The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1885-04-18

IN A SHARKS JAWS,
TRUE STORY OF A Boston DIVER
WHO WAS CARRIED OFF BY
MAN-EATER,

WHO WAS CARRIED OFF BY A
MAN-EATER.
81 reckon it was in 49," he COM
menced, "when Captain Sam and
me first joined partnership like.
We both of us had claims against a
man for salt fish. He was Bosting
fish-dealer, and we heard that he
was goin' up so.we started to Bosting
and attached the only thing he had
left, and that was a good-sized div
ing-bell that he'd taken himself for
debt insome way. First we thought
we'd sell it for old iron; but one
day we saw a notice that there was
need of q diver in Florida in the
wreckin' business so we fixed the
old thing up, put it on smack we
owned and strarted for the gulf. |
tell ye, some of them conch-wrack-
ers opened their eyes when we put
her over first time. They'd never
heard of such a thing. When they
wanted to go over they dined and
could only stay down a minute or
two. When we kept down for an
hour it took the conceit clean out
of 'em, and We couldn't get one to
go down for love or money. There
wasn't any danger of opposition.
"We wracked it for year or so
there, and one day got word at Key
West that there was a big bark
ashore at Sea Horse Key. l tell
ye, we want long in gettin' there
and when we struck the place we
found that she'd been carried clean
over the bar and was in about thirty
fathoms of water. That was too
much water for the bell, so we got
out an armor we'd bought and toss
ed up cent who should go down.
AS luck would have it, it fell to me.
The rig 1 had was made for just such
work, and for deep water where
pressure is enough to squeeze water
from a stone. The headgear was
the thickest kind ofcopper, the arms
were braced with copper preventers,
and the chest and back the same,
and on each part had twenty
pounds of lead. Rugged in this 1
took my pipe and went over the
side, and in about ten minutes I was
on deck.
"Ye never saw a wrack, did ye2n
asked the speaker. "No? Wall it's
a dismal sight. She was fine
bark, but had been all hammered to
pieces in goin' on the reef, so that
some of the plankin' had started
and taken q shear right up at right
angles with the hull, and at first
looked like masts. With such lot
standin' of riggin' it was mighty
hard pickin' yer way round, and
every time I'd git my head almost
yanked off by foulin' the tube. But
| kept at it and made a complete
of the wrack, and found out
how the land lay, then went up.
An hour later had the torts and
down with me. The
first thing to do was to blow up
side of the hull, so as to get things
out. This 1 did with Il torpedo,
and when l went back after the ex-
plosion there was the incest hole in
her ye'd want to see. In / went
and hooked the tacklin' into twenty
bales of cotton, l reckon, before l
went up.
There was only one trouble about
the place, and that was the darkness.
She laid on her side, just SO that all
the light I got came in through the
hole had made, and if it hadn't
been for that l shouldn't have been
able to do anything, let alone work.
Ye see, in hull like that there's
always danger of the load comin'
down on ye. Wall, was haulin'
away, workin' near the hole, when
all at once l was in perfect darkness
just as if the lamp had gone out of
all creation, and then just as quick
it came again. I thought the