SALVING SHIPS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9315, 15 August 1908, Page 4

SALVING SHIPS.

HOW WRECKS ARE RAISED

Wreck-raising is becoming so perfect that this particular business might now be regarded. as a science. At present salvagemen are trying to ''refloat the ill-fated Gladiator, which is half submerged just off xhe Isle of Wight.

How will they do this? In the first, place, all the guns will be taken out of her, and there will' be hundreds of tons of coal for the divers to shift, for in' rolling half oyer the coal shot out of her bunkers and disturbed her equilibrium. Then the terrible hole in her side will be temporarily patchedi and all hatches, and portholes closed to make her watertight.

Next the pumps will be got to work, and with the help of several powerful tugs she will be refloated, towed across the Solent, and dry-docked at Portsmouth, where she will be effectively re-' paired and overhauled. The cost of all this may possibly be anything from five to twenty-five thousand pounds, but then you have saved a ship that cost over £300,000, so that it is more than worth while.

It is when a boat sinks in fairly deep water that the wreck-raiser is called upon to .display his utmost skill. In this oase the divers may go down and pass about half a dozen strong steel hawsers beneath the keel of the sunken boat. Two specially-constructed vessels will then be brought directly over the wreck, so that it lies midway between them. These vessels are connected by enormously strong girder bridges, over which the steel cables are passed and made taut at low tide.

With the lifting of the tide the wreck is naturally lifted from the ocean bed. She is then carried* slung between the two ships, towards the shore. As soon as higher ground is reached and she begins to touch bottom again, a stop is made. At low tide the cables are again tightened up, and she ie carried forward' a little more. In this way, after the lapse of two or three days or weeks, as the case may be, she is brought far enough in shore to enable the salvers to comfortably carry out repairs sufficiently strong to enable her to be refloated and docked.

Sometimes four pontoons are used to raise a wreck. These are stationed floating over the four corners of the sunken vessel, and each pair is connected by huge pine logs. Hawsers are placed under the keel of the sunken vessel and over the pine logs at low tide, and when the tide rises the pontoons with the wreck are towed towards shallower water by tugs. When, however, the ground shelves too rapidly, these methods are not practicable. Here the divers go down and take every ounce out of tne ship that will tend to lighten her — often a long and laborious job. Then bulkheads are constructed if the vessel is seriously damaged at the bow or stern, after which every hole is closed bo that water cannot enter, and then pumping completes the operation. As soon as tho vessel rises she is taken in tow and dry-docked.

Some salvage operations are, of course, little short of marvellous, as witness that of the Suovio recently. But, wonderful ,as was this case, it Is safe to say ; that the recovery of Valkyrie 111.,. the fino yacht with which Lord Dunraven made such a splendid effort to lift the America Cup in the nineties, was even more so.

She sank in twenty-one fathoms of water. In itself it would have been no lisht task to raiee her from such a depth "of water, as it becomes very difficult for divers to work in over twenty fathoms. But not content with sinking so low, she buried hercelf in -ddition in twenty-two feet of black, slimy mud. One can imaeine with what difficulties the divprs had to contftnd when working in this fearful ooze. But British plunk and perseverance overcame nil difficulties, and sho was successfully raised from her muddy bed to once more become a butterfly of the sea. ____ _____________ -b .]______.