The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1871-08-31
Correspondence in Land and Wat
Experiences Of a Diver.

nave lately naQ the pleasure VI au iueei-
veiw with Mr.. J. Wood, of Herne Bay, who
has followed the business of diver for up
wards Of twenty two years, and who has now
retired after long and active service.
Mr.. Wood made his first start in life by
an extraordinary, and as it turned out "a "a
very lucky piece of diving. If the reader will
look at the map of Ireland, he will see that
outside of Belfast Lough, and little to the
southwest opposite Donaghadee, are situated
the Copeland Islands. It SO happened that
a Whitsable man was coastguard in this
district. He heard legend that q ship
laden with heavy cargo Of silver had bsea
wrecked of the Copeland Islands some baif
century ago. He therefore communicated
with some of his friends at Whitstable who
were divers. Accordingly Mr.. Wood and
four others put their diving-dresses on board
a vessel, and sailed from Whitstable to
Donaghanee. 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
number of slaves, and considerable sum of
money in the form of silver dollars. Nothing
would have been known of the wreck-haying
taken place had not somebody discovered
human, legs projecting above the surface of
the water. 1t appears that the people on
board the ship had tried to escape; they had
filled their shirt-sleeves 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, So Mr.. Wood
and his friends set to work to find out where
it was. They put on their aiving-dresses,
and for two or three days walked about to
and fro at the bottom Of the sea, in about
forty feet ofwater, searchingfo for the treasure.
This they did by clearing away the weeds
and turning over the stones with crowbars,
and feeling for the dollars with their hands;
as the water was too thick to see. The wreck
itself had entirely perishedthrough the lapse
of time. After a 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 hundred, sometimes q thols-
and; the best day they got five thousand.
In all, the number of dollars they got up
from the wreck was about twenty-five thous-'
and, considerable sum of money when
reduced to English pounds.
Mr.. Wood showed me one Of the dollars,
which he always carries abont with him.
The following is the inscription: On one
side, "Carolus iiij Del Gratia. 1877.
Hspan ct Ind Rex NJ S. r. FM." The coin
is about the size of an old dfve.shilling piece.
The "Divers' Arm" near the clock tower at
Herne Bay, y,of which Mr.. Wood is proprietor,
owes its existence to the discovery Of these
dollars Mr.. Wood had on the occasion q
curious underwater adventure. One Of
the divers complained that he was annoyed
by lobster, and couldn't work. Mr.. Wood
learned the whereabouts of the lobster, and
went down after him. He soon discovered
Mr. Lobster sitting under rock, looking as
savage as lobster can look. His feelers
were pointed well forward, and he held out
his two great claws wide open, threatening
attitude. Wood, knowing the habits Of
Holsters, gave this fellow his crowbar, which
he immediatelyed nipped with his claws.
Then, watching his opportunity, he passed
his signal line over the Holsters tail, made
it fast, and signalled to the men above to
haul up. This they did, and instantly away
went Mr.. Lobster flying up through the
water into the air above, with his claws still
expanded, and as scared as a lobster could
be.
A great conger eel also paid the divers
visit. He was an immense fellow, and kept
swimming around Wood, but would not come
near him. Wood was afraid of his hand
being bitten; as congers bite il very bad
He once knew diver whose finger was
seized by conger The brute took all the
flesh clean off the mans finger. A conger is
a very dangerous animal in the water. How
ever, this conger kept swimming round
about Wood, so he took his clasp-knife out
and tried to stab him, but the conger would
not come near enough to be knitted. II was
a long while before the conger would 60
away; and even after he had gone away
Wood could not go on working, because he
was not sure that he was really gone for
good, and it might have come out of some
corner at any minute and nipped 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 waiting for
the stones to come down from the ship above,
he sat down on arock and, being very quiet,
shoal of whiting pout came up to examine
the strange visitor to their sub-aqueous
residence. They played all about hm, and
kept on biting at the thick glass which form
ed the eyes of his diving helmet So next
time Wood went down he took with himsa
fsh-hook fastened into the end of short
stick-a gaff, in fact. The pouts came
around him as usual, and he, gated them one
| after another with his hoot. He then strung
them on string, and came up afterhis days
work was over with goodly fry of whiting