The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1880-04-23
FAR UNDER THE WATER.
"A Submarine Divers Life and Danger
..Curiosisies Of the Deep, Brought
to Light. =

w
sfderably scared on account of the
pressure. If a man Is lowered too fast
it will kill him. Divers are seldom Or
never killed by drowning, but by an
unequal pressure. A. diver could cut
hole in the lower portion Of his suit
without danger of being drowned as
long as he stood erect, for as long as
air is supplied by the airspump the
water could not reach his mouth. I'M
deep water the pressure is very great,
and usually a diver can descend asl
deep as he can stand the pressure. You
see we are In vacuutn.} There is no
per helmets about our heads. The
pressure is all upon the lower garments,
! and, il it Is too great, 1t drives all the
| blood in the body to the head, and the
result is death. I have seen men killed
in this way whose heads We're fairly
split open and whose eyes were driven
from their sockets. A more horrible
death could not be imagined, aud and
almost all other divers have narrowly
| escaped it. When the diver Is ten
feet down the pressure to the square
foot is 6250 pounds; at thirty feet, 49,
$50 pounds; at fifty feet, 81 ,25O pounds;
at seventy feet, $3.50 pounds; at
ninety feet, sc $50 pounds; at no feet,
oos 1oV Rouuus3 a. LOU 1SoCs oAsNOO pOuuOSS
at $50 feet, which is the greatest depth
to which have descended, $3.50
pounds, and at 16O feet, 1OO, 900 pounds.
Divers seldom descend over 40 feet,
and rarely as deep at that. Under the
water the ears feel stopped up, but
sometimes we can make ourselves un-
derstood by putting two helmets to-
gether and shouting, but then 1t doesn't
sound louder than an ordinary Whis.
per. A man who went down for the
first time would be likely to signal to
come up after feeling the pressure in
the cars, which is very, unpleasant un-,
til you are used to it, - yaut
elbow about the fish; do they ever
molest your IL.
every seldom. You see, we make
1t n rule not to disturb them We
know that they arc in their element,
aud we arc not in ours. AS for sharks,
we don't care for them. They are
cowardly, and easily frightened of.
! We are much more afraid Of the bari
coats, a surface fish, with teeth three
inches long. Talk about fish, why,
| one can't have any conception of them
until he has been under the water and
seen them of all sizes and all colOrs OF
the rainbow. The noise made by
school of fish sounds under water like
the rumbling of thunder. One of the
greatest curiosities in this line was the
Jew fish encountered when diving in
the Bay of Cumana, on the coast OF
fifteen feet in length, and have q large
mouth with small teeth. The Jew
fish have great deal of Curiosity
more than any woman that I know OF
and used to eye us while we were at
| work, We were little afraid of them
at first, bnt found that they would not
harm US. suppose you have heard OF
the electric eel, which has the power to
give shock equal to any battery.
When we were diving at the West
Indies one of our divers received
shock from an electric eel, and for a
time he seemed almost paralyxed.
! Mules and other animals when fording
streams in this country often receive a
sll lock.''
"Is it dark under water?''
"That depends upon how clear the
water is. have been down twenty
fathoms where could see to read the
finest print, and I have been down ten
feet where you could not see your hand
before you. It is not very pleasant
exploring a wreck, especially where
there are dead bodies, when you are In
utter darkness. I remember working
in March, 1861, on the ship John Trux,
which was sunk at the Arch street
wharf, Philadelphia. The water Of the
Delaware river is so thick and muddy
that you can't see anything five feet
below the surface, and as the steward
and stevedore were both drowned, /
knew 1 should not have a very pleas
ant job in recovering their bodies.
Well, 1 went down, groped around In
the darkness, found the skylight, and
after got into the cabin the first thing
that my hands touched was the body
of the steward
"Isn't it horrible sight among the
dead bodies in vessels wreck?'' av
"Well, yes; but we get used to those
sights, and while I can't say we don't
mind them, can say that they don't
deter us from going down. I am one
of those who believe that drowning Is
an easy death, comparatively, because
I have noticed that the face Of q
drowned person looks as if he had
!. gone to sleep, and seldom denotes pain;
, but, when the eyes are wide open and
!, CLASSY in appearance, and the gas in
the stomach makes the body stand bolt
, upright, it is rather trying to the
nerves. Sometimes we find drowned
: persons with death-grip upon a piece
Of rigging or the side of q bunk, and
it is very difficult to unloosen thefi
/ hold. Before we see body or an OBJ
Q iert under the water we always see the