Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1870-09-01
DOWN In THE DEPTHS.

DOWN In THE DEPTHS.
HsrboreThe sunken Monitors and
the Sloep-of-War Housatonfc.
From the Charleston Courier, Aug. s.
1t may not be generally known thai
wrecking operations are now going on ai
the mouth of our harbor on o scale and
with persistency 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 off the bar. but
they either got wearied of their work, OF
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, wro has
had a very large experience in his lh.o in
New York harbor. They had large fat
bu;lt in our city, and put aboard of il ma
chinery 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
It can we'll be remembered that tho mon-
itors Patapsco. Weshawken and Keokuk,
and the magnificent sloop Of war Housa-
most costly machinery. appliances of war,
and many who werc aboard. Capt. Somss
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
articles belonging to tie vessel and battery
aboard, ore what he has succeeded so far
in safely bringing up. The value of them
cannot fail short of $4,000. There is a
great deal remaining yet in the other ves-
sells which, in due time. viii receive their
need of attention.
To the uninitisted it might appear. with
the assistance he has, an easy matter, but
there are serious periIs attending the en-
terprise, which cannot be overcome with
out encounteriug trials of no ordinary
character. The vessel on which Re ia now
opera,ing-the Housatonic-was one of the
finest sloops-of-war that the Federals ever
put afoat, and was the best built and
heaviest armed OF her class. She went
down in 1863 from the effects of O torpedo,
which struck her under her port quarter,
and carried down, if not all. at least many
of her officers and crew. There he's been
so much powder used in her to dislodge
the machinery, so that it could be lifted,
that it is impossible to discern correctly
her internal condition. She lies on hard
bottom, and has only snnk little, while
the others are imbedded in the soft sand
peculiar to that locality. II 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 II good order. The
poor but brave men who made that unfor-
innate voyage never had chance to es
ape. and all that is left of them are their
hele.ons, through which the fish frolic.
The diver. who is Capt. Somes, goes down
ins an iudia-rubber suit, with an iron,
covering for the head,
which reaches down to his shoulders. II
supplied through a tube, connecting
with an air pump aboard the flat. which
cos. 81. COO, and is the same one used By
capt McN1OWan, VINO raised the WRECKS on
Sebastopol after the Crimea2 war. The
shoes worn are Of leather, with lead soles,
weighing twenty pounds each; the lead
belts around his waist are five pounds
each; while down he is under 1S0 pounds,
the whole weight Of the armor.
He descends from platform on. the side
Of a flat, 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
be has secured any part of the wreck, he
either comes up or gives notice, and the
raising commences by steam, with power
sufficient to elevate 100 tonA
Let the reader imagine a 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 him that
he can feel their slimy skins as they put
their glazing eyes to the glass windows
through which he secs his way. His
thoughts, while down in the blue depths,
have been strange at times, and wonderful
visions has he had of the boundless ocean.