Daily Yellowstone journal., 1886-12-17
BOTTOM OF THE SEA.
olvGRs' WORK UPON THE CARGO
or THE STEAMSHIP OREGON.

4 Badly shattered vessel-DimcuIt Con.
ditiops for work-How Men Toll at
Twenty Fsthoms Deep and Are some
times Psralyred.
Mr.. I. J. NJ. Merritt, Jr., son Of Capt
Merritt Of the Coast Wrecking company,
b. whom the salvage was effected, mar
rating the story Of the divers work on
the Oregon, the other day, said:
'The Oregon lay In twenty fathoms OF
water. There IL u popular idea that the
agitation Of the sea by storms is quite o
shallow effect. But IL doesn't take much
of o storm to make itself felt sixty feet
down, where the Oregon lay, as our
liyers were fully satisfied. And, though
ft was possible TO see dimly outside the
hull, the darkness in the hold was per-
fcct, so that the difficulties under which
the divers worked were great. Never
theless, it did not take them long to find
cut that the Oregon was very badly
shattered vessel.
.'The salvage of the cargo of the Oregon
was one of the greatest pieces Of work Of
the kind ever performed not so much on
account of the depth of the water ms be-
cause of the locality and the steady con-
tinuance Of the work, often under ex-
ceedingly adverse circumstances. Lots
of divers go down twenty fathoms for
few minutes at a time on some quick job,
but staying down at that depth and
working is quite o different matter.
Some of our divers stayed down forty
five and even sixty minutes, but the
usual time was from thirty to forty min
Mt Ia xt,la tra Hid allnxx than
to stay down as long as they wished to
after they had become accustomed TO the
work, for there was always the danger
that il a man was too long subjected to
the pressure of sixty to six .y-two pounds
to the square inch-that had to be main
tanned ut that depth-it might break him
all up for several days.
CASES OF PARALYSIS.
"'How break him upp Well, it seemed
to paralyze them. Sometimes q man
would come up with no control at all Of
an arm or q leg 1t would hang as II
dead. In few days it would come all
rfght,vbut the sensation, while it lasted,
must have been rather disquieting.
Then, whe there was not actual paraly-
sis of one or more limbs there were apt
TO be sharp pains and aches. Some of
the men who started in diving there could
not stand the work and had to give it
up, but those who stuck to il seemed to
grow accustomed to II, and did not COM
plain at all after q little while. But they
were an exceptionally good lot of men,
and we took the best possible care of
them. When a man would come up and
his helmet and armor were taken of,
he would be thoroughly rubbed all over,
waiked up ana aoWn ,he ueck ior q httie
D,., get good orihk OF orahdy, ana
tneh oe iaiu uowh 10 steep ior an hour,
y. @ - AZ "o III. H T,.s ISL anu nu isauy Ss'.
~h;Ia one ,vas res,,n,
..We had .,,ogathsr forr,..r d,vsrs
,vh.n ,ya s,artsd hnt holt a do,an %
them con,d NOT stand the rort and onr
syarage force of d;vars ,y.s s;gh, Tbev
vorted In tvo sena,ate and an,ire,v dis.
tinct exned;t;ons each ~ ,vhicb had a
s.hooner In onsrate fro,n ana thera yvos
.Iso a stasmer 10 taks caro- y, and ,and
them When the weothar u.as 90 y;o-
ient thar IL was imnossibIa 10 work IN
tha uract tha staamar ,rorIJ ,o,v tha
.chooners into Fire leland inIa, 90 wait
for moro nron;tious sLias pn, On. Ale.
t.nca was sa g,eat inyoi,;nn 90 r,nch
Ioss ~ time in going 70 and fro that VIC
onIv loft onr asrnnJ yyhan ,ho ,aoas.,,n
was most imner.tiye often mo ,ool IN
cargo when the schoorers ,yora ,i,ch,nn
md rolling with snch v;o,anca IN th,
angry waves thai they were taL;no water
over their rails ON alternate sides ~
every roll perbans we even took sor,a
desperate chances but we had 10 do 90
or suffer interminable DELAYS As Il wos
xre have b.d 10 lose as mucb as threa
weeks at a stretch waiting for a cbanSe
IN the weather
win rSh
sharksr oh, yes, we saw sharks
mere Out tney did not make any trouble.
oi course u makes o man feel little
S .aoe a"ay uo-n IN 'no 80, N
40, a,. -. snH o nun
enu A ."as nisue uy I" huse
.enous hsn, 'ha' eouiu Di.e MN III TWO
uarea anu consluered IL worm whiie.
nut the sharks are more afraid OF the
u'ers thah the uivers are Oh the snarks.
a real diver isn't AFRAID OF o shark.
Only the divers who dive about gin mills
have the terrible shark experiences.
Asid from sharks, the water about the
oregon wreck fairly swarmed with fish.
There were myriads OF them; good big
ones and excellent eating too, rs we
found, but don't remember their names.
Accidents No. With experienced
SKILL CONSCIENTIOUS care, and intelligence
In conducting diving operations they
need not DE attended with any more
uanger OF accident-or not much more
=. least-than any heavy work on land.