Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-02-05
THELIFE . NDER WATER.
a NEW YORK DIVER TELLS
ABOUT THE BUSINESS.
How Dead Bodies In Sunken Nbssel
Are Found-The Outfit of Diver
and His Wages--Ths Danger
of Falling Asloer.

'Dld ever see n dead man sitting
in chair in state room and bend
ing over book as though he had
been reading when he was browne d?
Never. Nor has any other diver. "
Then the tales one hears about
such matters are little OFF," asked q
reporter for the Hartford Times.
They're simply lies. There's
more lying about diving than abou t
any other occupation"
Give me straight story"
We'll TO begin with I'll dispose OF
that yarn about corpses being found
sitting in chairs in the state rooms Of
sunken steamers. I've been in sunk
en- steamers that were full OF corpses.
There was, for instance. the Hamburg
steamer Cimbria which went down in
the North sea about five years ago
with 500 emigrants and two other
divers from here. who were sent for
to help in getting out the cargo. lit
orally worked among hundreds of
corpses The ceilings were lined with
them"
The ceilings?"
YES, sir; diver working a vessel
for corpses feels for them along the
ceilings il the wreck is older than u
couple OF days. II he goes into her
only day or two after she went down
he feels along both the floors and cell
ings. That's where the corpses are,
not in chairs"
why did they send away over here
for divers to go down into the Cim-
bria?"
Because New York divers are on
the top of the heap. The reason is
that most OF their work is done in the
dark. for its pitch dark under the
water around New York. / suppose
it's on account of the sewage. A
diver from other waters can't work in
those around New York. But New
York diver can work in the clear
waters elsewhere twice as fast as the
local divers, because his sense Of
touch-sense of touch under water
Is SO finely developed. We New York
divers can tell vG--ous metals il they
are under water apart by sense of
| touch; but II they are not under
water we can feel no difference be-
tween them. Here for instance, is a
piece of copper and a piece OF brass
Put them on table and blindfold me
and ! can't tell which is which. Chuck
'em in basin and pour water over
them, and l can tell the moment |
touch the pieces which is the copper
and which is the brass. You see we
New York divers have TO ply all kinds
OF trades in the dark.
Then you have to be pretty
handyp"
Yes SIR. If a green hand came to
me and wanted to learn the profession
of diving. the first thing Id advise
him would lie TO go to sea till he
learned the ms and outs of all kinds
of vessels and how 10 handle and
store cargo. Then he's pretty compe-
tent TO work wrecks. The real fine
work is when diver has to ply some
trade, such as carpentering or pipe
laying. under. water. For instance. a
very fine job was the laying of the line
OF pipe for the health department from
Port Morris TO North Brother Island.
The diver had TO keep the line straight
unpack the pipe put it together and
in fact do in the dark the work of 9
skilled pipe-layer :"
'Do you dive much for treasurer
There's not much of that going on
now"
Some people have a crazy notion
that Captain Kidd's vessel with a vast
deal of treasure went down off Peek.
skill. and not very long ago a syndi-
cate employed diver for two sum
mers. He didn't find a trace of wreck
Some divers who haven't been Ions
enough in the profession to b.
constantly employed and have a gooC
deal of time on their hands work ole
wrecks For instances: The Commo
dore off Stonington; the Isaac Newton
off Fort Lee and the Thomas Morgan
off Yonkers; but there isn't fail
days wages in such jobs Sometimes
however, we hear OF old wrecks tina
haven't been worked yet and they ar,
worth looking after. Two years ago
one OF us who was building the foun
dation for a pier OF the bridge at Say
brook heard that schooner loadeC
with coal and copper had gone dowl
there some thirty-five years ago. II,
placed tho wreck and got out tn,
cargo which was still in prime condi
ton. But there are as many lie
about old wrecks as there are abou
corpses Whenever a sailor is thirsty
but hasn't any money he concocts a lii
about a wreck and comes TO us witt
it. He almost always goes away a
thirsty as he came"
What does a divers outfit consis
OFF"
"A boat a pump. hose lines ant
dress. The dress consists of layers O
duck and rubber. The shoes weigl
twenty pounds each. On his ches
and back he carries forty poun,
weights The helmet when It ha
been placed over the divers head,
firmly screwed into copper cola
that is attached to his dress
weighted line is sunk to the spot he /
to reach, and down that line he goes
with the lifeline around his waist, an,
the hose through which the air /
pumped. attached to his helmet
Those who handle the lifeline an,