The same evening Barbicane and his companions returned to Tampa Town;and Murchison, the engineer, re-embarked on board the Tampico for New Orleans. His object was to enlist an army of workmen, and to collect together the greater part of the materials.The members of the Gun Club remained at Tampa Town, for the purpose of setting on foot the preliminary works by the aid of the people of the country.
Eight days after its departure, the Tampico returned into the bay of Espiritu Santo, with a whole flotilla of steamboats. Murchison had succeeded in assembling together fifteen hundred artisans.Attracted by the high pay and considerable bounties offered by the Gun Club, he had enlisted a choice legion of stokers, iron-founders, lime-burners, miners, brickmakers, and artisans of every trade, without distinction of color.As many of these people brought their families with them, their departure resembled a perfect emigration.
On the 31st of October, at ten o'clock in the morning, the troop disembarked on the quays of Tampa Town;and one may imagine the activity which pervaded that little town, whose population was thus doubled in a single day.
During the first few days they were busy discharging the cargo brought by the flotilla, the machines, and the rations, as well as a large number of huts constructed of iron plates, separately pieced and numbered. At the same period Barbicane laid the first sleepers of a railway fifteen miles in length, intended to unite Stones Hill with Tampa Town.On the first of November Barbicane quitted Tampa Town with a detachment of workmen;and on the following day the whole town of huts was erected round Stones Hill.This they enclosed with palisades;and in respect of energy and activity, it might have been mistaken for one of the great cities of the Union.Everything was placed under a complete system of discipline, and the works were commenced in most perfect order.
The nature of the soil having been carefully examined, by means of repeated borings, the work of excavation was fixed for the 4th of November.
On that day Barbicane called together his foremen and addressed them as follows:“You are well aware, my friends, of the object with which I have assembled you together in this wild part of Florida. Our business is to construct a cannon measuring nine feet in its interior diameter, six feet thick, and with a stone revetment of nineteen and a half feet in thickness.We have, therefore, a well of sixty feet in diameter to dig down to a depth of nine hundred feet.This great work must be completed within eight months, so that you have 2,543,400 cubic feet of earth to excavate in 255 days;that is to say, in round numbers,10,000 cubic feet per day.That which would present no difficulty to a thousand navvies working in open country will be of course more troublesome in a comparatively confined space.However, the thing must be done, and I reckon for its accomplishment upon your courage as much as upon your skill.”
At eight o'clock the first stroke of the pickaxe was struck upon the soil of Florida;and from that moment that prince of tools was never inactive for one moment in the hands of the excavators. The gangs relieved each other every three hours.
On the 4th of November fifty workmen commenced digging, in the very center of the enclosed space on the summit of Stones Hill, a circular hole sixty feet in diameter. The pickaxe first struck upon a kind of black earth, six inches in thickness, which was speedily disposed of.To this earth succeeded two feet of fine sand, which was carefully laid aside as being valuable for serving the casting of the inner mould.After the sand appeared some compact white clay, resembling the chalk of Great Britain, which extended down to a depth of four feet.Then the iron of the picks struck upon the hard bed of the soil;a kind of rock formed of petrified shells, very dry, very solid, and which the picks could with difficulty penetrate.At this point the excavation exhibited a depth of six and a half feet and the work of the masonry was begun.
At the bottom of the excavation they constructed a wheel of oak, a kind of circle strongly bolted together, and of immense strength. The center of this wooden disc was hollowed out to a diameter equal to the exterior diameter of the Columbiad.Upon this wheel rested the first layers of the masonry, the stones of which were bound together by hydraulic cement, with irresistible tenacity.The workmen, after laying the stones from the circumference to the center, were thus enclosed within a kind of well twenty-one feet in diameter.When this work was accomplished, the miners resumed their picks and cut away the rock from underneath the wheel itself, taking care to support it as they advanced upon blocks of great thickness.At every two feet which the hole gained in depth they successively withdrew the blocks.The wheel then sank little by little, and with it the massive ring of masonry, on the upper bed of which the masons labored incessantly, always reserving some vent holes to permit the escape of gas during the operation of the casting.
This kind of work required on the part of the workmen extreme nicety and minute attention. More than one, in digging underneath the wheel, was dangerously injured by the splinters of stone.But their ardor never relaxed, night or day.By day they worked under the rays of the scorching sun;by night, under the gleam of the electric light.The sounds of the picks against the rock, the bursting of mines, the grinding of the machines, the wreaths of smoke scattered through the air, traced around Stones Hill a circle of terror which the herds of buffaloes and the war parties of the Seminoles never ventured to pass.Nevertheless, the works advanced regularly, as the steam-cranes actively removed the rubbish.Of unexpected obstacles there was little account;and with regard to foreseen difficulties, they were speedily disposed of.
At the expiration of the first month the well had attained the depth assigned for that lapse of time, namely,112 feet. This depth was doubled in December, and trebled in January.
During the month of February the workmen had to contend with a sheet of water which made its way right across the outer soil. It became necessary to employ very powerful pumps and compressed-air engines to drain it off, so as to close up the orifice from whence it issued;just as one stops a leak on board ship.They at last succeeded in getting the upper hand of these untoward streams;only, in consequence of the loosening of the soil, the wheel partly gave way, and a slight partial settlement ensued.This accident cost the life of several workmen.
No fresh occurrence thenceforward arrested the progress of the operation;and on the tenth of June, twenty days before the expiration of the period fixed by Barbicane, the well, lined throughout with its facing of stone, had attained the depth of 900 feet. At the bottom the masonry rested upon a massive block measuring thirty feet in thickness, while on the upper portion it was level with the surrounding soil.
President Barbicane and the members of the Gun Club warmly congratulated their engineer Murchison;the cyclopean work had been accomplished with extraordinary rapidity.
During these eight months Barbicane never quitted Stones Hill for a single instant. Keeping ever close by the work of excavation, he busied himself incessantly with the welfare and health of his workpeople, and was singularly fortunate in warding off the epidemics common to large communities of men, and so disastrous in those regions of the globe which are exposed to the influences of tropical climates.
Many workmen, it is true, paid with their lives for the rashness inherent in these dangerous labors;but these mishaps are impossible to be avoided, and they are classed among the details with which the Americans trouble themselves but little. They have in fact more regard for human nature in general than for the individual in particular.
Nevertheless, Barbicane professed opposite principles to these, and put them in force at every opportunity. So, thanks to his care, his intelligence, his useful intervention in all difficulties, his prodigious and humane sagacity, the average of accidents did not exceed that of transatlantic countries, noted for their excessive precautions—France, for instance, among others, where they reckon about on accident for every two hundred thousand francs of work.
當(dāng)晚,巴比凱恩及其同伴們回到了坦帕城,而默奇森工程師則登上“坦皮科”號返回新奧爾良了。他要回去招募許多工匠,并且要將大量的物資運來。大炮俱樂部的會員們在坦帕城住了下來,以便在當(dāng)?shù)厝说膸椭?,著手?zhǔn)備開工。
“坦皮科”號駛離八天之后,回到了埃斯皮里圖桑托灣,一隊蒸汽船跟在它的后面也進(jìn)了港。默奇森招募到一千五百名勞工。由于受到大炮俱樂部提供的很高的報酬以及豐厚獎金的吸引,經(jīng)他的手招募來的勞動人員,都是一些出色的燒火工、鑄鐵工、石灰煅燒工、礦工、制磚工以及各行各業(yè)的小工。這里有黑人也有白人,不分膚色。其中的許多人都把自己的家屬帶了來。這是一次真正的大移民。
十月三十一日上午十點,這支勞動大軍登上了坦帕城的碼頭。不難想象,一日之間,小城的人口一下子翻了一番,熙熙攘攘,熱鬧非凡。
開頭幾天,大家都忙著把船隊運送來的設(shè)備卸下來,其中有機器,還有食物,以及非常多可拆卸、編了號的鐵皮組裝的活動房。與此同時,巴比凱恩還設(shè)置了第一批長十五英里、旨在連接亂石崗和坦帕城的鐵路路標(biāo)。十一月一日,巴比凱恩領(lǐng)著一小隊工匠離開了坦帕城;自第二天起,亂石崗周圍那由活動房搭建起來的城市便出現(xiàn)了。城市周圍用柵欄圍了起來,生機勃勃,熱熱鬧鬧;大家很快便把它視為美利堅合眾國的大城市之一了。城里的生活有條不紊,工程也按部就班地開始了。
通過事先的精心勘測,他們了解了土地的性質(zhì),所以,十一月四日就得以開挖。
這一天,巴比凱恩把工頭們召集起來,對他們說道:“朋友們,你們大家都知道,我為什么要把你們集中到佛羅里達(dá)州的這片荒僻之地來。是因為要鑄造一門炮,內(nèi)徑九英尺,壁厚六英尺,并覆有十九英尺半厚的石頭保護(hù)層。因此,必須挖一個大大的坑洞,直徑六十英尺,深九百英尺。這項龐大的工程八個月內(nèi)必須完成。因此,你們在兩百五十五天之內(nèi),必須挖掘兩百五十四萬三千四百立方英尺的土;湊個整數(shù),也就是每天要挖一萬立方英尺的土。當(dāng)然,對于一千個行動完全自由的工匠來說,這并沒有什么困難;但是,在一個相對狹小的空間里干活兒,就比較艱難了。然而,這項工程既然應(yīng)該做,那就要做好,我相信你們既有這種勇氣又不缺乏技巧?!?/p>
上午八點,第一鎬鑿在了佛羅里達(dá)州的土地上;自這一刻起,這些工具在礦工們的手中就沒有停歇過片刻。工匠們每三小時輪班休息一次。
十一月四日,五十名工匠在圍起來的場地中央,也就是亂石崗的最高處,挖了一個直徑六十英尺的圓形坑洞。十字鎬首先碰到的是一種厚六英寸的黑土,很容易挖。隨后便是一層兩英尺厚的細(xì)沙土,工匠們細(xì)心地將它們收攏起來,留作以后制內(nèi)層模子用。這層細(xì)沙土的下面是一種白色黏土,相當(dāng)硬實,類似于英國的泥灰石,厚四英尺。再往下挖,十字鎬碰上了地下的堅硬土層,火星四濺,那是一種由很干、很硬的貝殼化石構(gòu)成的巖石層,所有工具都挖不動??佣吹竭@兒為止,已有六英尺半深了,于是,便開始砌井壁。
在這個坑洞底部,人們制作了一個橡木“圓輪”,是一種用螺栓牢牢地固定住的不怕擠壓的堅固圓盤,中心部位鑿了圓洞,直徑與哥倫比亞大炮的外徑相等。井壁的頭幾塊基石就砌在它的上面,水泥把它們結(jié)結(jié)實實地粘在一起。工匠們從外圍往中央砌著,最后被關(guān)在了一口直徑二十一英尺的井里。當(dāng)這個活兒干完之后,工匠們又拿起鶴嘴鋤和十字鎬,開始挖掘木圓盤下方的巖石,并小心翼翼地用一些非常結(jié)實的“龍骨墩”(一種支架)支撐住木圓盤。每向下挖掘兩英尺,他們便把這些龍骨墩抽出來,木圓盤便逐漸往下落去,而砌好的圓形井壁石基也在往下落。工匠們不停地砌著井壁,壁上留著“出氣孔”,以使鑄造大炮時產(chǎn)生的氣體從孔中溢出。
這種活計要求工匠們技術(shù)嫻熟,不得有一時一刻的疏忽大意。在挖掘木圓盤下方的巖石時,不少工匠被崩起的石塊擊成重傷,甚至致命;但是,他們的熱情并未消減,仍在夜以繼日地拼命干著。白天,強烈的陽光毫無顧忌地灑向工地;夜晚,在一盞盞電燈的白光之下,鶴嘴鋤挖掘巖石的聲響、雷管的爆炸聲、機器的轟鳴聲響成一片;還有那飄浮在空中的滾滾濃煙,在亂石崗周圍形成一個巨大而駭人的黑圈。無論是成群結(jié)隊的野牛,還是一伙一伙的塞米諾爾人,都不敢靠近。不過,工程正常地推進(jìn)著,蒸汽吊車在忙著吊運物資。很少出現(xiàn)未曾預(yù)料到的困難,所遇到的困難都是事先考慮到的,并被巧妙地解決了。
第一個月過去了,洞深達(dá)到了一個月所預(yù)定的目標(biāo)——一百一十二英尺。十二月份,洞深翻了一番;一月份,深度達(dá)到第一個月的三倍。
二月,工匠們不得不對付出現(xiàn)在眼前的地下含水層。工匠們使用大功率的水泵和空氣壓縮機把水抽干,然后像堵住船的漏水處一樣,用混凝土把出水口給堵上。最后,這些該死的水流終于被制服了。不過,由于土層松動,木圓盤出現(xiàn)了局部的斷裂,而且井壁也出現(xiàn)了部分塌陷。這次意外奪去了好幾個工匠的生命。
自此之后,沒有再出現(xiàn)任何新的意外來妨礙工程的進(jìn)展。六月十日,離巴比凱恩確定的完工日期還有二十天,這個坑洞的石壁已經(jīng)全部砌好,深度達(dá)到九百英尺。井壁底部立于一個三十英尺厚的巨大的圓墩上,而它的頂端則與地面持平。
巴比凱恩主席和大炮俱樂部的會員們熱烈地祝賀默奇森工程師,贊揚他以極快的速度完成了這項巨大的工程。
在這八個月中,巴比凱恩一刻也沒離開過亂石崗。他在密切地關(guān)注挖掘工程的同時,始終沒有忘記關(guān)心他的工匠們的福利待遇和身體健康。他很高興他們避開了那些人口密集的地方常有的傳染病,這些疫病在赤道地區(qū)熱帶氣候條件之下極具災(zāi)難性。
的確,有好幾個工匠因干這種危險活兒而丟了性命,但是,這種不幸又是無法避免的;再說,在美國人看來,這算不了什么,他們也不太在乎。他們更關(guān)注的是整個人類而非某個個人。
不過,巴比凱恩卻與之相反,他始終在貫徹既關(guān)乎人類又關(guān)乎個人的原則。因此,幸虧有他的細(xì)心關(guān)懷、他的足智多謀、他在困難情況之下的有力干預(yù),以及他那非凡的仁慈和遠(yuǎn)見卓識,這項工程的平均災(zāi)難發(fā)生率才沒有超過海外那些采取了大量防范措施的國家,特別是法國;據(jù)估計,大約每一項二十萬法郎的工程就有一起事故發(fā)生。
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