Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Marine Review (Cleveland, OH), 3 May 1906, p. 24

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

24 TAE MarRINE REVIEW with the Ranger's pneumatic tools, as shown in the two photographs. Also, two pieces of copper piping, 10 inches long, fitted with suitable external flanges, were made and in- serted through the holes from the outside, the flanges being bolted on to the shell plating. The inner end of the tubes were fitted with a hinged lid which could be easily closed by the divers under water. This plan proved quite successful, and when the time came to pump the vessel out they were closed up tightly in a few minutes. All being now in readiness, the Mersey Docks and Harbor Board pontoons, Enterprise, Octopus, and Adventure, were made fast to the outer ends of the parbuckling wires, bows on, and the Liverpool Salvage Association's steamer Linnet to the forward parbuckling wire. The latter vessel not being fitted for lifting work, a greenheart log 14 in. square was passed through her bow ports from side to side, and the end of the wire made fast round this. In order to obtain the life of water sufficient to upright the vessel it was necessary to lower the water in the dock from 22 ft. down to 9 ft., which necessitated the lowering of the water in three other docks. This was a very big under- taking, involving, as it did, the removal of numerous steam- ers, with the consequent interference in the loading and dis- charging of their cargoes. To limit the inconvenience as much as possible, it was arranged that the work should start on Saturday evening, so as to give the whole of Sunday to the righting operations. This was done, and on Sunday morning all the lifting ves- sels were pinned down as shown in the view, the shore pur- chases hove taut and the water allowed to gradually enter the dock. In the course of these operations one of the lift- ing pontoons pinned dangerously, and being nearly on her beam ends, it became necessary to slip her. When she was released a heavier strain: was consequently brought upon the other lifting vessels, but principally on the shore purchases, which resulted in one of the heavy bollards (to which was fastened the 100-ton purchase) being dragged from its con- crete foundation, involving some little delay until it could be again secured, when everything was hove taut again, and the vessel gradually turned over. Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5 are interesting series of photographs which were taken during the time the dredger was in the act of turning over. The first shows everything ready, all the lifting vessels pinned down and the shore purchases hove taut. In this one, you will notice the vessel has gone over a little, and the strain on the tripod is very considerable owing to the altered angle of the lead. In the next view the lifting vessels have been slipped to prevent them being holed as the dredger came up under- neath them--the shore purchases are now slack, and the ves- sel rapidly filling through the holes cut in the bottom, as previously described. The violent ebullition on the surface of the water, of course, indicates the escape of air which has hitherto been confined in some of the compartments. _ The succeeding view shows the dredger nearly uprighted, but on the dock bottom, and lying with 15 ft. of water above her decks. On the' following Saturday, the ee having been. made tight by the divers, the water was again lowered in the dock. Five steam pumps were placed on the craft lying alongside, the suction hoses placed in the different compart- ments of the dredger, bulwarks and deck fractures secured, the vessel pumped out and floated. Referring to the method of lifting by pontoons, a descrip- tion will now be given of the operations which took place at the wreck of the steamer Sarah Brough. - The recovery of this vessel is a specimen of actual lifting, that is to say, an actual lift from the bottom of the sea, from 12% fathoms at low water spring tides, in one of the strongest tides on the coast of this kingdom. There are ex- tremely few cases of the recovery of a vessel sunk out in the open sea, and this ship enjoys the reputation of being one of the few of its kind recovered under siinilar conditions. The Sarah Brough (Fig. 6) is a small steamer of 300 tons, and her dimensions are 132 ft. by 23 ft. by 10 ft. 7 in. While on a voyage to Dublin she struck the Skerries Rocks off Holyhead, and sunk off the West Mouse in 12% fathoms of water at low water spring tides. She was lying in the full strength of the tide, the top of her masts only showing as you will see in the view. The divers had much difficulty in making an examination of the vessel on account of the tide, . but they reported her on shingle, upright and slightly scoured away at each end under the bottom, which would make it easier to get the lifting wires under. The salvage steamer Hyzena was anchored on the port side and a small chain taken from her by the Ranger and swept under the after end of the ship. When this was towed un- der far enough a 9-in. wire was attached and hove under to the required position, and the operation continued in the same manner until four wires were in place, each wire capable of standing a-strain of 280 tons. To this the two pontoons, Enterprise and Adventure, belonging to the Mersey Docks and Harbor Board, were attached at low water, and the wires hove taut. On this tide the vessel was moved about a mile further inshore. The tide here, although not quite so strong as near the Mouse, was very considerable and made the work still difficult for the divers. It was therefore decided on the next lift to try and carry the ship out into the deep water of the channel and along the coast, about five miles, in order to get into Cemaes Bay, where she would be out of the strength of the tide. The usual method of carrying a vessel in the wires is to make the tug boats fast to the pontoons and put them end on to the tide, allowing all the craft to drop up together with the current, so that the tug boats shall have command of the wreck and check her quickly in the event of touching a pinnacle of rock. As it happened in this case the lifting vessel did not get the weight until just before high water, and if she had been dropped up it would have taken so much time on the falling tide that there would not have been sufficient water for her to enter Cemaes Bay. (Fig. 7). On the other hand, to tow up with the tide would be a very risky proceeding, as in the event of a rock being in the way, say 10 or 12 ft. clear of the bottom, and the wreck should touch, all the lifting wires would be carried away and prob- ably a great deal of other damage done; perhaps resulting in the total loss of the ship. However, as time was of the utmost importance, and it was necessary to get the vessel out of the open into a place of comparative safety in the shortest possible time, it was decided to take the risk; but, 'in order to minimise that risk as much as possible, very careful soundings were taken by the Ranger all along the channel and only the men who were absolutely necessary were left on board the pontoons. .The weather fortunately was very fine and the slack of the wires having been taken in evenly, the pontoons floated in good position and were taken in tow by the tugs. Everything happily went well and the wreck was towed along the five miles with the current at a very rapid rate, some part of ue journey being in as much as 20 fathoms of water. She was grounded in Cemaes Bay, (Fig. 8) well out of the strength of the tide, and the worst part of the work was then over. It, however, took four more lifts to place the ves- sel where her decks were dry at low water, and she was then pumped out by the Ranger, floated and towed up the beach, where she dried altogether at low water. The damage to the. bottom was subsequently patched up and the vessel towed to Liverpool by the Ranger. This concludes the operations at this steamer, and is given a specimen of the manner in which ships may be lifted

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy