To return to the operations of the Belfast shipbuilding yard. A serious accident occurred in the autumn of 1867 to the mail paddle-steamer the Wolf, belonging to the Messrs. Burns, of Glasgow. When passing out of the Lough, about eight miles from Belfast, she was run into by another steamer. She was cut down and sank, and there she lay in about seven fathoms of water; the top of her funnel and masts being only visible at low tide. She was in a dangerous position for all vessels navigating the entrance to the port, and it was necessary that she should be removed, either by dynamite, gunpowder, or some other process. Divers were sent down to examine the ship, and the injury done to her being found to be slight, the owners conferred with us as to the possibility of lifting her and bringing her into port. Though such a process had never before been accomplished, yet knowing her structure well, and finding that we might rely upon smooth water for about a week or two in summer, we determined to do what we could to lift the sunken vessel to the surface.
We calculated the probable weight of the vessel, and had a number of air-tanks expressly built for her floatation. These were secured to the ship with chains and hooks, the latter being inserted through the side lights in her sheer strake. Early in the following summer everything was ready. The air-tanks were prepared and rafted together. Powerful screws were attached to each chain, with hand-pumps for emptying the tanks, together with a steam tender fitted with cooking appliances, berths and stores, for all hands engaged in the enterprise. We succeeded in attaching the hooks and chains by means of divers; the chains being ready coiled on deck. But the weather, which before seemed to be settled, now gave way. No sooner had we got the pair of big tanks secured to the after body, than a fierce north-north-easterly gale set in, and we had to run for it, leaving the tanks partly filled, in order to lessen the strain on everything.
When the gale had settled, we returned again, and found that no harm had been done. The remainder of the hooks were properly attached to the rest of the tanks, the chains were screwed tightly up, and the tanks were pumped clear. Then the tide rose; and before high water we had the great satisfaction of getting the body of the vessel under weigh, and towing her about a cable's length from her old bed. At each tide's work she was lifted higher and higher, and towed into shallower water towards Belfast; until at length we had her, after eight days, safely in the harbour, ready to enter the graving dock,—not more ready, however, than we all were for our beds, for we had neither undressed nor shaved during that anxious time. Indeed, our friends scarcely recognised us on our return home.
The result of the enterprise was this. The clean cut made into the bow of the ship by the collision was soon repaired. The crop of oysters with which she was incrusted gave place to the scraper and the paintbrush. The Wolf came out of the dock to the satisfaction both of the owners and underwriters; and she was soon "ready for the road," nothing the worse for her ten months' immersion.[2]
Meanwhile the building of new iron ships went on in the Queen's Island. We were employed by another Liverpool Company—the British Shipowners' Company, Limited—to supply some large steamers. The British Empire, of 3361 gross tonnage, was the same class of vessel as those of the White Star line, but fuller, being intended for cargo. Though originally intended for the Eastern trade, this vessel was eventually placed on the Liverpool and Philadelphia line; and her working proved so satisfactory that five more vessels were ordered like her, which were chartered to the American Company.
The Liverpool agents, Messrs. Richardson, Spence, and Co., having purchased the Cunard steamer Russia, sent her over to us to be lengthened 70 feet, and entirely refitted—another proof of the rapid change which owners of merchant ships now found it necessary to adopt in view of the requirements of modern traffic.
Another Liverpool firm, the Messrs. T. and J. Brocklebank, of world-wide repute for their fine East Indiamen, having given up building for themselves at their yard at Whitehaven, commissioned us to build for them the Alexandria, and Baroda, which were shortly followed by the Candahar and Tenasserim. And continuing to have a faith in the future of big iron sailing ships, they further employed us to build for them two of yet greater tonnage, the Belfast and the Majestic.
Indeed, there is a future for sailing ships, notwithstanding the recent development of steam power. Sailing ships can still hold their own, especially in the transport of heavy merchandise for great distances. They can be built more cheaply than steamers; they can be worked more economically, because they require no expenditure on coal, nor on wages of engineers; besides, the space occupied in steamers by machinery is entirely occupied by merchandise, all of which pays its quota of freight. Another thing may be mentioned: the telegraph enables the fact of the sailing of a vessel, with its cargo on board, to be communicated from Calcutta or San Francisco to Liverpool, and from that moment the cargo becomes as marketable as if it were on the spot. There are cases, indeed, where the freight by sailing ship is even greater than by steamer, as the charge for warehousing at home is saved, and in the meantime the cargo while at sea is negotiable.
We have accordingly, during the last few years, built some of the largest iron and steel sailing ships that have ever gone to sea. The aim has been to give them great carrying capacity and fair speed, with economy of working; and the use of steel, both in the hull and the rigging, facilitates the attainment of these objects. In 1882 and 1883, we built and launched four of these steel and iron sailing ships—the Waiter H. Wilson, the W. J. Pirrie, the Fingal, and the Lord Wolseley—each of nearly 3000 tons register, with four masts,—the owners being Mr. Lawther, of Belfast; Mr. Martin, of Dublin; and the Irish Shipowners Company.
Besides these and other sailing ships, we have built for Messrs. Ismay, Imrie and Co. the Garfield, of 2347 registered tonnage; for Messrs. Thomas Dixon and Son, the Lord Downshire (2322); and for Messrs. Bullock's Bay Line, the Bay of Panama (2365).