The most anxious part of the task was consummated with complete success: the caisson had been got to the site and sunk. Then the task of burying it deeply and irremovably in the sand was hurried forward. Workmen descended into the space beneath the bottom floor and the sea-bed. Under compressed air they excavated the sand within the area to permit the cutting edge to sink lower and lower. The sand, as removed, was lifted to the top of the “Colossus” and discharged overboard. Meanwhile the concrete-mixing machine got busy, and the stone heart of the tun was fashioned rapidly. Under this increasing weight the sinking operation was assisted very appreciably. By the middle of October the work had been advanced to such a stage that the total weight of the structure had been increased to over 3,350 tons, and the top deck of the caisson, which had grown in height by the attaching of successive rings of plates, was about 99 feet above the cutting edge, which had buried itself to a depth of 51 feet below low-water. Then work had to be abandoned, as the autumnal gales sprang up. The whole of the staff, with the exception of two men, who mounted guard over the work, were taken back to Bremerhaven. The gales increased in fury, culminating in a tempest similar to that which had destroyed the first caisson. Remembering the fate of that enterprise under such fearful pounding from wind and wave, the Harkort engineers naturally were somewhat anxious concerning the welfare of their handiwork under identical conditions. But the new creation was overwhelmingly strong where its predecessor was weak, although the seas, baffled in their efforts to upset the caisson, did not fail to leave their mark by knocking the superstructure and scaffolding about somewhat, as well as carrying away a few weighty pieces of the top hamper.