The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-28
A LIVE MAN AS BAIT.
A Divers Experience in Maintaining Snark'E
laws

A Divers Experience in Man-Eating Shark'x
Jaws.
81 reckon it was in '59p he commenced ayheny
Captain Sam and me first joined partnerships
like We both of US had claims against man
for salt fish, He was a Boston fish dealer and
we heard that he was goin' up; so we started for
Boston, and attached the only thing he had left
and that was good-sized diving-bell that he'd
taken himself for debt in some way. First weY
thought we'd sell it for old iron; but one day wa
saw notice that there was need of diver i'm
Florida in the wrackin' business, so we fixed the
old thing up, put it on a smack we owned, and
started for the gulf. tell We, some of them
conch-wrackers opened their eyes when we putt
her over first time. They'd never heard of such
thing. When they wanted to 60 over, they
dived, and could only stay down minute or
two. When we kept down for an hour il took
the conceit clean out of EN-, and ye couldn't get
one to 60 down for love or money. There wasn't
any danger of opposition.
1--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. tell We, we
want long in gettn' 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 tossed
upa cent who should go down. AS luck would
have it, it fell to me. The rig had was made
for just such work, and for deep water where
the pressure is enough to squeeze water from an
stone. The head gear was the thickest kind Of
venters, and the chest and back the same and
on each part had twenty pounds of lead.
Rugged in this way took my pipe and vent
over the side, and in about ten minutes was
on deck.
'Ye never saw a wrack, did ye9" asked the
speaker. No? Wall it's a dismal sight. She
was fine bark but had been hammered all to
pieces in goin' on the reef, so that some of the
plankin had started and taken a shear right up
at right angles with the hull and at first looked
like masts With such lot of standin' riggin'
it was mighty hard pickin yer way round and
every time I'd take a step I'd get my head almost
yanked off by foulin' the tube. But kept at it
and made a complete survey of the wrack and
found out how the land lay, then went up. An
hour later | had the tortS and machinery down
with me. The first thing to do was to blow I'D a.
side OF the hull, so as to git things out This
did with a torpedo, and when went back after
the explosion, there was the incest hole in her
ye'd want to see In went and hooked the
tacklin' into twenty bales of cotton, / reckon.
before | went up
''There was only one trouble about the place.
and that was the darkness She laid sss her
side, just so that all the light / got came in
through the hole had made, and if it hadn't
been for that [ shouldn't have been able to do
anything, let alone work Ye see, in hull like
that there's always danger of the load comm
down on ye. Wall, was hauln away, workn'
near the hole, when all at once was in perfect
darkness, just as if the lamp had gone out Of
all creation, and then just as quick il came
again. l thought the schooner had swung over
at first and paid no attention to it. but in min
ute more out went the light again. then on it
came and that comm and goin' went for
about ten minutes, until finally made UP nv
mind to go and see what it was.
Il started for the openin', but just before
got to it it became dark again, and l fancied
saw dark shape like big fish dart by; then
thought it might be squall outside, and the
low clouds that they have there had been dom
the shadin' business / crept through the hole
takn care of my pipes and grabbed the rope
Ia lett hangin' there to pull me up on the hull.
as if a current of water had been let in on me
from somewhere. turned half around JUS m
time to see big fish risin' above me. 1t VAS
too late to DO anything. I'd left my pike belo-A
and before / could move step saw the dark
form rushin' at me- was in the most exposed
part Of the wrack, not a thing to do but face the
music, and as thought whatever it was it was
goln. TO strike me, turned the best protected
portion toward it, and that of course was my
copper helmet
blow felt wrench that almost twisted my
head off, terrible scratchin' sound, and | felt
myself bein' borne off rapidly by the head The
thought that | was bein' eaten alive by somo
horrible monster came over me, and with o.
force that found out afterwards must have
been almost superhuman, as it nearly jerked
the Waterman overheard, gave the signal on
the line"
q Here the speaker stopped in his narr alive and
said: Nov reckon Captain Sam had better
go on. He kin tell ye the rest better than
kim"
WALL reckon I KIM answered that indi-
vidual, "considerin' what Fix We were in. The.
first warnin' we had that anythin was wrong"
he continued, twas SEEM Tom Ramsey who
was settin on camp-stool smokin' and holdin'
the line, go a sprawlin' over the deck and nigh
on to overheard. Up he got swearin that
Jed was drunk or crazy down at the bottom
for yankin on the line, but we knew
somethin was up so we Capped on to
the line and ye'd thought there was sperm
whale on the other end. It was just as if Jed
didn't want to come up, and was a-jerkin' and
haulin' to stay where he was. Then there came
steady strain like, but we stuck to it, and in
about three minutes had him in sight, when one
of the hands yelled, "a sharks got him., and ran
for the harpoon The rest of US gave way hard
on the rope, and in a minute the cook him that
yelled, got back with the iron, and then right
afore us Jed appeared the surface with a.
shark about eighteen feet long. The cook Jet
fly the harpoon, the water few, the men yelled,
and we jerked Jed fairly out of the water and
just as we gave the last iift-he was comm up
feet frst-I see his head was damned in the
sharks mouth. The critter dropped him as soon
it was struck with the iron, and Jed fell on
the deck like lead. I tell We we want longSHn
gitten' that armor off I didn't want to unscrew
it, but knocked in one side-hght with MARINE
spike and so gave him little air"
How Fritz Took q Sip of Saps
Madison Wisconsin. 1e
The Oshkosh Northwestern tells of the mis-