The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1870-09-01
From the Charleston Courier of Aug. 4th.
WRECKING IN CHARLESTON HARBOR.

From the Charleston Courier OF Aug. 4th
WRECKING IN CHARLESTON HARBOR.
It may not be generally known that wreck
ing deserves notice. Prior to the attempts
now being made, and we may add very success
fully, several parties undertook to carry on op-
eratiOns at diving amidst the wrecks which are
sunk off the bar, but they either wearied with
their work, or met with such unremunerating
results, that they gave up in despair. Some
time since the New York Monitor Wrecking
Company" took the matter in hand, and Sc
cured the services of Capt W. N. Somes. who
has had a very large experience in his line in
New York harbor. They had large flat built
in our city, and put aboard of it machinery
adapted to heavy labor, and went to work In
earnest, to recover all the valuable machinery
and appurtenances attached to the vessels that
were sunk during the late war by the Confed-
crate batteries, torpedoes, and by accident 1t
can be well remembered that the Monitors Pa
tapsco, Wehawken and Keokuk, and the mag
nificent sloop of war HousatOnic, went down,
carrying with them the most costly machinery,
appliances of war, and many who were aboard.
Capt. Somes has had great difficulties to en-
counter; the heavy sea, bad weather, and other
drawbacks calculated to dishearten him, but he
has the requisite plnck, and undaunted he has
kept at it. Yesterday he came up to CONNER
cial wharf and made preparations to land from
fourteen to sixteen tons of material taken from
the Housatonic, where she les off Sullivan's
Island in six tathoms of water. The huge pro-
peller, portion of her stern and her shaft, and
sundry other articles belonging to the vessel,
and to the battery aboard, are what he has SO
far succeeded in safely getting up. The value
of them cannot fall short of $4,000. There
is u great deal remaining yet in the other yes
- -. II l,,n fhtIr 1pud
of attention.
To the uninitiated it might appear, with the
assistance he has, an easy matter. but there are
serious perils attending the enterprise which
cannot be overcome without encOuntering tr
ais of no ordinary character The vessel on
which he is now operating-the HOusatOnlc-
was one of the finest sloops OF war the Fed
erals ever put afloat, and was the best built
and heaviest of her class. She went down IN
1863 from the effects of a torpedo, which blew
up under her port quarter and carried down,
Iif 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 it can
be lifted, that it is impossible to correctly dis,
Germ her internal position. She lies on hard
bottom and has only sunk little, while all the
others are embedded in the soft sand peculiar
to that locality. 1t is contemplated to blow
tntlr engines 10 picCts duu Ny thao Aic""' ~
/, feet their removal.
About one hundred feet from the Housatonic
lies the famous segar boat, with her bottom
partly up and il good order. The poor, ou'
brave men who made the unfortunate voyage
never had a chance to escape, and all that II
left of them are their skeletons, through which
!! the fish frolic. The diver who Is Capt Somes
goes down in an india rubber suit. with al
iron, helmet-shaped covering for his head, thai
>. reaches down to his shoulders. 1t is supplied
with tube, connecting with an air pump or
IS board the fiat. which cost $1,000, and is th'
It same one used by Capt. McGowan, who ra'srt
the wrecks off Sebastopol. after the Crlmeal
d war The shoes worn are ot leather with Leaf
IS soles weighing twenty pounds each the lea'
N belts around his waist are FIVE pounds each
e, While down he is under $50 pounds, which !
the entire weight of the armor. He descend
from platform on the side of the fiat, iron
which runs an iron ladder, and when down re
mains from one to six hours, and sometimes
long as twelve hours He communicates b
signal ropes. AS soon as he has secured an
part of the wreck he either comes up or give
notice, and the raising commences by steam
with power sufficient to elevate 100 tons.
Let the reader imagine man thirty SIX tee
below the surface of the sea, with no life nea
h,m but that in the inhabitants of the deer
which dart about him here and there, and otte
come so near him that he can feel their slim
skins as they put their glarng eyes to the glas
windows through which he sees his way Ill
thoughts, while down in the blue depths, haV
. been strange at times. and wonderful vlslor
= has he had of the boundless ocean.