The Navy Builds a Monster at Port Orchard

The work at Port Orchard, which is to make Puget Sound one of the great naval stations of the United States, is well advanced. Here warships can be docked and repaired, the fleets of the North Pacific can rendezvous, and recruits for the navy can be received. Byron Barlow Co. have as many men as they can employ working night and day on the dry dock and expect to finish it by October. A contract will soon be let for the dredging of the 125,000 cubic yards of earth which at present close the entrance to the dock from Port Orchard bay, and the deepening of the harbor. Plans for the office buildings and residences are now awaiting approval at Washington City, after which the contracts for construction will be let. The masonry contract — that for the dry locks — is likely to be completed more than a year before the time limit expires.

It is now firmly believed that, unless some unforeseen accident occurs to delay the work, the United States government will, before the first of the year, have the largest dry dock in the world, with the exception of two in Italy, which were built by that nation to accommodate some of the great floating monitors in her navy. Two large dry docks on the Atlantic coast are now under construction, one at Brooklyn and the other at Port Royal, South Carolina. Neither of these will be quite as large as the Port Orchard dock, although any of the three could accommodate any vessel that floats in any part of the world.

The building of these three large docks by the United States government marks the beginning of a new era in the history of the navy, as well as a more encouraging outlook for the shipping interests and merchant marine of the United States.

At the close of the late civil war, no merchant marine of this country was known in every part of the civilized world. American ships, manned by American sailors, were on every sea, and the stars and stripes floated in every port. But with the close of the war the United States fell to a policy of simply repairing the old wooden war vessels which carried the old-style smooth-bore guns made in the early '60s, and which are of no more use against another wooden ship. A double-riveted ironclad could, without firing a shot, sink all the wooden wasps in the harbor in sufficient time, as shots from the old smooth-bore guns carried by these old fighters of a past would rattle off the sides of an ironclad hull from the roof of a dead stone house.

The warship Mohican, which has been on the Sound for some months taking coal, is an example of how the navy has been kept up to within a few years ago. She was built at Mare Island and was constructed, it is said, about the keel of the old historic Mohican, as appropriations were only sufficient for repairing war vessels and not for building new ones. Navy officers say, however, that the Mohican is as good a piece of either iron or wood work as was ever in the old vessel.

Within the past few years a great change has come over the feeling of the American people toward the navy, and a popular demand arose for war vessels as good as or better than those of any other nation on earth. With the building of such vessels as the great ironclad Indiana, costing $3,250,000, and other vessels in her class, such as the Oregon, Iowa and Massachusetts, came the necessity for dry docks large enough to accommodate those vessels in case of accident. In view of the ever-increasing interests of the United States in Pacific waters, which will be so greatly enlarged by the proposed construction of the Nicaragua canal, and the consequent necessity of keeping a fleet of war vessels on the coast at all times, it was decided to build one of the three great docks on the coast, and Puget Sound was selected as the most convenient as well as the most available place both to build the dock and locate a naval station.

The fact that the British government has a large stone dry dock at Esquimalt, at Victoria, as well as the general importance and development of the Northwest, all combined to favor the location on the Sound.

The selection of a suitable harbor was the next thing to be done, and a committee of army as well as navy officers was appointed and a report made to the navy department in 1890 in favor of Port Orchard, where the dock is now being completed. It was found that Port Orchard had all requirements for a suitable site for a naval station, having a fine sheltered harbor, with plenty of good fresh water back of it, and besides being easily defended in time of war. A strong effort was made to have the naval station and dry dock on Lake Washington, but the committee reported against this location on the ground that in time of war, should an enemy enter Puget Sound, it would be easy to blow up the locks that connect the Sound with the lake and consequently deprive the government of the use of the docks, as well as pen up any of American war vessels that might happen to be at the station at that period. The site was finally decided upon at the suggestion of Lieut. A. B. Wyckoff after he had made numerous borings at various points in the vicinity of Port Orchard to determine the nature of the ground. The site is near what has since been called Charleston, almost opposite Sidney, and the earth has been pronounced the best natural foundation for a dry dock in the country, being a sand so firmly cemented as to be embryo sandstone.

The contract for building the dry dock was let to Byron Barlow Co., October 2. The original specification called for the dock to be 500 feet long, and the price was to have been $500,000. The time allowed for the completion of the work was to have been thirty-six months and construction was to commence within sixty days after the contractors were put in possession of the site. The site which was purchased by the government contains in all about 200 acres of land. It was tendered to the contractors December 1, 1892. At this time it was decided by the navy department to increase the length of the dock from 500 to 650 feet, and a competent board of engineers recommended the additional allowance of $23,771.32 for the additional work. Subsequently it was recommended that an allowance of $6,182 should be made for a pump house, some extra wall work and other improvements decided to become necessary as the work progressed. It was finally decided that it would greatly add to the value of the dock to have wing walls constructed, and with some additional new improvements an allowance was made on an agreed estimate of $50,000, thus bringing up the whole cost to over $600,000. The time for completion was extended on account of the number of additional improvements to October, 1896. According to the statement of the contractors, and from the appearance of the work as it now stands, the contract will be completed fully a year before the time expires for its fulfillment. The dimensions of the dock are: Length, 650 feet; depth, 39 feet; width at top, 130 feet, and at base, 87 feet; draught at mean high water over sills, 30 feet.

Like all the large docks built by the United States government, the Port Orchard dry dock is built of timber, with a stone entrance. There are several reasons for using timber instead of stone, among which are that in the East, where the winters are excessively cold, stone docks are sometimes parted by the frost, and timber docks can be constructed at much less cost. But the principal reason is that timber docks can be constructed in about one-fourth of the time occupied by a stone dock. Just now, when several large war vessels are being completed, with no dry dock belonging to the government large enough to receive them in case of accident, it is of the utmost importance that the docks should be completed as soon as possible. It is said that in case of the first accident the dry dock at Port Orchard will be made available for docking war vessels.

The caisson, which is used to close the mouth of the dock after a vessel is inside, is finished and ready to be used at any time. Commandant J. C. Morong, who succeeded Lieut. Wyckoff in charge of the dry dock and naval station at Port Orchard, has had a series of photographs taken of the work as it progressed, and each month the bureau of yards and docks at Washington City has received a photograph taken from some point showing the advance made in the work in thirty days.

Construction was commenced in December, 1892. The work was excavating the ground, preparatory to driving piles for the altars and the foundation. After the excavation was completed it was found that owing to the peculiar condition of the soil it was impossible to drive the perpendicular piles sixteen feet, as the terms of the contract required. Piles would be driven six or seven feet and then would simply flatten out under the hammer. Steel bands were placed around the tops of the piles and this resulted in the piling being crushed to a pulp just below the bands. It was finally decided by the contractors that the piles could not be driven to the depth required in the contract. The bureau of yards and docks insisted that they be driven with a water jet. This was tried and it was found that the same purpose would be answered by digging a hole to drop them in. Work was then suspended until the visit of Secretary Herbert, in May, 1893, who carefully looked over the situation and ordered that the water jet should be tried. It failed and it was finally decided by a competent board of engineers that it was impracticable to attempt to drive the piles a depth of sixteen feet, and that seven or eight feet in such soil was worth fully as much as twenty feet in soils of other formation.

After the piles were driven all along the bottom of the dock three feet of concrete was laid to the top of them, then they were capped with timbers 12x12 running lengthways. On top of the caps these timbers were 73 feet in length and consequently projected underneath the altar pieces or walls a distance of several feet on each side. These giant timbers were laid the whole length of the dock, with a space of four feet between. The sides of the dock are formed by altar brace timbers resting on the transverse timbers below and supported on both sides by piling driven close together and forming a solid sloping wall and extending to the top walls. The regular altar timbers are then laid lengthways with the dock, forming the two walls in a series of steps. The altar timbers are 11x12 and like all the other timber used are of the best quality of Douglas fir. The concrete used in the floor and in the wing walls is made of one part Portland cement, two of sand and four parts equally divided between gravel and broken stone. It forms a composition which is as nearly water proof as it is possible to get a substance of that kind. The object of laying the concrete below the floor is to keep out water from below as much as possible and thus prevent the floor from being lifted by hydrostatic pressure.

The entrance to the dock is formed of sandstone and granite. The sandstone is brought from Sucia island, near New Whatcom, where it is quarried by the contractors, Byron Barlow Co. The granite is brought in from British Columbia, and both are of the best quality. Sandstone is used principally in the masonry, granite only being used in forming what are known as the gate seats. These are the places where the caisson rests when in position, and consequently have a tremendous pressure brought to bear on them when the water recedes from the inside and leaves a ship high and dry, resting on the keel blocks and bilge blocks. The keel and bilge blocks are made of solid oak pieces, with heavy iron bolts fastening them together. The keel blocks are laid in a row down the center and when a ship comes into the dock, as the water recedes her keel settles down on these blocks, and the bilge blocks, which are placed against the altar timbers, support her on both sides, thus keeping her in an upright position.

The boiler and pump house is a brick building with sandstone trimmings and has a chimney ninety-six feet high. The building is 100 feet long and sixty feet wide. The floor is of concrete and the roof of iron trusses. In this building is located the great pumping plant, built by Moran Bros. in this city. The plant consists of three large centrifugal pumps, with boilers in proportion, and a smaller pump and boiler to be used to keep out seepage water after the dock has been emptied by the large pumps. The capacity of the three large pumps is about 110,000 gallons per minute. The dock will hold when full about 14,000,000 gallons of water and it will take a little over two hours for the pumps to empty it after a ship is placed inside. The large pumps, which are now being placed in position in the pump house, are forty-two inches in diameter, will have a pressure of 100 pounds to the inch and will be driven by a 24-inch stroke vertical engine. They are fourteen feet in height and rest on bedplates consisting of massive pieces of iron 14x8 feet, each weighing about eight tons. Each pump is arranged to run independent of the others. The water comes in from the dock at the center of each pump and here it is forced through the discharge culverts by centrifugal force, a vacuum thus being created when the water continues flowing in until the dock is pumped. The discharge culverts are brick, with cement linings, and empty into the Sound. There are six cylindrical horizontal steel tubular casings, each six feet in diameter and six and one-half feet long and containing eighty 4-inch tubes. The whole plant will be in position in a few weeks and it is said to be one of the finest in the United States.

The caisson, or floating gate, is an immense double-ended hull, shaped very similar to the forward end of a ship, and is constructed mainly of iron. It is 100 feet in length, breadth 25 feet and depth 38 feet. It has an upper deck of steel, a main deck of steel and a lower deck of steel plates. Both of these are solid, and the top of the waterway is at the top of the dock at the altar. On the main deck is placed a large locomotive boiler, a capstan engine with two cylinders seven inches in diameter and 11-inch stroke. An Edwards pump with a capacity of 2,000 gallons per minute, a fresh water tank for the boiler and sixteen 4-inch clinker valves. Sixteen valves are placed on the top of the caisson. Two are intake valves which extend to the gas and which are used to fill the dock when the caisson is in position and when it is desired to remove a vessel which has been repaired. Two others for letting the water out, four near the bottom for connection with the strainers which are liable to be thrown out of the grating, and two near the top for letting the steam between them, and the lower hold can be when necessary pumped out. The iron used in the caisson weighs 590,000 pounds. Extending along the entire length of the keel, inside, is four feet of concrete for the purpose of allowing the water to reach the suction pump, which is placed near one end of the gate. Directly on top of the concrete is placed 100 tons of pig iron ballast.

When a vessel is to be put in the dry dock for examination or repairs, the dock being full of water, she is floated in by means of a tug or ropes fastened to capstans on each bank or propelled by her own power. The great caisson is then brought out from the wing wall, where she will be permanently moored, and floated to her proper position at the mouth of the dock. Water is now let into the lower deck of the caisson until she gradually and plainly sinks to her position, her rubber rim resting on the table below formed of blocks of granite flanked by sandstone. When the caisson is once in position the dock is closed against the entrance of water, and at a given signal the pumps are started, emptying the dock at the rate of 110,000 gallons per minute. As the water recedes on the inside the pressure on the outside of the gate, of course, becomes tremendous, and forces it securely against the granite block tables, holding it firmly in position.

When the ship is ready to be removed from the dock twelve twenty-inch culverts are opened in the caisson, which gradually fills up the dock with water until the ship is again afloat. Then the engine and pumps inside the caisson are started and the water pumped out. As the gate becomes lighter she rises from her position on the tables and is taken back to her mooring place beside the wing wall. The ship is then free to be taken out in the harbor. The total weight of the caisson is 700 tons.

To give an idea of the immense amount of work done and materials used in such a work as the Port Orchard dry dock the following figures are given: Yards of excavation in contract, 141,000; feet of timber used, 2,200,000; piles driven, 12,000; oak in the keel and bilge blocks, 12,000 feet; concrete, 7,000 yards; cement, 19,000 barrels, imported from England; bolts and spikes, 52 tons; sandstone, 28,000 cubic feet; granite in gate tables, about 7,000 feet; brick in pump house and culverts, 750,000. About 20,000 feet of sandstone came from Sucia island, near New Whatcom, where it is quarried by the contractors themselves and towed to Port Orchard on scows. About 8,000 feet was first quarried at Fish point, in Skagit county, but the stone at Sucia island proved more satisfactory for the work. James Dougan, one of the members of the firm of contractors, went to Sucia island and started to quarry the stone, and work is still going on under his supervision. He expects to have all the stone required in a few weeks. James A. Blackwell, another member of the firm, superintends the work at the dock.

Commandant J. C. Morong at present resides in the old ship Nipsic, which is anchored in Port Orchard bay and is roofed over. The Nipsic is a wooden ship, carrying the old-style smooth-bore guns of the same pattern as those on board the Mohican. She is smaller than the Mohican, being a companion ship to the Adams and others put in commission about 1870. She will be used when the naval station at Port Orchard is regularly organized as a receiving ship for recruits to the United States navy. The Nipsic is principally known to the world as the only American ship which weathered the great Samoan gale in the harbor of Apia in March, where several other ships were sunk and over 100 sailors drowned. Capt. Mullan, now commanding the Mohican, was in command of the Nipsic and when the fearful gale came up, he ordered her engines to get up full power and then, selecting a low, marshy part of the shore, he shot her hard against it, beaching her high and only losing five men, while the Trenton and Vandalia, two other American ships, were sunk in the harbor with three German vessels, the Olga, the Eber and the Adler. An English war vessel having powerful machinery steamed out to the open sea in the teeth of the gale and escaped unhurt.

There has also been an appropriation of $72,000 for the officers' quarters and an office building. The plans and specifications have been prepared by Chamberlin & Siebrand, architects of this city, and have been sent to the bureau of docks and yards at Washington City for approval. Work will shortly be advertised for bids and it is expected that work will be commenced next month. The buildings to be erected are an office building, a residence for the commandant and four residences for the officers of the navy yard. They are all to have stone basements, and the upper stories are to be of wood and the interiors finished in native fir, which is to be treated by steam in order to extract the pitch. This process has been introduced and used extensively by the architects, and has been found to be as good and handsome an interior finish, with a saving of one-third in the price of material. The style of the buildings is to be Ionic throughout.

The residences are to be located on the brow of the hill just above the present moorings of the Nipsic, with the commandant's residence in the center flanked by two officers' residences on each side. The office building will be located on an elevation about 300 yards west of the dock. The ensemble as laid out and seen from the bay will be very attractive and will make the navy yard one of the artistic features of Puget sound.

The commandant's residence is to have sixteen rooms and will have a grand double loggia porch, with large Ionic two-story columns. Connected with this is a very handsomely arranged reception hall, with a very large fireplace flanked by seats, behind which the stairway ascends to a second-story sitting hall which also has a fireplace. Adjoining the reception hall to the east are a spacious sitting room connected by sliding doors and dining room with handsome sideboard and mantel. Connected with this are the butler's pantry and kitchen. West of the reception hall are a large drawing room and a library with unique fireplace, which is built into a nook. The back hall is connected with a lavatory, and on the rear with the cook's room and back stairway and forms a means of access to all rooms in the house without entering the reception hall. The second story contains six spacious chambers, with closets lined with cedar, bathroom, toilet and linen closet. The attic contains a billiard room and a spare chamber. The basement contains a laundry, servants' bath room, fuel, furnace and store rooms.

The officers' residences are to be twelve-room houses and are of very attractive design, each having a large porch connected with a handsomely arranged reception hall, with staircase and fireplace, a large parlor and back parlor with fireplaces, dining room, with mantel and sideboard, a pretty little den accessible from the reception hall, kitchen, pantry and back stairway. The second story contains five chambers, closets lined with cedar, bathroom, toilet and linen closet. The attic contains one chamber and state room. In the basement there are a laundry, storage and fuel rooms and a servants' toilet.

The office building has a stately portico, with four two-story columns and pediment, and presents a very stately appearance. It contains on the first floor the offices of the captain of the yard, civil engineer, paymaster and chief engineer. On the second floor are the offices of the commandant and the naval constructor, and the court and library rooms. On the third floor there is a large draughting room and above this a blue print room. The buildings will all be heated with hot air and lighted by electricity. The plumbing will be done in the most sanitary manner and will have all modern conveniences.

The naval officers now at the station are: J. P. Morong, commandant; R. O. Hollyday, civil engineer; James F. Stoughton, surgeon, and Henry Sullivan, paymaster. S. H. Berry is a government inspector, and William Wilson paymaster's clerk. About twenty-five civil employees are in the pay of the government.