Raising Sunken Lightship in Midwinter Slow, Dangerous Job

Raising a sunken vessel in mid-winter, and that too in the coldest winter that Muskegon has experienced in at least 41 years of its history, according to weather bureau records, is the unique operation that crowds of Muskegon residents are witnessing daily at the Racine Boat Manufacturing company's west slip.

The vessel is the lightship "Milwaukee No. 95," which sank last month following a stormy night in which the wind, it is believed blew it over. The East Shore Dredging company is in charge of the job of raising the vessel, and in command of the crew is Leon G. Smith of Muskegon, who holds a recard [sic] for deep water diving, having gone down into 102 feet of water on one occasion to raise a vessel.

Mr. Smith made his record in raising the tug Irma L. Wheeler, at Pine Lake, near Charlevoix, several years ago. At that time he won national renown among engineers for his feat.

Although the job was a difficult one, declares Mr. Smith, it finds it equal in the present one. The divers only have to go down into 20 feet of water here, but the work has to be done in winter. It takes a diver about four times as long to do a given piece of work in the winter under water as it does in summer. The diver has to wear mittens, and cannot use his tools anywhere near as well as he can in summer time.

All the diver's work has to be done by the aid of the sense of touch. When he gets down under water to the lace where he has to work he is in almost Stygian darkness. During the past month there have been no sunny days, and without the sun the light penetrates but a little way into the water. Furthermore Muskegon lake is notorious among diverse all over the Great Lakes for its murkiness. The water is always muddy and hard to work in.

With his hand swathed in mittens and water-proof gloves, the diver sometimes finds it a difficult task to locate the openings which he is sent down to plug. More time is spent in looking for these than in closing them. It is impossible to predict, declares Mr. Smith, when the work of closing the openings will be done and the pumps can be started to raise the vessel.

The plan is to close all the openings in the hull, and then set the pumps to work to pump out the boat. If every orifice were securely plugged the hull could be pumped out in abut 10 or 15 minutes with the two big steam pumps the East Shore Dredging company has on the job. The crew does not expect to be able to do this, however, and will be delighted if three hours of pumping suffice to bring the vessel up.

One of the greatest dangers of the job is that the air valves in the helmets freeze quickly. When this occurs the vitiated air cannot escape and Fort William elevators at the [line missing or substituted?] er might be suffocated, however, were care not exercised.

The man in charge of the rope attached to the diver, and in charge of the life line, must be continually on the alert to see that this does not occur, and that the diver does not get his lines tangled in the fittings of the vessel. One such incident has already happened, a diver floating to the top. He was quickly rescued, however, and his helmet removed so that he could get fresh air. Since that time two men put in practically all their time watching each diver.

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COMING UP FROM THE HULL

The pictures shows John Lillmars, one of the divers on the job, just coming up after putting in half an hour's work in closing up some of the holes in the hull. Lillmars' helmet has been removed, and he is getting a breath of fresh air. James Evans has hold of the rope and life-line. Lillmars'life when the diver is under water, practically depends on Evans' watchfulness and his care in keeping the lines free.

THE SUNKEN LIGHTSHIP.

This is all that is visible of the sunken lightship, which lies against the Racine west wharf. The lightship is held fast with ropes to the East Shore Dredging company scow (the the left). Back of the scow is the tug "Ruby."