The Present State of H.M.s. Sultan.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 285, 30 November 1889, Page 3 (Supplement)

The Present State of H.M.s. Sultan.

The following extract from a private letter, written by a military officer now at Malta, gives a description of the Sultan after she was raised. The letter was dated Malta, August 31st:—

No doubt you have seen in fche papers that the old Sultan was brought in here last Monday. They tested her before starting, and found that when bhey stopped all the pumps she sank two feet in an hour; so they pumped her out, and the Samson towed her. Her rudder was broken, and she swung about co much that it was 7.30 p.m. before bhey gob her into Bighi Bay. Early next morning they took her round to Somerset Dock; but shehadsunksomuch that they grounded her near the 40-ton crane and tried to get her coal out. On Thursday fchey made up their minds to put her into dock as she was, and pumped her out; but as soon as her pumps stopped her bows sank and caughb on the mud which has silted up at the mouth of the dock. Yesterday, however, they were more fortunate, and after pumping for some time they towed her in by sheer force, and, once over tho mud-bank, they soon had hor in dock, pufc fche cai,?son in ibs place, and began to pump the dock dry. I was dining on board the Surprise, and was told to go and see her this morning. She has always had a list to porfc, and I thought she had taken the ground on that side, but the wholo of her bottoia on that side (and that is tho side on which she was lying in Comma) is absolutely without a dent of any kind, except that the' bilgeplate (I think they call it) for a shorb distance is rather damaged. Her starboard side is quite different. Aboub 50ffc from her bow there is a large hole aboub as big as a door, the iron plates being bent inwards about 4ft,and bhe rock musb have caught againsb this, and bent bhe forwai'd end in when the Temeraire tried to pull her off. From this point to her stern, and from tho keel to the very edge of her bottom, it looks as if she had been drawn over sharp points, which have left great indentations at intervals all along.' From the huge holes in her I am sure everyone is of opinion that, had they pulled ber off tbe day after she struck, she must have, gone down straight, and proT_abVy."ift. euch? deep'7'wa£er" fchafc, "Besides causing the death of several men, she would have been too deep to raise.

oivThe vwyi is.which the divers have metided her is really wonderful. The foremost hole seems to have been lilled up with horsedung, and canvas put over it and fastened round the ship wibh ropes passed righb under bhe botbom. The obher boles are filled up wibh bricks and cement. Firsb of all bhe* divers made screw holes in bhe 7-8 inch iron plabes, and into these they screwed long iron pins all round the hole. Tbey then put big baulks of wood over these pins, and screwed the™ on tight wibh nuts. On this framework tbey screwed more planks of wood, and filled in behind them with cement. Some of these screens are over 12ft. Bquare, -and the edges are well bevelled off and tbe screwboles are as accurately made as if it had been done dh a carpenter's table. Between the plates (whorever there was the leasb semblance of an aperture) wedges were driven in, and every scupper and hole, however small, was carefully plugged up, and yet the water ran in at aboub 40,000 bons per hour. One of bhe dockyard officials told me that there was nob a diver here or in England who could have done tbe work these divers have done. The. engineer in charge says be never Wouid have undertaken it had he known the damage that was done to her, and that a week after be began he a_f nearly as possible gave ib up. The ship inside is, of course, in a fearful state, and the stench is awful. Her guns have rusb about half an inch thick oh them, and of course tbe bulkheads and cabin compartments are lying all over tbe decks. The white paint looks as if it had all been blackleaded, and the engines look as if they had never been meant to turn round. They say they are going* to clean her out, patch up her bottom, and send her home. One side is vdry much damaged,; but they made such a good job of the Surprise that I don't see why they shouldn't do up the Sultan equally well; and thoy think her own engines will take her home. . This company certainly deserve every penny they have got, and the chief engineer ought to be made a peer. Without seeing the ship, it is impossible to imagine the extraordinary performance it has been to bring her in.

I don'b know how much ib will cosb bo mend ber bottom ; but if tbey put new engines into her and breechloading guns, I don't see why she should not become a very formidable ship again. I hope someone will make it known now that ib was a lucky thing that she was not towed off on the 7th of March, and thab bhe Duke Was nob bo blame. I suppose now bhey will have to replace the Sultan's name in the Navy list. "'„ ~ '. .