The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-11-14
HORRORS A DIVER SEES.
BLOOD-CURDLIN SIGHTS IN
DEEP WATER.
Experience Of . Professional Diver in the Great
Lakes-MOving Bodies Of the Dead Found
In Wrecks Of vessels-He Is
Often Unnerved.

Often Unnerved.
II have gone down to the lake bot
toms many and many time to release
the bodies of men, women and children
VINO were known to have persisted in
sinking vessels" says a diver of
long experience, land long ago grew
insensible to any feeling OF horror or
even uneasiness in searching among
sunken wrecks for corpses. But ii l
have gone to the bottom to recover
goods or valuables simply, no one hav-
ing been carried down with the vessel
and lost, I am continually haunted by
a dread that some dead man will
rise suddenly from some part OF the
wreck and confront me, or that corpses
are floating in the water above me and
around me. never go down a hatch
way or into the cabin of a sunken ves-
sci at such times without involuntarily
shuddering over the thought that per-
lhaps some poor victim OF the wreck is
imprisoned there, and that he will
suddenly be released by the lurchings
of the hulk, and appear to me in all
his swollen, wild-eyed frightfulness
I know, of course, that dead person
is as harmless, tossed Enthusiastically
about amid the solemn surroundings
of many fathoms deep. as he would be
lying calmly in his coffin at home, but
i can't help a cold shudder and an in
clination to singal to be pulled to the
surface if I come unexpectedly in con-
tact with one at the bottom of the lake.
That feeling is by no means common
among lake divers, and with me it is
the result of an indelible first impress
sion, an incident of my first experience
on sunken wreck.
''It was years ago, in Lake Huron.
I had gone down to recover valuable
cargo from vessel that had founder
ed so suddenly that the captain and
crew had barely time to escape by the
boats. The wreck lay in ninety feet
of water. 1t was badly broken up,
and rocked and swayed in the water
so that 1 kept my balance with diff
Guilty as worked among timbers. I
was prying and chopping my way to
the matches, when from some place
about the wreck. just where I never
could tell, dead man rose suddenly
in front of me. The corpse was not
more than ten feet away, erect, facing
me, and seemed to me exactly as if it
had arisen in alarm at my approach.
The man had died with both hands
clutching the Creast. His open mouth,
widely staring eyes. and distorted
face made such picture of horror as
I hope never to see again. The corpse
stood for second facing me. and it
seemed to me as if its horror was of
me and at my presence. I was para
lyzed with terror. The dead man rose
at last toward the surface, and in such
way as to deepen the impression
that I had disturbed him in his
subterranean sepulcher for it was
for all the world as if he were fleeing
from me. Several times before the
corpse disappeared beyond my line Of
vision it turned in the water and
seemed to gaze back at me with that
haunting look of horror, the hands
still clutching the breast. After the
body had gone out of sight l tried to
proceed with my work, but I was so
much unstrung that fish swimming
by or my air hose tapping against me
gave me such painful starts that had
to signal to. be hauled up to the sur
face. 1t was long time before I
could venture down on wreck again,
and have never been able to over
come the feeling of dread for unex-
pected corpses that was the result of
that first experience of mine. The
dead man of that wreck must have
been a stowaway. No one knew him,
but in the breast pocket of the coat he
clutched so tightly was found 81, 200
in bank notes. No claimant ever ap-
peared for tho money, and it was
divided between myself and the crew
of the wrecked vessel"