Submarine Appliances And Their Uses
Deep Sea Diving, &c., &c.

The pontoons were moved in position, and all the rods fixed and gear ready. On the 7th of August, when the first lift was made by letting water into the pontoons, and pumping out as the tide rose, having first screwed down tight, she started out of the mud with a sudden lift of 6in. This day they got a lift of 5ft., and hauled ahead 50ft. After getting her to the slope of the bank before mentioned, it was found that when allowed to rest on the ground she slipped back, owing to the rise, the bow being 30ft. higher than the stern ; so after this time they had to lift by the screws, and keep her carried from the pontoons. They lifted at each lift rather more at the stern than at the bow, so as to get her again on level keel, and also hauled the stern side-on to the bank. They went on lifting the fore encl about 3ft. and the after end 4ft. on the days they worked the screws, till the 21st of Sep- tember, when she floated over the bank, and went some 300ft. ahead towards the shore. On the 22nd the rail was up to the cross logs, which were then packed up, and by the 26th of September, 1869, the leaks and portholes were stopped up, and the Taranaki pumped out. She was found to have a rent in a plate 3ft. long by lin. wide, and near it a hole 3m. diameter, with a piece of rock in it; both these were in the engine-room compartment. She had sunk by the stern seven hours after she struck. The fore compartment seems to have re- mained tight, as the deck beams and fore-hatches were forced in by the pressure of water when she went down. The boiler was also much damaged by the upper part being collapsed. She had been down over thirteen months in 17I fathoms of water, and the upper decks were completly worm-eaten by the boring-worm. The hull was coated with barnacles and shelly incrustation, but the engines were uninjured, and the bearings were bright and clean. I he cast-iron work was unhurt, the wrought-iron starting gear tarnished, but not so as to damage it ; one of the cylinders was full of water, the other empty. The cargo was sadly deteriorated. She had been raised 92ft., nearly all by the screws. Her hull was reported quite sound, and she was refitted and repaired at Wellington. The total cost was close upon £3,000. “ Locksley The “ Locksley Hall,” sunk in the River Mersey.—This iron ship, 227ft. in length, 1,356 Hall.” tons gross, was sunk by falling foul of the bows of a steamer lying at anchor, and was a source of danger to passing vessels. The Mersey Dock and Harbour Board proposed to disperse the wreck by means of explosives, but the Mersey railway authorities objected to this being done, the wreck being in proximity to their newly constructed tunnel, which it was thought the use of explosives might injure. A syndicate undertook to lift the vessel and carry it into shallow water for the sum of ,£15,000. The dead-weight of the wreck was calculated at about 1,000 tons, and the weight of the cargo at about 1,400 tons. Some of the latter had been already recovered, and it was estimated, therefore, that the total weight to be raised was about 1,800 tons. Four hulks were purchased, each capable of lifting 500 tons, leaving a margin of 200 tons buoyancy for contingencies. The ropes used were of flexible steel wire, çin. and yin. diameter. The lifting ropes were placed under the wreck by a sawing kind of operation, conducted from two tugs, the bearing surfaces of the hulks being protected by rubbing pieces of timber faced with plate iron. At the first lift, the hulks, rising with the tide, lifted the wreck, and were towed into shallower water. The work was finished in six weeks from the signing of the contract. An interesting case was that of the Grosser Kurfurst, a German war vessel, sunk near ironclad Dover by collision with the Konig Wilhelm in the year 1880. An attempt to raise this vessel ”Grosser was made by a London Wrecking Company. The general features of the plan proposed by Kurfurst. Company’s experts were approved by the Admiralty on behalf of the German Government, and there is but little doubt that the vessel would have been raised had not the Company itself gone into liquidation. The Grosser Kurfurst was sunk in twenty fathoms in the stream of the tide, and right in the fairway of the channel. She was turned completely over, keel uppeimost, but was found to be holed in one place only, on the port quarter below her armour plating. This hole was covered by an iron shield, on the rim of which a hollow channel iron was riveted. An indiarubber hose pipe capable of withstanding a very high pressure, was packed into this channel, and as soon as the shield had been firmly fixed 144