Morning journal and courier., 1892-03-11
NEW HAVEN, CONN.,. FRIDAY MORNING, MARCH H. 1892

getting the cargo ont of the schooner War. ren Gage, off the east of Nsrragansett Pier, and has since that time preferred to stay above water.
 "My first experience" said he, "was in Seaconnet river, in 1859, hunting for Capt. Ben Tallman's son Jerome. It was in the month of August, and Jerome TsllmAn had been in the water eleven days. They'd dragged for him, but couldn't find him. I was shipman for Captain Charles Her bert, the wreoker, then, but one day the regular diver took sick, and as they had an agreement giving Captain Herbert $500 if he found the body in three days, and $500 if he did not, with the idea of working at it all the time, was picked out to go down. It was right of Gould's Island, and went down at 7:30 o'clock in the morning. wasn't used to it, 30 took sick about 9:30 o'clock, but I got some old Cognac brandy to drink and went back about II. The first thing I saw when got down the second time was a swarm of blue6sh. I went through them, and then came a lot of dogfsh. These dogfsh are tough things, for they have two spurs on the back near the tail, and they wind around mans legs and spur him They smashed against me, and any number of them spurred my legs good deal as roost- CTS use their spurs, SO that l at last got out my knife, and went to cutting my way through. You know dogfsh will feed on & dogfsh that is dead, SO I ripped them open all around me as they went along with the tide, and the others ate the in- jured ones. I must have killed fifty or sixty of them. all two to three feet long.
 After got through them felt some thing whirl me round. Icould tell it was .~ss A Al T 11 A. what it was. There was big shark of to my left, looking at me. I'd have given & city to be out of his way, but, says l, if I go up he'll bite me in two; and 90 decided to stay there. felt just as if my helmet was rising up. I suppose it was my hair. Well, MT. Shark looked at me a while. Then he goes round me twice and & half, and then I got my knife out again. He turns on one side, and could have put a barrel in his mouth easy. I knew what was coming, so l waited. He dashed for me, and as he came I stepped one side, shut my eyes and slashed with the knife. I caught him in his life, for cut his heart right in two. opened my eyes and found him lying on the bottom fifty or sixty feet off, the blood rising from him in bubbles. I went up to him, and then something happened to me, I don't know what. suppose tainted, for I came to with my body leaning against the sharks, down there on the bottom. Well, hadn't giv- en any signal to my tender, so he had kept up the air supply, but pretty quick I felt them pull three times, to ask me if I was all right They said the blood all came up to the top in bubbles before it mixed with the water. Why, that sharks nver-I cut half of 1t out-couldn't have been got into barrel.
 "But. after all, I had my greatest expe- riences in the two years before the war. The time went down one hundred and si1ty-eight feet, the deepest I ever got, was in 1860. A vessel went down east northeast of Point Judith, and the cap- tain's wife and daughter were drowned. I went down after them. They talk to me now of going down five or six hundred feet, but don't believe 1t. After the first one hundred feet the pumps won't supply a man with air, except inside his helmet. Before that it will circulate around his body. When it only reaches his helmet his clothes begin to cling to him, and his pores flow out all the water in his body. It is terrible sensation. Now, I got down to this vessel and started to descend into the companionwsy. At the first step began to feel numb all over. It was the pressure of the water above me, and ss I'd
 
 of the sunken vessel and climbed into the ratlines. I hadn't gone up more than three steps before I felt better. Then l went back again. You can continue this right straight along and go deeper each time. When I felt numb again I went upon deck and climbed on to the rail. was all right in a minute and went into the companionway again. All this time the vessel was waving from side to side with the swell under the water.
 "Now, it's queer. but there's something about bodies under water. Did you know that if you went into the cabin of vessel where one was that it would start toward you, almost as if it were alivei It is that that makes the shock so terrible. You can't avoid them. Tkey come as if they wanted to be taken away. Well, the cap tain's wife and daughter were in the state room at the foot of the stairs, and I had to open the door. I took some blocks and braced my whole weight against the door. I weighed two hundred pounds and the suit weighed two hundred and sixty five more. I knew there'd be terrible shock, 80 I got all ready. The door gave way at last and broke into kindling wood like a flash. The concussion of the water flung the bodies toward me like lightning. shut my eyes, and, reaching out to grab the bodies, caught the womsn's as she flew toward me. I signalled and was taken up. Then I went down to hunt foI the little girl. I found she had come out when her mother did and floated under the cabin table. Why, that table was sci just as when the vessel sunk, and there
 was food on the plates at that very time I was pulled up with the little girl"
 Pausing, tho old diver began to laugh and when asked what 1t was about he said | it was the air pump. In former times the pumping had been by hand. but now il
 was by steam. He preferred steam, for il kept up @ regular supply of air. When if
 was done by hand, if diver wanted more | air they were liable to pump too fast, and if he signalled this was so they very likely
 sent it down too slowly. He told of { | trick he once played on a water-pipe boss | who went down to inspect the pipes on the | bottom of Toronto bay. The fellow was | tyrannicsl Englishman, and was hated | by all the men. One day when the boss | was under water & workman remarked | that he'd like to shut off the air for 6 | while. Mir. Littlefeld esid that was wick | ed, but ssked the workmen to light thsil pipes and smoke near the pump, saying that would do as we'll as shutting of tht
 air. They didn't all see why, but they did it. A pump sucks up everything in tho | air at its orihce, and very shortly it was carrying down tobacco smoke by the GU bic foot. Two minutes elapsed, and ther the boss gave three wild pulls to be taker up. He arrived at the surface very sicl
 and frightened out of his wits. The frs
 thing he asked was if the pump hadn't go
 a6re. Mir. Littleield said he guessed |
 had, and ordered man to pour water or
 the bearing. This satisfied the boss, and | the men went into fits behind his back | The man would never go down after that
 he said he thought he had had an attack o heart disease.
 Worlds Fair Notes.
 New Jersey has increased its World
 Fair appropriation from twenty to sevent, | &Aa-.aal ln11aro