The Present State of H.M.S. Sultan.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 426, 7 December 1889, Page 3

The Present State of H. M.S. Sultan.

The following extract from a private letter, written by a military officer now at Malta, gives a description of the- Sultan after she was raised. The letter wafe dated Malta, August 3lst : — No doubt you have seen in the papers thai the old Sultan was brought in here last Monday. They tested her before starting, and found that when they stopped all the pumps she sank two feet in an hour ; so they pumped her out, and the Sam&on towed her. Her rudder was broken, and she swung about so much that" it was 7.30 p m. before they got her into Bighi Bay. Early next morning they took her round to Somerset Dock; but shehadsunksomuch.that they grounded her near the 40-ton crane and tried to get her coal out. On Thursday they made up thoh minds to put her into dock as she wag, and pumped her out ; bub as soon as, her pumps stopped her bows &ank and caught on the mod which has silted up afithe mouth of bhedock. Yesterday, however, they were more fortunate, and -aftier pumping for some • time they towod^hor by &heer force, and, once oyer tho_mud-bank, they soQjn"lmd her'in doclr; put the caisson in' its place, 'and t)egan to pump the dock d/y. I was dining on board the Surprise, and was told to go and see her this morning. She has always .had a list to port, and I thought she had taken the ground on that side, but fche,. whole of her bottou on that side (and that is tho side on which she was lying in Comma) is absolutely without a dent of any kind, except that the bilsreplate (I think they call it) for a Khorb distance is rather .damaged. Her etaiboaid side is quite different. About 50ft from her bow there is a large hole about a3 big as a door, the iron platen being bent inwards about 4f(",nnd the rock must have caugh f against this, and bent the forward end in iwhon the Temetrairo tried to pull her off. 'From this point to her .stern, and fiom the keel to the very edge of-her bottom, it looks as if she had been drawn over sharp points, which have left great indentations at inter\als all along. From the .huge holes in her I am sure everyone is of opinion thajj, Jiad they pulled her oft' the day afrer she struck, she must have gone down straight, and probably in such deep water that, besides causing the death ot several men, she would have been too deep to raise. The way iii which the divers have mend,ed hei is really wonderful.,^ /The foremost hole seems to have been iilled up with horsedung, andaanras'put over it and fastened round the ship with ropes passed right under the bottom. The other ho)e3 are filled up with bricks and cement. First of all the divers made screw holes in the 7-S inch iron plates, and into these they screwed lpnsr iron pins all round the hole. They then pub big baulks of wood over these pins, and screwed then on tight, with nuts. On thifj framework they screwed more planks of wood, and filled in behind them wibji cement. Some of these screens are over 12ft. square, and tho edges are well bevelled olf and the screwholes aro as accurately made as if it had been done on a carpenter's table. Between the plafces (wherever there was the least semblance of an aperture) wedges were driven in, and every scuppor and hole, however small, was carefully plugged up, and yet the water ran in at about 40,000 tons per hour. One of the dockyard officials told me that there was not a diver here or in England who could have done the work these divers have done. 'I he engineer in charge says he never would have undei taken it had he known the damage that was • l ono to her, and that a week after he began he as nearly as possible gave it up, The ship insido is, of coir.se, in a fearful rlate, and tho stench is awfuj. Her guns have rust about half an inch thick on thenv, and of course the bulkheads and cibin compartments aro h, ing all over <he decks. The white paint loo'is as if it had all been blackleadcd, and the engines look as if they had never been meant to turn round. They say they are eroing bo clean her out, patch up her bottom, and send her home. One side is veiy much damaged ; but they made such a good job of the Surprise that I don.'b see why they shouldn't do up the Sultan equally .ivelj ; and they think her own engines \\ 111* tako- her. home.' - , This company certainly deserve every penny they ha\e got, ami the chief engineer ought to bo. made ;a. peer. , -Without seeing the ship, ib. is impossible. to imagine -the extraordinary performance it has been to biing her in: ' I don't know" how much it will cost to mend her bottom ; but if they put new engine? into her and breech load ing guns, I don't pee why the should nob become a veryformidable ship again, I hope tameonp will make it known now that ib was a lucky thjug that &ho was not towed oil on the 7th o^ 'March, and that the Duke was nob to blame. I suppose how- theft will have to replace the Sultan's name in the Navy list. - .