The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-05-16
Cur 0lio.
TWENTY FArHoMs DEEP.
wonders and Horrors that the Diver
sees I'm the Great Lakes

Sees I'm the Great Lakes
"Foundering vessels on the lakes, es-
pecially sailing vessels, frequently sink so
squarely," said Toledo man who belongs
to the precarious and perilous profession OF
lake diving, 'that we find them resting on
the bottom as trim and neat as if their
keels were still ploughing the surface.
This is particularly the case in Lake Huron,
whose waters are unlike those of any of the
other lakes in the great chain, although III 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 Superior, and much deeper than he
can in any of the other lakes. In Supe-
rior 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
115 feet below the surface without 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 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 mysterious swelling and swaying of
the waters that give see-sawing, tossing
motion to the spectre craft, which is all
the more spectral because there is no creak
of timber, no sound of straining ropes or
grinding keel You may climb the rigg-
ing, 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 you, and yet seeming far away. |
would much rather find sunken wreck a
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 | have to pry and
chop and batter down to uncover the OBJ
iect of my quest, whether it is merchan-
disc, treasure, or human corpses, than |
can on a sunken craft that gives me free
and easy access to her sunken stores and
watery sepulchres.
have gone down to the lake bottoms
many and many time to release the bodies
of men, women, and children who were
known to have perished in sinking vessels,
and | long ago grew insensible to any feel
ING of horror or even uneasiness in search
ing among sunken wrecks for corpses.
But if / have gone to the bottom TO recover
goods or yaluables simply, no one having
been carried down with the vessel and lost,
| am continually haunted by 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. Inever 90 down
hatchway or into the cabin Of sunken
vessel at such times without involuntarily
shuddering over the thought that perhaps
some poor victim of the wreck is imprisOn-
ed there, and that he win suddenly be re-
leased by the lurchings of the hulk, and
appear to me in all his swollen, wild-eyed
frightfulness. | know, of course, that a
dead person is as harmless, tossed fantasti.
cally about amid the solemn surrounding
of many fathoms deep, as he would be lying
calmly in his coffin at home, but | cant
help cold shudder and an inclination tC
signal to be pulled to the surface if | come
unexpectedly in contact with one at the
bottom of the lake. That feeling is by nc
means common among lake divers, and
with me it is the result of an indelible first
impression, an incident of my first expe
rience on sunken wreck.
1t was years ago, in Lake Huron. | had
gone down to recover valuable cargo from
vessel that had foundered so suddenly
that the captain and crew had barely time
to escape by the boats. The wreck lay il
ninety feet of water. 1t was badly broker
up, and rocked and swayed in the water Sc
that | kept my balance with difficulty as
worked among the timbers. l was pryins
and chopping my way to the matches, wher
from some place about the wreck, but JUS
where never could tell, dead man rose
suddenly in front of me. The corpse WA
Tot more than ten feet away, erect, facing
me, and seemed to me exactly as if it haJ
arisen in alarm at my approach. The mar
had died with both hands clutching tn,
breast of his coat. His open mouth, widely
staring eyes, and distorted face made sucf
a picture of horror as | hope never to se'
again. The corpse stood for a second fac
ing me, and it seemed to me as fits horro
was of me and at my presence wa
paralyzed with terror The dead man rosl
at last toward the surface, and in such wa,
as to deepen the impression that had dis
turbed him in his subterranean sepulchre
FIR # was fnr MI the world "a II he Wer,