The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-12-18
TOILERS OF THE SEA.
Divers Work Upon the Cargo Of
the Steamship Oregon.
How Men Toll at Twenty Fathoms Depth
and Are Sometimes Paralyzed-The
Condition of the Badly-Shat-
tered Vessel-Its CargOs'
Condition.

On the 18th of March, 1886, some
thing poked hole in the bottom of the
steamship Oregon. land she sank to
the bottom of the sea-" about eighteen
miles away from Fire Island Inlet, in
water 100 feet deep, on hard surface
of coarse sand and gravel. The oc-
currence is so recent that most persons
will remember what an excitement was
occasioned by it. No lives were lost,
but the survivors made the armament
echo with remarks about their trunks,
merchants here and abroad joined in
lamentations over the cargo; the vast
army of foreign noblemen on this side
OF the water, expecting remlttances,
with singular unanimity bewailed the
loss of large sums, and got renewed
credit for weeks on the strength of
their misfortune; and the person who
had not at least lost an important let
ter in the mails that went down with
the Oregon was quite out of fashion.
Then speculation ran riot as to the
cause of the disaster. Witnesses of
the highest credibility were certain that
no vessel was any where in sight of the
Oregon when she received the shock
that sent her to the bottom Other
witnesses of equally unquestionable We
racity saw vessels enough to have made a
fine naval parade. There were those
who were certain that she was sunk by
an explosion in her hold, and others
who deemed it beyond question that q
submarine vessel, possibly an Irish
torpedo-boat, had given her the fatal
thrust. The excitement increased I'M
til, after much delay, the wreckers
established the facts that she had Leen
sunk by collision with some unknown
vessel, and that it would be practicable
to save great deal of her cargo.
Then, suddenly. the popular interest in
her died away, and though the divers
were at work on her all summer. little
more was heard of their progress, and
seemingly little was cared about it,
even by the remittance expecting noble
men, who had meanwhile made other
arrangements
Mr.. 1. j. M. Merritt, Jr., son of
Captain Merritt, of the Coast Wrecking
Company, by whom the salvage was
effected, narrating the story of the
divers work on the Oregon the other
day, said:
1--WE keep the fires banked in our
wrecking steamers the year around,
ready to start any time, at a moment S
no.ice, for any point on the coast where
our services may be required. So VIII IN
news of the wreck of the Oregon was
received, and we were called upon, as
we were immed ately, we We're off to
her on the same day to examine how
she lay, take soundings, and pick up
what floating cargo and mail we could.
On March the 18th we started out to
go 10 work, but the weather was such
that we could not do any thing until
the 18th, when we began.
1.-The Oregon lay in twenty fathoms
of water. There is popular idea that
the agitation of the sea by storms is
quite r shallow effect. But it doesn't
take much of a storm to make itself
felt sixty feet down. where the Oregon
lay. as our divers were fully satisfied,
and though it was possible to see dimly
outside the hull, the darkness in the
hold was perfect. so that the Difficult
ties under VIII CHI the divers worked
were great. Nevertheless it did not
take them long to find out that the
Oregon was very badly shattered YES
sci. When she Owed TO the bottom
she careened over to the side on which
she had received her injury, and drove
her nose down so deep in the sand that
it was held there, while the power of
the waves broke her in two close to
No. 2 hatch, which was the largest and
most important in the vessel, and
slammed her down with such force
that her bottom came up and her decks
settled down so that her cargo was
smashed between. Where she was
broken in two she had been literally
twisted off, and though the recovery of
goods from the great hatch at that
point should have been the most i'm
portant, it was, in fact, where least was
saved, the magnitude of the opening
having permitted vast quantities of
cargo to float out, rise to the surface
and drift away. The first of the float
ing cargo that was picked up was from
that opening, and had drifted miles
away.