Big Vessel Lies on River Bottom

Corrigan & McKinney's ore carrying barge the Iron Duke, which was badly damaged by fire on Sunday night and was saved from entire destruction only by the Charlotte firemen, who laid a line of hose on the thin ice of the river and subdued the flames after a long fight, met with still further misfortune yesterday afternoon.

The barge, which was valued at $175,000, was moored to the wharf near the New York Central freight house in Charlotte with heavy steel cables at bow and stem. It was thought she was securely fastened, but the heavy load of water poured into her caused her to snap the cables and slide out to the center of the river, where she sank. Nothing but the pilot house remains above the waves.

The big barge is 200 feet long and she blocks navigation. The work of raising the boat will be expensive, but the government authorities will insist on its being performed at once, as if she is frozen in where she now lies she will be a menace to navigation early in the spring. The owners desire to lose no time in raising the Iron Duke, as if she is left in the river until spring the heavy ice dams, when the river blocks up, will break her up and she will be a total loss. It is estimated that the boat was damaged $50,000 by the fire.

One of the officers of the firm of Corrigan & McKinney, which firm operates the blast furnace at Charlotte, said last night to a Democrat & Chronicle reporter that his firm would bring divers here from Cleveland as soon as possible. He thought the divers would put a canvas bottom outside the hull, and then, with large pumps placed inside the boat, remove the water.

The suction of the big pumps would draw the canvas bottom into all the openings and prevent the water coming in until the boat could be towed to shore and temporarily repaired. The work will be very costly, but it is believed that the boat is worth repairing. When raised the boat will be rebuilt at Charlotte. It was suggested that the boat might be raised by pontoons, but this plan was abandoned as too expensive and too slow. The pontoons would have to be brought by rail.

The work of raising the boat must be accomplished within two weeks, or before the heavy ice forms on the river. The firemen who worked on the burning boat had a hard morning‘s work yesterday in securing their hose, which was laid on the ice and was frozen. Teams were used to draw the hose to shore.