The Republican journal., 1871-09-07
Experience of a Diver.


has now retired after a long and active
service.
Mr.. Wood made his first start in life by
an extraordinary, and as it turned out, Il
very lucky piece of diving. Ii the reader
will look at the map Of Ireland, he will
see that outside Of Belfast Lough, and a
little to the southwest opposite Donagha-
dee are situated the Copeland Islands, 1t
so happened that q Whitstable man was Il
coastguard in this district. lie heard 4 le
gend that ship laden with heavy cargo
Of silver had been wrecked Off the Cope
| land Islands some halt a century ago. He
therefore communicated with some OF his
friends at WhitstabIe who were divers.
| Accordingly Mr. Wood and four others
put their diving dresses on board vessel,
and sailed from Whitstableto Donaghadec.
The story they heard when they got there
was, that the wrecked vessel was in the
slave trade. and that she had on board
when she struck on the rocks a large num-
| Der OF slaves and i considerable sum OF
money in the form of silver dollars. Moth
ing would have been known Of the wreck
having taken place had not somebody dis
covered human legs projecting above the
surface of the water. 1t appears that the
people on board the ship had tried TO es
cape; they had filled their shirtslecves
with dollars, but in getting up the rocks
many of them had fallen back and met
with an untimely end, as the weight of the
dollars had kept their heads under water.
| No one had ever disturbed the wreck
since it happened, 50 Mr. Wood and his
| friends set to work to find ont where it
was. They put on their diving dresses,
and for two or three days walked about to
and fro at the bottom of the sea, in about
forty feet of water. searching for the trca-
sure. This they did by clearing away the
weeds and turning over the stones with
crow bars, and feeling for the dollars with
| their hands, as the water was too thick to
see. The wreck itself had entirely perish
ed through the lapse Of time. After 4
| long and careful search at last they came
upon the dollars; they were spread about
among the stones, but many had slipped
down among heap OF iron ore which
had formed the ballast Of the ship. Many
Of the dollars were worn away thin by the
action of the waves. Some were lying
separate, others in great Jumps like rocks
soldered together by iron, certainly in
some cases the handouts used for the
slaves. Some days the divers got two
hundred dollars, sometimes three hun
drel, sometimes a thousand. In all, the
number of dollars they GOT mp from the
wreck was about twenty-five thousand.
The ''Diver's Arms near the clock
tower at IIernc Bay, Of which Mr.. Wood
is proprietor owes its existence to the dis
covery of these dollars. Mr.. Wood had
on this occasion u curious under water adj
venture One of the divers complained
that he was annoyed by lobster, and
couldn't work. MIR. Wood learned the
whereabouts Of the lobster, and went
down after him. He soon discovered Mr..
Lobster sitting under 4 rock, looking as
savage rs u lobster can look. His ieelerS
were pointed we'll forward, and he held
out his two great claws wide open in u
threatening attitude Wood knowing the
habits Of Holsters, gave this fellow his
crowbar, which he Immediately npped
with his claws. Then watching his OPP
portumty he passed his signal line over
the lobster's tail, made it taSt and signal
led to the men above to haul up This
they did and instantly away went Mr..
Lobster living up through the water into
the air above, with his claws still expand
cd, and rs scared rs a lobster could be-
A great c0n@el eel alsn pail the divers
u visit. He was an immense fellow, and
| kept swimming round Wood. but Wouid
not come near him. Wood was afraid Of
his hand being bitten, aS 4 con@er's bite IS
very bad. lie once knew diver whose
fingers was seized by q conger. The brute
took all the flesh clean oil the mans fin
ger. A conger is a very dangerous ami
nal in the water. However. this conger
kept swimming round about Wood, so he
took his clasp knife ont and tried to stab
him, but the conger would not come near
enough to be knitted. 1t was 4 long while
before the conger would 90 away, and
even after he had gone away Wood could
not go on working because he was not
sure that he had really gone for good, and
it might have come out of some corner at
any minute and nippcd his fingers.
Mr.. Wood has had other adventures
with fish when working under water. He
was once employed in fixing some heavy
stones in the harbor at Dover; while wait
ing for the stones to come down from the
ship above, he sat down on 4 rock, and
being very quiet, a shoal of whiting pout
came up to examine the strange visitor TO