The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-02-28
A LIFE OF PERIL.

H"riiing Adventures of n Veteran Diver
Corpscs, Sharks, and Other Submarine
Iorrors-A Rub with Beuth.
The assistant superintendent at the
police headquarters in Toledo, Ohio, is
Old Jack Campbell now nearly
sslxty-hve years of age, and who has
been, and still proposes to be, sub
marine diver. To a reporter he has
related some of his thrilling adventures
He gave graphic description of the APP
pea1ance OF the first sunken steamboat
INTO which he ever went. 1t was about
two miles from shore that the vessel had
gone down. He went into her for the
purpose of recovering her cargo. The
bodies were of no consequence, he
stated. cit is singular fact" said he
in substance, "that the corpses of
women in sunken vessel always lie
face upward, while men are invariably
face downward. The cabin of the vessel
presented a horrid appearance. The
bloated bodies all laid up next the cell
ing. Some were clssped in each others
arms. One mother had in her arms her
baby. A husband and wife were clasped
In each others embrace 80 firmly that
they could not pull them apart.
dove once in Mobile bay, where I
put over three thousand chains under an
iron-clad. The greatest annoyance that
we had there was sharks. They didn't
hardly dare tackle us because with our
armor we looked more like scare-crows
than anything else. They would come
sailing along and gradually swim up
toward us with their great big mouths
wide open, but when within few feet
of us they would stop and lay there
Happin' their fins and looking, it seemed
to me like the very evil one himself.
Finally we devised way to scare them
off that never failed to frighten them so
that they would stay away an hour or
longer before they dare to come back.
The armor that we wear is air-tight, you
know. Our jacket sleeves were fastened
around our wrists with an elastic, so
that the air could not escape. By run.
ming my finger under the sleeve of my
jacket could let the air out, and as it
rushed into the water it would make q
sort of kissing noise and volume of
bubbles shoot up. So, whenever those
sharks would come prowling around me
would hold out my arm toward them
and, putting my finger under the elastic
of my iacket-sleeve, 1 would let lot of
air out and send stream of bubbles
into the sharks face, with q kissing
noise like steam from gauge-cock.
The way that those sharks would 90
scooting off was funny to behold.
/ have had several narrow ESCAPES
from drowning" said Jack, as he re-
lighted his ancient and much-tanned
pipe, "but about the closest call was
when was workin' in the waterworks
crib in Cleveland. You see, much de-
pends on having good signal-tender.
j can tell when some one else besides the
regular signal man steps up and takes
hold of the line. So can any good diver
for that matter. There was the diver
that worked for the Lake Shore Railroad
Company when they were building
the abutments of their new bridge here
across the Maumee. He, by the way,
was paid $40 a day for 100 days. He
was working one day, shortly after he
had begun on the job, and went down
to see him. The signal-tender asked
me if would take hold of the line. I
did SO, and gave it three or four little
shakes that good diver always under
stands. He Immediately answered back,
and let me understand that he knew /
was there. But was:going to tell you
about that narrow escape. I had q
signal tender who didn't hardly under
stand his business. The mouth of the
crib had become stopped up with dirt,
and was clearing it out. Ihad crawled
and was outside of the crib. NY life.
line and hose chafea against the top of
the door, and all at once when I went to
T -.
There was out in the water, where in
short time 1 knew would drown. l
pulled twice on the lifeline for the
signal-tender to pull me up, but he
didn't do it. I felt that I was filling up
with water fast, and 1 pulled again.
But still he did not understand Of
course all my armor had filed with
water, and as there was no air in it, /
was held down by tons weight. Sud
denly George, who / was telling you
about, and who had just come down to
see me, stepped up and took hold of the
lifeline, shook it and asked me what l
wanted. I had just strength enough
left to give two hard pulls, which meant
Pull me up quick George, ! after
ward heard them tell, yelled to the
signal man and told him Help me to
pull III that lifeline, and pull for all
you're worth, for Jack is drowning.
They hauled me up out of there mighty
quick, now I tell you, and it took lots of
strength to do it, because my armor was
full of water. When they got me to the
surface 1 was clear gone, and it was
more than an hour before 1 came to
enough to speak.
"The deepest water that was in was
168 feet. When one is down so low it is
hard work to get air. 1 have had the
air-pump manned by six men working
with all their might, and still I've been
obliged to keep pulling on the lifeline
and calling for more air."