FLOATING A SUNKEN STEAMER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14132, 11 February 1910, Page 6

FLOATING A SUNKEN STEAMER.

A REMARKABLE FEAT, While the Prairie remained stuck in tho mud of tho Delaware River, an unimpressive spectacle, her twin steamer, the Yankee, sunk in the deep waters of the harbour at Now Bedford, Massachusetts. Tho two ships were not built for naval service. They_ wero originally coasters engaged in tho South American trade, but were hurriedly purchased by the U.S. Government at the time of tho Spanish war. Since then their use has been something of a naval problem, and they have been assigned to the simplest sort of details. On ono of these more than a year ago tho Yankee ran ashore on Hon and Chickens Reef, outside New Bedford. She pounded badly upon tho rocks, and both Government and private wrecking exports gave her up as a complete loss. But a rich Scotch American, John Arbucklo, of Brooklyn, took upon himself tho task of regaining tho Yankee from tho clutches of tho sea. Mr. Arbucklo was not in any sense an engineer. His money had been acquired in tho wholesale coffee trade. Yet ho had an idea that was quite his own, and ho proceeded- to put it into effect. “Wo will not try to patch that badly wounded hold at first,” said, ho, “but we will work at tho stout decks to make them firm and airtight. Then wo will fill her with air after she is so well sealed that she will not even bubble and float her like a balloon.” That seemed like the dream of an impractical theorist, but Ar.buckle succeeded upon the very lines that ho had indicated. She would have been in the Now Bedford dry-dock a month after ho took hold if it had not been for an entirely unexpected accident. Ono of tho Government tugs bringing her into the harbour broke her towing hawser. In going back for a hew line she broke into one of tho Yankee’s air-ports close to tho waterline, and the cruiser sank in deep water. To raiso her again was a repitition under much more straining conditions of the first enterprise, but Arbuckle finally accomplished it. She was raised for the second time, to remain above the surface less than fifteen minutes. The men were just cheering, when one of her air compressors broke, tho pressure under decks was suddenly released, and she sank again. It was enough to discourage all but the most persistent men, but John Arbuckle is one of the most persistent of men. He has already announced his intention of going down after tho Yankee a third time. No ono doubts that in the long run lie will get her, for ho is not a man who easily loses the thing that ho sots out to accomplish.