty-five feet beam,
and drawing six feet of water, into which
were placed three masts eighty feet long,
exactly opposite fore, main, and mizzen masts
of the sunken ship. To these masts were
attached tackles capable of lifting twenty tons
each, which were operated by steam winches
placed on the deck of the barge. In the
hold of the iron hulk amidships were placed
the air compressor and pumps. The air
compressor had a capacity of one thousand
cubic feet of air at fifteen pounds pressure
per minute. The pumps were a pair of cen
about thirty minutes on account of the strong
tide.
All being made fast the divers were put
to work, stopping up all the openings and
securing the air connection to the hull, which
was done at one of the air ports.
The first attempt at raising was made the
first of June. The air pumps were started up
early in the morning, and the quantity of air
bubbles in various places indicated the leaks.
After pumping for about two hours and forty
minutes a commotion in the water took
place, and the stern of the ship appeared,
2 74& > -) -x
- % Ni< /
- 7
-4 —'?- -W9=' — - A -
-- - - --- -
trifugals, capable of discharging ten thousand
gallons per minute.
The next step was to secure this large
barge at an angle with the tide. This was
done by two large timbers seventy-five feet
long, one end of each fastened to the sunken
ship and the other end fastened to the barge.
This served to keep the barge at the proper
distance from the sunken ship, and diagonal
chains were fastened to ship and barge to
keep the barge from ranging with the tide.
During the time this barge was being fitted,
a small steamer was engaged to strip the vessel of all the broken masts and yards, which
were taken off and sent on shore. The ends
of guy timbers and mooring chains were fastened and their ends buoyed, all ready to be
taken on board the large barge, which had
to be secured and fastened at slack water in
rising about two feet six inches suddenly.
After the pumping had been kept up for
about three hours longer, the vessel's stern
being then about eight feet above water, it
was found that owing to the expansion of
the air the leaks equaled the capacity of the
pumps and were so numerous that the
attempt was abandoned for that day in order
to find and stop the leaks.
All that could be found were closed; and
another attempt to raise the vessel was made
abt)out the sixth of June. Again the stern
appeared above the water-this time in
about two hours and twenty minutes- and
kept rising until it was above the water about
thirteen feet. But now a new set of leaks
were discovered. It became apparent, also,
that the bow was sinking lower into the mud
as the stern rose. A hole (see cut No. 2,
1888.]
233