Deciding to Dig

        It sank on Friday September 5, 1856.  It stayed where it sank for 132 years.  It was the Great White Arabia.

            Plans for digging started in Jerry Mackey's Hi–Boy restaurant in Independence, Missouri.  Bob, Dave and Greg Hawley, David Luttrell, and Jerry were eating lunch when Dave (who, like his father, Bob, and brother, Greg, was in the refrigeration and air conditioning business) started talking about a client who was interested in steamboats, and came up with the idea of recovering one that had sunk.

            They spent the next three years studying, researching and locating 15 different steamboats.  Only the Arabia was left on their list.  The others were either hard to find or unable to be excavated.  It was found in Norman Sortor's cornfield in northeastern Kansas, near Kansas City.  They used a magnetometer to find its exact location.  That is a tool used to find metal.  Mr. Sortor wasn't very confident that they would find it.  More than four salvage attempts had been made.  Henry Tobner and Robert Treadwell made one attempt in 1877. 

They broke ground over the Arabia on November 15, 1988, but soon found that they would have to install pumps to remove water from underground streams because the water was too deep.  They finished installing the pumps on November 25, 1988.

            They had a crane and other large tools delivered by barge on the Missouri River.

They also used shovels, hand shovels and water hoses to dig and rinse things off.  While digging they had to wear raincoats, chest waders, hats and very large gloves.  Even though it was winter, sweat caused them to have to change their clothes three times a day.

            The first parts of the 

steamboat that were found were 

the paddle wheels - first the 

larboard then the starboard (the 

different sides of the boat).

            The first barrel was found on December 5, 1988, around 3:15 PM.  Everyone called their family and "ordered" them to come down.  They were even able to postpone the cooking of chili.  When they opened the barrel, they found beautiful dishes, totaling about 300.  The dishes had never been used.  They returned home to chili, around 3:00 AM.