RAISING 38-TON GUN FROM MUD. 
141 
the mud was so liquid that any depression filled itself up, and the men 
had to work (digging) nearly up to their middles. 
Thursday and Friday, 24 th and Zhth May . 
The high tides came higher, and the sea leaked through the dam. 
A sea wall had therefore to be built, in anticipation of a spring tide, on 
Tuesday, 29th, to close the estuary, which ran up to the gun pit. The 
men were working from 9-12 and 2-4, and it was decided to work by 
reliefs, 8-10, 10-12, 12-2, 2-4, as the fatigue of throwing up the heavy 
wet mud was very great. The water was kept out, and the wall com¬ 
pleted by continuous labour, on Tuesday 29th, keeping pace in height 
and thickness with the strength required by the increasing height of 
the spring tide. 
Fig. 2. 
Section on AB. 
HEIGHT OF THE SPRING TIDE. LEVEL OF SALTINGS. 
As the gun was sinking fast, it was determined to lay down two 
platforms, 6'x 10', parallel to the gun, and support the latter by a 
sabicu beam, 18' x 12" x 12", lashed to the trunnions with 6" rope 
(white.) 
3rd. It was calculated that no trench parallel to the gun could he cut below the centre of 
gravity of the gun, for a transverse plank to support the parbuckle skids, nearer than C (about 
o' from the gun), because the mud was so very soft and wet, and had no consistency. The par¬ 
buckling power, acting in the direction P, would have to pull the gun over a mass of mud (shaded), 
also overcoming the suction of the wet bed in which the gun lay. 
4th. The force of gravity and the power P would have had for their resultant a force, AT, acting 
rather downwards at the point of support. The parbuckle skids, not being supported at this point, 
must have sunk; no pickets at the point Y could have kept them down, the mud being very soft 
and treacherous. 
These considerations determined us to forsake the idea of parbuckling out of the mud, and it was 
determined to raise the gun vertically, sufficiently to place skids on platforms on both sides of the gun. 
