Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-23
A DIVERS ADVENTURE.
Pinned in the Portfolio of q Big
Chicago Water Crib, at Least
EIGHTY FEET FROM THE SURFACE.
Two Tugs and Sixteen Men Work Labori-
ously for an Hour
TO GET HIM ON DRY LAND ONCE MORE

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPArcH.1
CHICAGO, Jan. 22-Eforts to keep the
great ice foes away from the crib were con
tinued all day to-day. Yesterday the divers
refused to go down to the portfolios at the
crib, claiming it was impossible to live so
feet under water. Diver John E. Scully
was left at the two-mile crib over night
with nine extra men, and this morning he
was sent down to clear away any accumula
tions of small anchor or sheet ice that might
be found at the entrance to the portfolios.
By some means which only Sculiy himself
can describe, the diver was caught in the
portfolio, and after futile efforts to disen-
gage himself he signaled for relief
To their horror those above water found
that they could not pull him up. The City
Engineers office was at once summoned,
and without an instant's delay the North
side pumping works were ordered shut
down. It then took two tugs and 16 men
over an hour to drag the unconscious diver
from the mouth of the great tunnel through
which the water Is drawn to the city. If
the pumps had worked five minutes longer
Scully would have been sucked three miles
through the bore to the water works.
Story of the Rescued Diver.
After he had been resuscitated the diver
said:
IT went down into the water with COM
plete divers armor at about $3.50 o'clock. I
wanted to hack the ice away from one of
the outside port holes. worked away
from the edges till I removed all tine ice,
and then started to clear it away from the
opening of the port. I moved over them
on the broken stone, and had Just started to
pick the ice away from the hole when my
signal line broke. The signal line is the
one that fastened to the life line around
the waist, and then passed up through the
headpiece of the armor to keep my head up.
Immediately when the signal line parted
was shot through the current into the
portfolio. The current there runs at ter
rife rate. All the pumps of the downtown
stations draw their water in through those
portfolios. A man could not stay in the en-
trance of one of those ports, even if he was
laid down with all the weights of divers
suit. When my signal line that passes up
to the men above was parted was thrown
around broadside against the current and
was instantly clapped up against the wall at
the top of the portfolio.
A Terrible Predicament.
''The 16 men up above felt the jerk that
the current had given me, and Immediately
began to pull with all their strength on my
life line. That, of course, pinioned my
arms down to my sides, and 1 hadn't the
slightest use of them 1 was jammed up
against the ceiling until the current caught
my head and swung it down. Then all the
air that was in my suit rushed up to my
feet, and was upside down for about 40
minutes. had the greatest difficulty to
get any air, and felt myself growing weaker
and weaker every minute. tried to push
myself away from the wall and out If the
current, but 1 could not do anything.
''The line around my waist was drawing
the life out of me. The blood rushed to my
head and made me terribly sick. was
conscious through all that hour, upside
down in the water, my head full of blood