The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1892-12-24
NO. 80.
AT THE BOTTOM or THE SEA.
Amusements and Terrors Of Deep
Water Diver.

| Water Diver.
Edward II. Littlefeld native OF Block
island and resident Of Providence, now
sixty-six years old, modestly claims to be
the. most experienced submarine diver in
the world. And truly he has had some won
derful experiences in his forty-four years
In the business. Use is everything to a
man, and skillful divers really enjoy their
work.
Mr.. Little6eld has taken 100 bodies out
ofsunken ships and has walked all through
and around some fifty vessels lying from
II to 1853 feet deep. His first great scare
was in 1859, when diving in t5e Seaconnet
river for the corpse Of lad Nho had been
down eleven days. OF this ht says:
II went down at 7:30 o'clock in the
morning. I wasn't used to It, so / took
sick about $3.50 o'clock, but got some old
Cognac brandy to drink and went back
about II. The first thing saw when
got down was Il swarm OF bluefish. Iwent
through them and then came a lot Of dog
fish,. These dogfish are tough things, for
they'll two spurs on the tack near the
tail, and they wind around q mans legs
and spur him. They smashed against me
abd any number Of them spprred my legs
a good deal as roosters use their spurs, so
that at last got out my knife and went to
cutting my way through. You know dog
fish will feed on dogfish that is dead, so
ripped them open all around me as they
went along with the tide, ard the others
ate the injured ones. | must have killed
ftr - gixft - l.
| long.
=. After got through them / felt some
| thing 'whirl me around. / could tell it
wasn't the current, so looked around to
see what it was There was a big shark
off to my left looking at me. I'd have
given a city to be out Of his way; but, says
|. If go up he'll bite me In two, and so
decided to stay there. Ifelt tust as if my
helmet was raising up. | suppose it was
my hair. Well, Mr.. Shark looked at me
awhile. Then he goes around we twice
and half, and then ! got my knife out
again. He turns on one side. and could
have put barrel in his mouth easy. l
knew what was coming. so waited. He
dashed for me, and as hr came / stepped
one side, shut my eyes and slashed with
the knife. caught him in his life, for
cut his heart right in two.
81 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. don't know what. / suppose /
tainted, for came to with my body lean
ing against the sharks down there on the
bottom. Well, hadn't given any signal
TO my tender, so he had kept up the air
tsrpply, but pretty quick felt them pull
ing three times to ask me if / was all right
They said the blood all around the lines
rose in red bubbles to the top before it
mixed with the water"
| 1t is of course known to all readers that
the deeper one goes in the water the
greater Is the pressure, and under the or
binary system the air cannot be forced
down to the diver if he is 200 feet deep, and
will not hold his suit out from his body
much below 100 feet. In that case the
diver must go down by slow degrees to
avoid the numbness caused by the tighten
ing of the suit. In 1880 Mr.. Littlefeld
went down 16S feet to recover the bodies
Of lady and her daughter who were
drowned on the ship of the husband and
father OF this he says:
"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 alivel 1t is that
that makes the shock so terrible You
can't avoid them. They come as If they
wanted to be sdken away. Well, the cap
tain's wife and daughter were in the state
room at the foot of the stairs, and had to
open the door. | took some blocks and
braced my whole weight against the door.
l weighed 2O0pounds, and the suit weighed
265 more. l knew there'd be q terrible
shock, so got all ready The door gave
way at last. and broke into kindling wood
like fash. The concussion of the water
flung the bodies toward me like lightning.
/ shut my eyes, and reaching out to grab
the bodies caught the womans as she
flew toward me.
II signaled and was taken up. Then |
went down to hunt for, the little girl. l
found she had come out when her mother
did, and floated under the cabin table.
Why, that table was set just as when the
vessel sunk, and there was food on the
plates at that very time, | was pulled up
with the little girl"
Divers have their fun like other people,
and Mr.. Littletield tells withglee OF pun
ishing an overbearing fellow by sending q
little tobacco smoke down with his air.
Take it all in all, it is wild, sensational
and exciting sort of business, but not
necessarily dangerous. =,