THE WORLD'S ADVANCE 



279 



plugs were tapped with two holes on 

 their inner ends, and with key wrenches 

 it was an easy thing to screw them out- 

 board and clear of the ship. 



As these holes were threaded and had 

 a diameter of more than an inch, they 

 were all ready for the attaching of pipe 

 fittings, and this was done so quickly 

 that only a little ooze forced itself up- 

 ward and inboard. With these fittings 

 in place, rubber hose was then connected 

 to each one of them, and this flexible tub- 

 ing, in turn, led to the feeds from an air 



With everything in readiness, the 

 ship's engines were backed, the dredges 

 wound in on their windlasses, and the 

 ten tugs at the stern pulled with all their 

 might. Mr. Wotherspoon then let loose 

 the compressed air through the fourteen 

 openings in the steamship's bottom. The 

 buoyant bubbles crowded surfaceward, 

 and, in their struggle to rise, spread out 

 and broke the contact between the steel 

 plating and the tenacious clay. In this 

 way the grip of the waterbed was de- 

 stroyed, the liner lifted, floating, as it 



Below: A Few of 

 the Tugboats That 

 Aided in Freeing the 

 "Zeeland." In the 

 Immediate F o r e - 

 ground May Be Seen 

 One of the Dredges. 



Above: A View of 

 the Steamer "Zee- 

 land" as She Ap- 

 peared When 

 Grounded on a Mud- 

 bank in the St. 

 Lawrence River. 



compressor having a capacity of a thou- 

 sand feet of free air per minute. In the 

 meantime, all water ballast was removed 

 from the ship and her lifeboats and some 

 other removable weights put over the 

 side. Further, lines were led from the 

 stern to five tandem teams of powerful 

 tugs, and a separate wire cable was 

 passed around the Zeeland' s bow and led 

 to the windlasses of the two dredges. 

 These craft were firmly secured by their 

 prods driven deeply into the mud. To 

 facilitate guiding the liner, two smaller 

 tugs were stationed at her head one on 

 each bow. 



were, upon a film of air, and then it was 

 an easy thing for her engines and the 

 tugs to get her back into the river's 

 highway. Indeed, inside of ten min- 

 utes from the starting of the joint opera- 

 tions the Zeeland was out in the channel 

 and ready to move under her own power 

 up to Montreal. 



If Mr. Wotherspoon had used water 

 instead of compressed air, as was done 

 in the case of the Maine, the effect would 

 not have been so broadcast, and it is 

 doubtful if the fourteen small openings 

 would have sufficed. Here is where he 

 profited by the lesson taught him and 



