RAISING A SHIP ON AIR
A salvage system that has come into prominence within recent years consists in pumping air into the vessel to drive the water out, thus making the boat light enough to float. This scheme can be used only when the deck and bulkheads of the boat are strongly built and able to stand the strain of lifting the wreck, and when the hole that sank the vessel is in or near the bottom, so as to allow enough airspace above it to lift the boat. The work of the diver in this case consists of closing hatches and bulkhead doors, repairing holes in the upper part of the hull, and generally strengthening the deck. It must be remembered that a deck is built to take the strain of heavy weights bearing down upon it. It is not built to be pushed up from beneath, so that frequently this method of salving is rendered impracticable because the deck itself cannot stand the strain.
Climbing into an Armored Diving Suit
Lowering an Armored Diver into the Water
A more common salvage method consists in passing cables or chains under the wreck and attaching them to large floats or pontoons. The slack in the chains is taken up when the tide is low, so that on the turn of the tide the wreck will be lifted off the bottom. The partially raised wreck is then towed into shallower water, until it grounds. At the next low tide, the slack of the chains is again taken in, and at flood-tide the wreck is towed nearer land. The work proceeds step by step, until the vessel is moved inshore far enough to bring its decks awash; when it may be patched up and pumped out. Where the rise of the tide is not sufficient to be of much assistance, hydraulic jacks or other lifting-apparatus are used.
A Diver's Sea Sled ready to be towed along the bed of the sea
The Sea Sled on Land showing the forward horizontal and after vertical rudders