The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1870-09-02

DOWN IN THE DEPTHS.
wreckIng Operations I'm Charleston
Harbor-The Sunken Monitors and
the SIOop-oE-War Housatonio.

wreckInC Operations in Charleston
HarboreThe Sunken Monitors and
the SIOop-Of-War Housatonic.
From the Charleston Courier, Aug. 5.
1t may not be generally known that
wrecking operations are now going on at
the mouth of our harbor on q scale and
witha persisteney that deserves notice.
Prior to the attempts now being made, and
we may add, very successfully, several par
ties undertook to carry on diving amid the
wrecks which are sunk OF the bar. but
they either got wearied of their work, or
met with such unremuRerating results that
they gave up in despair. Some time since
the New York Monitor Wrecking Company
took the matter in hand, and secured the
services of Capt. w. n. Somes, who has
had q very large experience in his line in
New York rharbor. They had a large fat
built in our city, and put aboard of it ma
ehinery adapted to heavy labor, and went
to work in real earnest, to recover all the
valuable machinery and appurtenances at.
tached to the vessels that were sunk dur
ing the war by the Confederate batteries,
torpedoes and by accident
1t can well be remembered that the mon
itors Patapsco, Weshswken and KeOkuk,
and the magnificent sloop of war Eousa-
tonic, went down, carrying with them the
most costly machinery. appliances of war,
and many who were aboard. Capt. SOmes
has had great difficulties to encounter, the
heavy sea, bad weather, and many draw
backs calculated to dishearten him, but he
has the requisite pluck, and, undaunted, he
has kept at it. Yesterday he came up to
Commercial wharf and made preparations
to land from fourteen to sixteen tons of
material taken from the HouSatonic, where
she lies off Sullivan's Island in six fathoms
of water. The huge propeller, portion
of her stern and her shaft, and sundry other
aSticles belonging to the vessel and battery
aboard, are what he has succeeded so far
in safely bringing UP. The value of them
cannot fall short of $4,000. There is q
great deal remaining yet in the other ves-
sells which, in due time. will receive their
need of attention.
To the uninitisted it might appear, with
the assistance he has, an easy matter, but
there are serious perils attending the en-
terprise, which cannot be overcome with
out encountering trials of no ordinary
character. The vessel on which he is now
operating-the Housatonic-was one of the
finest sloops-of-war that the Federals ever
put afoat, and was the best built and i
heaviest armed of her class. She went
down in 1863 from the effects of torpedo,
which struck her under her port quarter,
and carried down, if not all, at least many
OF her officers and crew. There has been
so much powder used in her to dislodge
the machinery, so that il could be lifted,
that it is impossible to discern correctly
her internal condition. She lies on hard
bottom, and has only sunk little, while
the others are imbedded in the soft sand
peculiar to that locality. 1t is contem. |
plated to blow their engines to pieces, and
BY that means effect their removal
About one hundred feet from the Housa-
tonic lies the famous segar boat, with her
bottom partly up, and IN good order. The |
Door but brave men who made that unfor- !
unate voyage never had q chance to es |
ape, and all that is left of them are their |
heIetons, through which the fish frolic. |
The diver, who is Capt Somes, goes down
inI an india-rubber suit, with an iron, |
helmet-shaped covering for the head, |
which reaches down to his shoulders 1t |
S supplied through tube, connecting |
with an air pump aboard the fat, which |
cost 81, 600, and is the same one used by
Capt. MCGOWAN, who raised the wrecks of
Sebastopol after the Crimean war. The |
shoes worn are of leather, with lead soles, |
weighing twenty pounds each; the lead
USllS dIOUAu HIS hdibb dIC ANO pOuuuE
each; while down he is under $50 pounds, |
the whole weight of the armor.
He descends from platform on the side |
of fiat, from which runs an iron ladder, |
and when down remains from one to six |
hours, and sometimes twelve hours He |
communicates by signal ropes. AS soon as
he has secured any part of the wreck, he
either comes up or gives notice, and the |
raising commences bv steam with a mower
sufficient to elevate 100 tons.
Let the reader imagine man thirty-six |
feet below the surface of the sea, with no
life about him but that in the inhabitants |
of the deep, which dart about him here |
and there, and often come so near Linn that
he can feel their slimy skins as they put
their glazing eyes to the glass windows
through which he sees his way. His
thoughts, while down in the blue depths, !
have been strange at times, and wonderful
visions has he had of the boJIndless ocean. |