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DETROIT DRY DOCK COMPANY'S DOCKING PLANT. 123 STORY OF THE WRECK AND REBUILDING OF THE WOODEN STEAMER PHILIP D. ARMOUR. ?«HE YEARS 1888 and 1889 are mentioned in the historical account of the progress of the Detroit Dry Dock Company as the era of large wooden propellers. The Philip D. Armour, the largest built by the company up to that time, was 280 feet long, 40 feet beam and 23 feet deep. She was launched March 30, 1889, and did good service as a coarse freight carrier until Sept. 7, 1889. She was bound down the St. Clair river with about 90,000 bushels of corn when she came into collision with the steamer Marion, and sank in a very few minutes, in very deep water. About six weeks later Wrecker Reid commenced operations on the sunken steamer, and notwithstanding predictions to the contrary and ridicule, he delivered the wreck to the Detroit Dry Dock Company, August 17, 1890, about ten months after he commenced operations. One of the engravings on the following pages shows the patch put on while she lay at the bottom of the river, and for such an extensive patch it is considered excellent work. The engraving on the opposite page shows the patch removed. Then the Detroit Dry Dock Company commenced the work of rebuilding her, and it is believed it was the most extensive rebuild ever given a lake steamer. Notwithstanding the magnitude and completeness, it was finished in less than two months. To all appearances and subsequent operation in cargo carrying she does not seem to have suffered any from her unusual experience. Following the illustrations showing the results of her collision with the Marion is another illustration showing her after she was rebuilt.