, 1888-04-05
THE RIVERS BOTTOM.
WHAT A DIVER SAW UNDER THE
WAVES OF THE HUDSON.

Slime--sonie of the sight%-Broksa
Wires. Piptv Sewage. Etc.--A D.ad
Man.
In New York city, near the Brooklyn
bridge, and visible from the promenade Of
that great Viaduct, Is q loft which has
long been II iavOrite headquarters OF the
professional divers who do business along
this part OF the Atlantic coast. The place
IL well furnished, coay and supplied with
all the latest ideas In submarine work.
Every day II Is visited by the divers, who
come for new orders for work, to obtain
cure supplies for their peculiar calling.
One afternoon while party of friends,
chiefly newspaper men and divers, were
chatting over the news Of the day, one OF
the more popular subaqueous toilers
entered who had been absent some time
from the city. He Joined in the CONVEX
sation, and afte- nearly every member of
the party had related some experience,
said; ~ do not recall any exciting episode
In my career at the present moment, but
only the humdrum Of my daily career.
suppose, however, that it may interest
outsiders and so give the story of days
work, Last fall one of the ocean steamers,
in approaching her pier, lost IL valuable
anchor and chain cable through the care
lessness Or Drunkenness Of some seamen
on board, The captain Of the boat was an
old friend and he sent for me to recover the
property. 1t was not much of u job, but
business was slack and ! was glad to get
1t. We got everything ready and went to
work day or two afterward, about II
O'Clock In the morning. We anchored our
boat got the pump ready, adjusted my
armor and down | went. You have
an idea that the water is clear
like the air but you are away Off. 1t is
dirty, very dirty Ordinarily you can see
about ten feet from you In any direction
sideways. Over your head 1t is q glare
Underneath it is as dark as cave. With
an electrical lamp, the best invention yet
made as far as our trade is concerned,
you can see twice as far, but 1t is just
like standing by camp fire in the woods
at night time. II makes the surrounding
darkness all the darker. reached the
bottom Of the Hudson and began walking
around The floor of IL great river is not
like Broadway, nor even the beach at
Coney Island. 1t is u great mass OF ooze
or slime, into which you sink sometimes
to your knees, sometimes to your waist
and sometimes over your head. You do
as much work by feeling as by seeing.
This day struck u lot of commonplace
thinGs, but under water they interested
even me. One WAS u mass of telegraph
and telephone wires from New York to
Jersey City. Some were whole and some
were broken, probably by the anchors of
small vessels that hove TO over night
just above.
a few Of the broken wires still stuck
out just as if they had been pulled so by
main force. All Of the wires showed the
effect of their submergence. Some were
h.I .th hn.r
decay or rust. Every one had something
attached to it. Little snails, oyster shells,
seaweed. eel, grass, rags and other water
logged matter from the land We're few
of The things attached to the wires. Fur
tber on,1 came across the oil pipe through
which the Standard Oil company pumps
petroleum direct from the oil wells of
Pennsylvania 10 the great refineries in
Brooklyn and Williamsburg. The pipe
was stronger and more accurately made
than the ordinary gas and water pipes we
see in the city. Yet / thought that If
some craft got the fluke Of its anchor un-
der it and pulled quite hard then IL would
break short and cover the harbor with
crude petroleum.. There is great deal
of wood lying around the bed of the river.
Contrary to public opinion, wood is not
lighter than water Full OF air it is, of
course, but when water soaked or logged
il nearly always sinks. Its weight Is so
close to water, though, that it doesn't
work It's way down into the fine dirt aud
mud OF the bottom. For this reason it Is
very apt to deceive amateurs and novices.
There IL another thing that divers see
under the Hudson, and that is that the
river is being filled up through the folly
or ignorance of human beings. The great
sewers never stop throwing their vile con-
tents into the slips. Every steamer, from
tug TO ocean greyhound, drops its ashes
overheard, Every vessel does the same
with it's Swcepings and refuse. Then the
scows, which ought to carry the ashes and
garbage of this city far away, save time
aud trouble by dumping them in dark
nights into the Hudson.
"There are not very many fishes in the
North river, There may be, but we divers
don't see much OF them. Probably they
see us first and give us wide berth.
Those i meet most are ees and little
sinners, or minnows. II, however, we
carry Que of those new fashioned incan-
descent lamps IL acts like jack lantern
IN eel spearinC, and brings shoals of fish
around. They are horribly unintelligent,
AMI after studying IA fellow five minutes
aud swimming of they will immediately
return and begin cycling him again, as If
they had never seen him before. We
never nli1u theiIi, rs thty are harInless,
and couldn't be caught by us even IL we
desired To get good mess Of them when
ut work.
'The most unpleasant thing diver
can meet is the dead body OF human
being, IL is a popular delusion that all
drowned men come TO the surface after
several days. Probably they would IL
they were left alone and were not attacked
by wharf rats, cells and fishes. But in the
Hudson they are always attacked in this
way within an hour or two after they are
submerged. Once attacked that ends IL.
The breaking of the skin diffuses some
thing, it may be n scent around, and then
everything travels for that body TO get u
square meal Long before decomposition
il is so cut and Tiddlcd that what gases
hnr 10.