Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1867-06-06
"A Submarine ESOat With Ten
Men ON the BOTTOM of the
Ocean.
The HerazGs- Valparaiso corresponds
sends the following & -

The lIeralds- Valparaiso correspondent
sends the following: < -. -
After the bombardment of Valparaiso
and while the Spanish fleet was at Callao,
man, residing at Valparaiso, constructed
a-sabmarine boat for the purpose of apply
ing tOrpedoes to the bottom of the Spanish
frigates. The boat was forty feet long, and
was propelled byia screw worked by hand.
SO confident was her builder in her eff
cheney that at the first experiment in the
bay he took with him into the boat his
son and eight friends. After sailing about
q few moments on the surface, the boat
was made to sink without the precautIon
of having the cables attached for use in
case of accident, or even a buoy to mark
the spot where she went down. Several
hours elapsed, and the boat failing to re-
turn, the spectators crowded on the mole
began to fear that all was not right, and as
the day passed away, the conviction be-
came general that the adventurous party
had gone to the bottom. Late in the after
noon the mail steamer from Panama came
in and fired gun near the spot where the
boat disappeared.
AS the small boats were passing to and
from the steamers with passengers, etc.,
bubbles were discovered rising upon the
surfacesof the water where hNsubmarine
boat was last seen and as they 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 signalling for help by eiecting
air. "A diver belonging to one of the
English men-ofwar was at once sent down,
and after half an hours anxious waitinghe
returned with the intelligence that the boat
was on the bottom, in thirty. three fathoms
of water. Chains and cables were imme-
diately attached to the boa, and repeated
efforts made to raise her, but without avail,
her bottom seeming to have been sucked
into the ooZy bed of the sea, and become
firmly 1astelied. All night and the next
day, until afternoon, the bubbles kept
coming up like signals, sometimes not ap-
lpearing for half an hour at a time, and
then suddenly rushing up for few seconds
with great force. The feelings OF the pop
ulace. 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 bot
tom of the day, knowing as they did, what
little hope there was for them
They could have heard the divers work
ing on the sides of their boatattaching the
chains, and, perhaps, felt the strain as the
cable 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 apertures
to the interior were so small that but one
person could pass through at a time, and
+lo+ Al.
made to- escape, by that means all would
be drowned. After many hours of labo-
rious efforts to raise the boat, the hosting
machinery broke, and the attempt was nee
essarily abandoned. About the middle of
the afternoon of the second day the bub-
bles commenced to grow 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 row toward
shore, the painful story Of these ten mems
fate, and of theSfeniales whosstill mourn in
Valparaiso for their fathers and brothers
in the iron coffin at the bottom of the sea-: