Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-12-01
BOTTOM OF THE SEA.
DIVERS WORK UPON THE CARGO
OF THE STEAMSHIP OREGON.

OF THE STEAMSHIP OREGON.
A Badly Shattered Vessel-Difficult Con
ditions for work-How Men Toll at
Twenty Fathoms Deep and Are Some
times ParalyEed.
MI l. J. NJ Merritt, Jr., son Of Capt. |
Merritt of the Coast Wrecking company, |
by 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 is u popular idea that the
agitation of the sea by storms is quite
shallow effect. But it doesn't take much
of storm to make itself felt sixty feet
down, where the Oregon lay, as our
livers were fully satisfied. And, though
il was possible to see dimly outside the
hull, the darkness in the hold was per
feet, so that the difficulties under which
the divers worked were great. Never
theless, it did not take them long to hnd
out 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 50 much ON
account of the depth of the water as be
cause of the locality and the steady con
tinuance of the work, often under eN-
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 a different matter.
Some of our divers stayed down forty
five and even sixty minutes, but the
usual time was from thirty to forty min
utes. As a rule, we did not allow them
to stay down as long as they wished to
after they had become arcustomed TO the
work, for there was always the danger
that IL a man was too long subjected 10
the pressure of sixty 10 siN.y-two pounds
to the square inch-that had to be main
tanned at that depth might break him
all up for several days
CASES OF PI RALYsIs.
"'How break him ups Well, it seemed
to paralyze them. Sometimes man
would come up with no control at all of
an arm or a leg 1t would hang as if
dead. In few days it would come all
| right, but the sensation, while 1t 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
not stand the work and had TO give it
up, but those who stuck TO il seemed TO
grow accustomed to it, and did not com
/ plain at all after 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 off.
/ he would be thoroughly rubbed all over,
walked up and down the deck far little
| bit, get good drink Of brandy, and
| then be laid down TO sleep for an hour,
when he would be quite fresh and ready
| To go down again. Two would go down
while one was resting.
I'VE had altogether fourteen divers
when we started, but half a dozen Of
! them could not stand the work, and our
| average force of divers was eight. They
worked in two separate and entirely dis
J tinct expeditions, each Of which had a
schooner to operate from, and there was
/ also a steamer TO take care of and tend
them. When the weather was SO vio-
/ lent that it WAS impossible TO work on
the wreck the steamer would tow the
schooners into Fire Island inlet to wait
for more proptious skies. But the dis
tance was so great, involving so much
loss of time in going TO and fro, that we
only left our ground when the necessity
was most imperative. Often we took in
cargo when the schooners were pitching
| and rolling with such violence in the
angry waves that they were taking water
over their rails on alternate sides at
every roll. Perhaps we even took some
| desperate chances, but we had to do so
or suffer interminable delays. As it was,
we have had TO lose as much as three
-
| in the weather.
FAIRLY swARMED WITH FISH.
"'Sharks' Oh, yes, we saw sharks
/ there but they did not make any trouble.
! OF course il makes a man feel a little
uncomfortable away down in the sea, 10
have a great shadow gliding over him
! and know that il is made by a huge
ravenous fish, that could bite him in two
| if it dared and considered it worth while
/ But the sharks are more afraid of the
| divers than the divers are of the sharks
| A real diver isn't afraid of a 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, as we
| found, but don't remember their names
Accidents" No. With experienced
skill, conscientious care, and intelligence
| in conducting diving operations they
need not be attended with any more
| danger of accident-or not much more
at leaSt-than any heavy work on land.
| Our powerful Air pumps, driven by steam,
/ forced the air into tanks, whence il was
| admitted to the divers hose by nicely
regulated system Of gauges nd cocks that
! controlled the pressure TO a nicely and
! that was all under the care of expert
! enced and very careful men, in whom
the divers below had the utmost con-
iidence. II is q great help to a diver to
! have his mind clear of all anxiety about
what is going on up at the pumps. He
knows then that all he has to look out
| for is to take care that his hose and life
! line do not get entangled and that he
does not himself get jammed among the
cargo. Very often we had TO have one
man on deck TO attend TO the hose and life
| line Of another at work in the hold five
fatholnS below, to see that the strong
current did not sweep them away to
! where they would be entangled and per
haps injured. There were hand air
/ pumps as well as the steam ones con
nected up and ready for action at any mo-
ment if anything should happen, and
| the pressure was always carefully regu-
( lated according 10 the depth at which the
/ divers were accurate, knowledge Of their
movements being transmitted by signals
on the life line. No signals except for air
are evsE sent by the hose.-New York
/ Sun.
EngIanGs rruIt supply.
English farmers find that it does not
| pay TO grow fruit for the London market.