Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1890-08-22
TWENTY FATHOMS DEEP.
UNcANNY THINGS SEEN By a
DIVER IN GREAT LAKE.
Difference in the Waters of the Lakes
-Sunken Vessels--Recoverin the
Bodies of the Drowned

-Sunken notwithstanding the
Bodies of the Drowned
'tFoundering vessels on the lakes,
especially sailing vessels, frequently sink
so squarely," said Toledo man who be-
longs to the precarious and perilous pro-
fession of lake diving, "that we find them
resting on the bottom as trim and neat as
If their keels were still plowing the sur
face. This is particularly the case in
Lake Huron, whose waters are unlike
those of any of the other lakes in the
great chain, although all its water comes
from Lake Superior. What the scientific
explanation of the fact is don't know,
but diver can work on the bottom of
Lake Huron at depth of at least twenty
feet greater than he can in Lake Superb
or, and much deeper than he can in any
of the other lakes. In Superior diver
can't see further than ten feet into the
water surrounding him, but in Huron he
can distinctly distinguish objects fifty
feet away. At depth of 100 feet in
Lake Superior diver can only work an
hour at a time, the feeling of oppression
becoming unbearably painful, but have
worked five hours at stretch in Lake
Huron lis feet below the surface with
out suffering to any great extent from
the pressure of the water. A man
drowned in Lake Superior never appears
on the surface, while the dead float on
the waters of Lake Huron.
'It is weird and startling sight to
come suddenly upon a full-rigged vessel
far down in the solemn depths of the
lake, standing erect on her keel as if she
were dashing away before the breeze on
the cleaning surface. 1t is uncanny and
ghostlike There are no waves down
there, but q mysterious swelling and
swaying of the waters that give see
saving, tossing motion to the spectre
craft, which is all the more spectral be-
cause there is no creak of timber, no
sound cf straining ropes or grinding keel.
You may climb the rigging, walk the
deck, go down into the sunken cabin, as
readily and easily as If you were sailor
and the vessel were sailing along with
only the sky above her, but you can't
help thinking constantly of death and
the tomb. There Is no sound down there
but the intermitting wall and moan, wall
and moan of the swaying waters, all
around and above ycu, and yet seeming
far away. would much rather find
sunken wreck wreck indeed. You
naturally expect to find broken ruin on
the bottom of the lake, not the ghost of
perfect ship. can work and search
with better cheer among splintered beams
and shattered spars and broken keel,
where l have to pry and chop and batter
down to uncover the object of nv quest,
whether it is merchandise, treasure, or
human corpses, than can on sunken
craft that gives me free and easy access
to her sunken stores and watery sepul-
chres.
"The only time that I ever undertook
to do piece of work on the lake bottom
reluctantly, and was badly broken up by
the result of it, although / had antici-
pated and thought | was prepared for a
startling sight, was the time went down
twenty fathoms in Lake Erie to find the
bodies of woman and her two children
who had gone down with propeller.
The propeller sank in heavy storm at
night, foundering suddenly as craft
usually do on Lake Erie, and the woman
and her children were in their stateroom.
The husband and father of the lost
family offered me a big price to go down
and recover the bodies, but the touching
appeals of the heart-broken man alone
induced me to undertake the work. ]
found the vessel in easy shape for work
ii L. 81
stateroom without difficulty. The door
was locked. The fact that must break
it down before the imprisoned dead could
be released increased the dread that pos
sessed me, and l stood irresolute at the
awful threshold. If the money l was to
receive for the work had been my only
impelling motive, would have hurried
was haunted by the memory of that
stricken soul above, awaiting in agonized
suspense the poor consolation of seeing
his cold and lifeless loved ones, and put
aside my foolish-fear and with few
blows of my crowbar battered down the
stateroom door. I had pictured in my
mind how the three corpses would in al
probability look, floating with staring
eyes about the room, and l think i
l had come upon them in thai
way I would have accepted tn,
contact with complacency. But the re
ality of their appearance was far differ
ent from the one / had imagined. Th'
vessel gave hard lurch as broke th'
door loose, and the water rushed out o
the stateroom. With the rush came tn
dead inmates of the room. The thre
were in group, and such a groupl On
child, golden haired little thing o
three years old, the mother clasped t,
her breast with one arm. The little one'
chez. was pressed against its mothers
and its chubby arms were around he
neck. The second child, older than tn
first, held its mothers other hand. The
were all in their night clothes, and tn
mother foated from the room standing
upright, clasping her one child to he