The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-04-08
UNDER WATER.
The Experiences of Diver - Cutting Out
o Sharks Heart.

rather be under water than ON shore
used to feel that way sometimes"
Mr.. Edward II. Little6eld, a native
Of Block Island, but now keeper of a
fish market on Fountain street, sixty
six years old, made this remark in a
story he was telling one afternoon. He
was diver for twenty -four years, in
all spent forty years under the water
or upon it, 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
saaSon 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 east of Narragansett
Pier, and has, since that time, pre-
ferred to stay above water.
my first experience" said he, was
in Seaconnet river, in 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. was shipman
for Capt Charles Herbert, the wrecker,
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 it
all the time, | was picked out to go
down. 1t was right off Gould's island,
and | went down at 7:30 o'clock in the
morning. wasn't used to it, so took
sick about $50 o'clock, but got some
old Cognac brandy to drink and went
back about II. The first thing | saw
when l got down the second time was a
swarm of blue6sh l went through
them, and then came lot of dogfsh.
These dogfish 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 a good deal as ROSTERS use
their spurs, so that at last got out my
knife and went to cutting my way
through. You know dogfish will feed
on dogfsh that is dead, SO l ripped
them open all around me as they went
along with the tide, and the others ate
the injured ones l must have killed
fifty or sixty of them, all two or three
feet long.
AFT er got through them felt some
thing whirl me round. could tell it
wasn't the current, SO 1 looked around
to see what it was. There was big
shark off to my left, looking at me. I'd
have given city to be out of his way,
but, says l. if go up he'll bite me in
two; and so decided to stay there
felt just as if my helmet was rising up.
/ suppose it was my hair. Well, Mr..
Shark looked at me awhile Then he
goes round me twice and half, and
then | got my knife out again. He
turns on one side, and l 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. l 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
went up to him, and then something
happened to me, l don't know what.
/ suppose l tainted, for l came to with
my body leaning against the sharks,
down there on the bottom. Well,
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 / was all right.
They said the blood all came up to the
top in bubbles before it mixed with the
water. Why, that sharks liver-I cut
half Of it out-couldn't 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. A vessel went down
east-northeast of Point Judith, and the
captains wife and daughter were
drowned l went down after them.
They talk to me now of going down
five hundred or six hundred feet but l
don't believe it After the first ono
hundred feet the pumps won't supply
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
frat 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
l went back on the deck of the sunken
vessel and climbed into the ratlines, l
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 ! felt numb again l went upon
deck and climbed onto the rail was
all right in a 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 vessel where one was that it
would start toward you. almost as if it
were alive? 1t is that that makes the
shock so terrible. You can't avoid