Raising the Steamer Dubuque - 1901

DUBUQUE, ST PAUL, FERRIS, KILLEEN

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 1/6/2017 at 17:11:34

Dubuque Daily Herald, July 5, 1901

WORK ON WRECK
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Diver Talks About Raising
the Steamer Dubuque
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Was a Monster Feat of
Steamboat Engineering
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Capt. Killeen Said He Would
and He Did
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(Special Telegram)
Burlington, Iowa, July 5 – Now that the task that was pronounced well-nigh impossible by experience steamboat captains, everyone is talking about the feat and commending Capt. Killeen. Eugene Ferris, the diver who aided Capt. John Killeen in the great work of floating the wrecked steamer Dubuque, passed through Burlington yesterday enroute to his home in Keokuk. Ferris put in eighteen days full work in the hold of the stranded boat, superintending the difficult work of bulk heading the big gap that was torn in the hull. The opening was 143 feet long and six feet wide, and cleft as smoothly as if it was done with tools. The thick oak planks in the bottom of the hull were crushed like cardboard.

“Captain Killeen’s work in floating the Dubuque was the greatest feat of this kind ever accomplished,” said diver Ferris to a reporter. “It was the biggest job I ever tackled and I don’t believe there is another steamboat man in the country that could have carried it out in the manner that Capt. Killeen has done. The bulk head was constructed of planks, and it was 156 feet long by 12 feet wide. It was the largest bulk head that I ever knew of that was built to float a wreck, and I have seen a good many in my nineteen years’ experience as a diver. The Dubuque was floated exactly three hours after the pumps were started. You can guess that we were all pretty anxious during that time and when the big steamer was actually afloat the boys set up a cheer that could be heard for miles."

“I went all around the stump that caused the damage and it is a whopper. It is firmly planted in the riverbed, and when the boat struck it the stump stayed right where it was. It didn’t move an inch, and it will take dynamite to break it up. Why, some of the roots alone are bigger than a man’s body.”

“I believe it is Captain Killeen intention to tow the boat to Dubuque, and he will do it if he starts out with that purpose.”

The steamer Dubuque is now at Keithsburg, some twelve miles north of the place at which she met her accident, awaiting to be tackled by a boat that is big enough to handle her, and towed on up to Dubuque, there to be repaired. The St. Paul which took her that far, left her there, tied to the bank, in good trim in view of the repairs she is needing. It may be several days before the Dubuque passes the city on her way up to the Diamond Jo line at Dubuque.