The Daily Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Or.) 1876-1883, 1883-11-06
SUBMARINE EXPERIENCES
Strange Sights Under Water.

drifted over to Matanzas, and there
found myself dead broke. l was
about owing up one day when man
came uu and asked me if l wanted
Job. OF course / said yes. Then he
told me that he was the head OF
party thai were going to hunt for a
ship THAI was wrecked of the coast a
hundred years before, supposed to be
loaded with gold. Well, the long and |
short "f it wis they couldn't get
diver. and offered me the jch ana
took X. They hired small schooner,
and with u crew of five or six set out
along the coast and came TO anchor
i've lniles eff shore. on = reef that
shelved Of gradually into deep water.
IL vsas y week before they got the spot
they wanted me to 90 down, and IN
tn. meantime I'd been practIclng so
that At last could stand 1t. One day
) they anchored over a biz black patch
J that looked like coral, and told me to
T make the survey | reckon the water
. must have been sixty feet deep, and, i
d tell you, it gave Inc kind Of shake.
: They let me down slow, 50 that the
IT sudden pressure wouldn't affect me,
h and in about ten minutes found my
Ie self in a regular forest of coral. 1t
h was in regular banks on each side,
some twenty feet IN height, and not
this common branch kind yoI see In
the stores, but brown, with the points
all sticking out, and / should judge,
Sc thev we're six feet long. The strang-
st est thing to me was the tameness
IN Of the fishes. If l stood still they
ad came toward me in schools, floating in
he front Of my hemlet, and even when
ng raised my arms they only moved a lit
rs tie; they evidently thought | was
ne big crab.
nd Gas soon as / got the lay of the
Is. land | found l could see vel
ed enough, and l started along th'
he street between the coral walls. Th'
SIX bottom was as hard as rock, and
m hadn't gone more than fifty feet be
our fore saw something looming u
on ahead. and few minutes later wa
go. under the stern of big ship. Sh
her must have been there years; the corr
ade had grown up around her and IN
'ieh the stern windows. Her masts wei
gone. and the star fish, crabs an
shells we're hanging out of the seams;
tbo fact, she was picture of desolation,
:. YOU ever saw one. | struck my boa
II hook in the deck, and hauled myse
,od. aboard. Her hold" continued Il
ons diver, ,relighting his pipe, "wasa regul
40 garden, coral growing out of it just
'ors If it was planted there, and the dec
' IN were that slippery with sea-weed al
I,a,, living things that it was hard to he
Il. nm The hold was so fnll OF col
uro thai gave up looking there, a
made aft. The companion-way-
. r fact. the whole side OF the hou
h., gave away as touched it-aiI rott
- :. and bored by kind OF worm, al
D,oL instead OF rising. the planks sunk
lead. / fixed tho hook into the d'
dven where it appeared solid, and grai
the ally lowered myself into the cab
Coral was growing on everythl
.ovo. One Of the doors was still on ST
oeoe room. knocked it III, and big
,or,b shot out through an open dead-hg
and there were all sorts of thu
A.. crawling about.
H. "No, there wasn't the sign OF
foI man being; she had been there
long, bu. picked up heap oil W
- Va tool, 10 be tin cans and things,
p strung them on line and sent Il
- ND. and they proved to be gold
II silver dishes. They were lying on
war. cabin floor, ana were overgrown
: Res stuff. In the state-roOm there
ceros- beaps of money, perhaps slOOO
back and eaten; all this j tool
Rd OF deck a1S gent up, and then went
the myself. We bgng abnut there
,o- ~ week, trying to get tie corral OF
efOr> >be hold, but it was as solid %
her' you couldn't get under or ln'
d as anu. >iy force you can bring t"
.tion. The Oh '1isslift; blow or
boat, under wa ~Spt 70 enythinS, as
torres, doesn't am' <ight off your feet
r De throw yourself ~IST RAW.
tbev THE - xie down u
id ar "The last trip m <ag my l.
h the old hulk came near bt nm
ppear- reckon. was Just comm 90,
piping the hold when / saw sOmeth !,
r"'''e coming along. drew back tn
of sharks. and got behind the Gu
inos. when there came along the
New pest fish ever clapped my eyes oil
TX You fore or since. ii was what they
n yoIr h giant rag, or devil-6sh, and was
one Of ing along, Tapping Its side-hns
taking like wings. 1t must have pee" ="
out the feet wide, and weighed perhaps "
nla of tons. On its head were
a. kind of horns of flesh, and the
per told me afterward if the hs
e. canobt NV tube between those I'd