The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1892-04-09
UNDER WATUR.
The Experiences Of ~ Diver - Cutting out
o shnrlt'A IIenrt.

Mr.. Edward III. Ittlefeld, 81 native
of Block Island, but now keeper of n
fish market on Fountain street, sixty
six years old made this remark in n
story he was telling one afternoon. He
was n diver for twenty -four years, in
all spent forty years under the water
or upon IL, and has tackled wrecks
from Lake Superior to Niagara Falls,
and from Maine to Port Royal He es-
Inmates the number of bodies he has
with his own hands pulled out of
sunken vessels at one hundred, and
that he has walked out and around
forty to fifty vessels lying in water
varying in depth from fifteen to one
hundred and sixty-eight feet He near
ly lost his life ten years ago while get
ting the cargo out of the schooner War
rem Gage, off the cast of Narragansett
Pier, and has, since that time, pre-
ferred to stay above water.
MY first experience" said he, "Svas
in Seaconnet river, i'm 1859, hunting for
Capt Ben Tallman's son jerome. 1t
was in the month Of August, and
Jerome Tallman had been in the water
eleven days. They'd dragged for him.,
but couldn't find him. l was shipman
for Capt. Charles Herbert, the wreclSer,
then, but one day the regular diver
took sick, and as they had an agree.
ment giving Capt. Herbert five hundred
dollars if he found the body in three
days, and three hundred dollars if he
did not, with the idea of working at 1t
all the time, l was picked out to go
down 1t was right off Gould's island,
and went down at 7:3O o'clock in the
morning. l wasn't used to it, so l took
sick about 9:30 o'clock, but ! got some
old Cognac brandy to drink and went
back about II. The first thing ] saw
when got down the second time was u
swarm of bluehsh. l went through
them, and then came lot of dogfish
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 q good deal as roostcrs use
their spurs, 50 that | at last got out my
knife and went to cutting my way
| through. You know dogfish will feed
on a dogfish that is dead, so l ripped
ShSlil ~ lJCll lll Sil pllllNl me do llltN NclJ
along with the tide, and the others ate
the injured ones. 1 must have killed
fifty or sixty of them, all two or three
feet long
After got through them felt some
thing whirl me round l could tell it
wasn't the current so / looked around
to see what it was There was big
shark off to my left looking at me. I'd
have given q city to be out of his way,
but, says |, if go up he'll bite me in
two; and so l decided to stay there. l
felt just as if my helmet was rising up.
l suppose it was my hair. Well, MIR.
Shark looked at me awhile. Then he
goes round me twice and n half, and
then l got my knife out again. lie
turns on one side, and | could have put
barrel in his mouth easy. knew
what was coming, so ! waited He
dashed for me and as he came [ stepped
one side, shut my eyes, and slashed
with the knife. | caught him in his
life, for l cut his heart right in two.
opened my eyes and found him lying on
the bottom fifty or sixty feet oil, the
blood rising from him in bubbles I
went up to him, and then something
happened to me, don't know what.
I suppose tainted, for l came to with
my body leaning against the sharks,
down there en- the bottom. Well, l
hadn't given any signal to my tender,
so he had kept up the air supply, but
pretty quick | felt them pull three
times to ask me if l was all right.
They said the blood all came up to the
top in bubbles before it mixed with the
water Why, that sharks lver-I cut
half of it out--couldnt have been got
! into barrel.
But, after all, had my greatest ex.
periences in the two years before the
war, The time l went down one hun
dred and siXty-eight feet, the deepest
! ever got, was in 1860. Avessel went down
east-northeast of Point Judith, and the
captains wife and daughter were
drowned. | went down after them.
They talk to me now of going down
five hundred or six hundred feet, but
don't believe it. 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 1t is terrible sensation. Now,
got down to this vessel, and started to
descend into the companionway At the
first step l began to feel numb all
over. 1t was the pressure of the water
above me, and as I'd been told about it
| went back on the deck of the sunllen
vessel and climbed into the ratlines, /
hadn't gone up more than three steps
before | felt better Then / went back
again. You can continue this right
straight along and go deeper each time.
When l felt numb again went upon
deck and climbed onto the rail. was
all right in minute, and then went in
to 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 some
thing about bodies under water. Did
you know that if you went into the
cabin of a vessel where one was that il
would start toward you, almost as # it
were alive? 1t is that that makes the
shock so terrible, You can't avoid
them. They come as if they wanted to
be taken away. Well, the captains
wife and daughter were in the state
room at the foot of the stairs, and had
to open the door l took some blocks
and braced my whole weight against the
door. weighed 200 pounds and the
suit weighed 265 more. l knew there'd
be a terrible shock, so l got all ready.
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