Savannah morning news., 1886-06-29
ST. JOHNS SECRET.
An Adventurous Diver Tells Some
"Reminiscences.

hetninlScSucebs
From the odcksonDiltet FEa) Herald.
II anybody goes down Pine street to the
river and looks out into the stream they
Will see queer looking boat at anchor.
On this boat is Captain James Murray, a
weather-beaten, sailorly- looking man,
with CHEEKY voice and nautical smile,
and as the Herald representative ap-
preached him he rolled his quid and took
hitch in his trousers as he greeted the
newspaper man.
"You want to know something about
the Divers experience" he continued at
ter a pause. "Wel, Pll tell you. We
divers feel pretty secure when we get our
water clothes on, but we have unpleasant
experiences. l well remember some years
ago / was employed by the Mexican gov
ernment TO go down of the town of From
tero in the Cult after Spanish treasure
galleon, which was supposed to have
sunk somewhere in the last century.
A HUGE SEA MONSTER.
''To recover this l went down in 100
feet of water and actually found the old
hulk ami got on the veeseltO make an ex-
animation, when suddenly | discovered
| in front OF me an immense moving sub
stance which looked like a gigantic SER
pent, and so IL was; | never shall forget
the chill OF horror which ran through my
| frame as he huge mass slowly moved,
and at first l thought it was going to
| swallow me whole, as il easily could have
| done, but it probably imagined l was
some other monster and moved off slowly.
You can just bet ! pulled up from there
in hurry and left the cool millions lay
ing safe and snug in the old galleon, and
there they are to this day. | am certain
that the old snake mad MADE its home in
the hulk"
"Did you ever come across any dead
! bodies at the bottom OF the seaW asked
the reporter.
sch yes, often z have been in search
for them, but l tell you its fearful work.
l remember, some time ago, went down
in the Cape Fear river after an iron eX-
press chest which fell overheard from a
| steamer. The bottom OF the stream Was
| rocky, and right ahead of me L saw a
black object which 1 imagined to be the
chest | went up to it and loosed it from
its mOoring, when suddenly the ghastly
half eaten face of dead man bObbed up
close to mine. l recovered from my hor-
rOr and brought up the corpse in my
arms, but whewl how it smeltv' and the
old diver rolled his quid from the port to
the starboard side OF his jaw.
"Have you struck any ships or boats In
/ the ST. Johns yetT'
"No, but they tell me that there is a
|
where and if could only locate where
she lies would 90 down after her; they
| say she went down many, many years
| ago with all hands and that nothing was
ever heard of her. She was heavily load
| ed at the time and was towed under at
| night while the crew were asleep. Some
of the old citizens have told me about It
| and | would like very much to see her,"
"How is the bottom OF our river?'
"Well, Pll tell you. From this side the
! ground gradually slopes and suddenly
you come to a deep rock gulch, which is
240 feet wide and very deep. This gulch
extends from Clark's mill to Grassy point,
| and here ii is that most of the anchors
have been lost. They catch on the rocky
| lodges of this gully and cannot be hauled
up. l have discovered several already
and think l shall keep up search right
through this deep place to see what may
pick up. Who knows? l may discover
some treasure yet.
81 am only doing this because l have
no regular job at present, and / think |
will be well repaid. You know | get
So per cent. salvage on all property that,
l recover, besides Is per cent. for hand
ling it, thereby making it really all mine.
Twill, however, recover anything for any
body at reasonable price if they Will
show where the sunken stuff lies"
Capt. Murray brought up from the bot
tom of the deep gully this morning ahuge
piece of rock, which is thought to- be of
phosphate formation, and an analysis
VIII shortly be made. If this should
prove regular phosphate rock a new In-
dustry might be added to Jacksonville
which would prove extremely lucrative.
Capt. Murray said the whole bed of the
river was OF this formation.