The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1867-05-02
A Sub-Harine Boat with Ten Men on
the Bottom OF the Sea.

The n. Y. Herald Valparaiso cores
pondent sends the following:
After the bombardment of Valparaiso,
and while the Spanish feet was at Callao,
German residing at Valparaiso construct
ed submarine boat for the purpose of
applying torpedoes to the bottom of the
Spanish frigates. The boat was about
40 feet long and was propelled by screw
worked by hand. So confident was her
builder of her efficiency that at the first
experiment in the bay, he took with him
his son and eight friends. After sailing
about few moments ON the surface, the
boat was made to sink without the pre-
caution of having the cables attached for
use in case of accident. or even buoy to
mark the spot where she went down.
Several hours elapsed, and the boat fail
ing to reappear, the spectators crowded
on the mole began to fear that all was
not right, and as the day passed away,
the conviction became general that the
adventurous party had gone to the bot
som. Late in the afternoon the mail
steamer from Panama came in and fired
gun near the spot where the boat dis
appeared. As the small boats were pas
sing to and from the steamer with pas
sengers, ETC., bubbles were discovered ris-
ing upon the surface of the water where
the submarine was last seen; and as these
came up at regular intervals in small
numbers, it was supposed that the party
was still alive, and hearing the steamers
gun. and knowing that a great many
boats would be going to and fro, was sig
mailing help by ejecting air. A diver be-
was at once sent down. and after half an
ho IL,
the intelligence that the boat was on the
| bottom in 33 fathoms of water. Chains
| and cables were Immediately attached to
the boat, and repeated efforts were made
to raise her, but without avail, her bot
tom seeming to have been sucked into the
| oozy bed of The sea and become firmly
| fastened. All night and the next day
until afternoon the bubbles kept coming
up like signals, sometimes not appearing
for half an hour at time, and then sud
denly rushing up for few seconds with
! great force. The feeling of the populace
assembled to rescue the party from their
| terrible fate may be imagined; but what
| must have been the reflections of the men
during those awful hours at the bottom
of the bay, knowing as they did. what
| little hope there was for them. They
could have heard the divers working on
the sides of their boat attaching the
chains, and perhaps felt the strain as the
cables drew taut; but as time sped away
without their being raised, despair worse
than death must have taken possession
of them. Doubtless they tried to signal
through the sides of their boat to the
diver hammering outside, but he in his
diving dress could hear nothing The
aperture to the interior was so small that
but one person could pass through it at a
time, and that very slowly, so that if an
attempt were made to escape by that
means all would inevitably be drowned.
After many hours of laborious efforts to
raise the boat the hoisting machinery
broke, and the attempt was necessarily
abandoned. About the middle of the
forenoon Of the second day the bubbles
commenced growing fainter and more
rare, and before shutdown entirely ceased.
The boat still lies where it went down,
and passengers arriving by the steamer
are told by the boatmen, as they tow to-
ward shore, the painful history of those
ten mems fate and of the families who
still mourn in Valparaiso for their fathers
and brothers in the iron coffin at the bot
tom of the sea.