Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1901 — TO RAISE THE MAINE. [ARTICLE]

TO RAISE THE MAINE.

Men Who Do the Work Win Receive Only a Salvage. It has been three years- since 25S sailors of the United States navy went to the bottom of Havana harbor with the wreck of the battleship Maine, and on the third anniversary of that event a contract was signed for the raising of the wreck. The N. F. T'hamberlain company of Chicago will undertake the work. A little over two years ago, when the question of. raising the wreck was first seriously broached Mr. Chanibevluiii,coneeived a plan for raising the wreck of the Maine, as well as that of the grounded. Spanish transport Alfonso XII. He immediately organized a company and set to work to perfect the details of the task. Mr. Chamberlain then proposed to raise both the wrecks of the Maine and the Alfonso for salvage, agreeing at the same time to pay the government 3 per cent of the net proceeds and guaranteeing the return of all personal property of the crew that should be recovered. The government notified the company that the proposition was acceptable and with the approval of the bond and the attachment of the official signatures the company is now ready to begin work. The plan which Mr. Chamberlain has adopted for the Maine is the building of an immense cofferdam around the wreck. The dam will be eighty feet broad at the base and wide enough nt the top for a safe wagon road. The incline will he on the inside. Bundles of brush thirty feet long, weighted with stone, will first lie let down all around the wreck. Upon this dirt and gravel will be dumped, forming a comparatively water-tight foundation. Stone, brush, dirt and gravel will then Inalternated until the wreck is completely surrounded by a dam forty-five feet high. Dumping engines will be put to work, as soon as the dam is completed and the wreck cleared of water. A well will be dug inside the dam. into which the bilge water can run, and the work of retrieving the wreck will then lie fairly begun. One hundred tons of brass nnd bronze, together with the engines nnd the protective armor of the Maine, will be the property of the Chamberlain company. The cost of doing the work outlined by Mr. Chamberlain is estimated at $75,00<i.