Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-20
a DIVERS EXPERIENCE.
The Wreck Settled Down on the Air
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Ghe Wreck Settled Down on the Air
Tube.
From the Brooklyn Eagle.
To his training as sailor Capt. Charles
Smith, well-known Boston diver, prob
ably owed his truly marvellous escape from
death when overtaken by accident, while at
work on the sunken hull of the Clara Post
in the harbor of Bridgeport. Conn, a year
or SO ago The wreck lay sixteen fathoms
deep, and when Capt. Smith descended to
examine it he found that the masts had
gone by the board, and that the deck had
been torn off by the waves, while the cross
imbers, strewed with the wreckage hung
over the decks and into the holds.
Capt Smith began to cut them away
when suddenly the tangled mass shifted
ana fell part way in the hold, catching him
with 1t, and prisOning him as in wise The
diVer could not see far in the deep water
in which he was at work, and finding him
sell pinned in, how he could not TELL he
pulled the life line three times-the signal
that his life was In peril. He felt himself
rising a few feet; then all the wreckage fell
In on him, pinning him more securely than
before. Worst still. when he tried to free
himself, he found that the air pipe had en-
countered some unseen obstruction, and
that to attempt to move about would shut
oil his supply of air. The peril was one
that made each moment seem like an eter-
nifty.
Meantime the divers assistants were try
ing to find out what had happened to him
1t seemed to them that the signal to haul
up had been instantly followed by one to
lower. and then, by one to stop. The man
at the life line. confused by these appar-
emily contradictory commands, ordered the
derrtcks to haul on the blocks Nothing
yielded to the strain, and the men at the
pumps labored until they were exhausted
and had to give way to others, with still no
signs of release. In the meantime a new
he INN
low. In catching hold of some iron bolts
he had cut small hole in the valve of one
OF his rubber gloves, and water, filling the
glove, was slowly ooZing past the clamps
at the wrist and creeping up the arm. 1t
seemed to the helpless diver, held fast in
the tide-swept mass, that he would soon be
strangied or crushed to death. Confused by
the great air pressure in his helmet he had
about concluded that his end had come
when, unlocked for relief-the wreckage
gave lurch, and he found that he could
climb up to one Of the deck timbers. He
grasped his ak and was hewing desperately
for freedom when suddenly the whole mass
gave way, and began to rise rapidly, carry
ing the diver, now head downward, with
II. HIS queer ascent did not consume more
IMAM ten seconds. but it was long enough
Tor him to live over in memory all the
events of a lifetime of two score years At
first his comrades failed to discover him in
the mass of tangled material, and their
surprise can be imagined when he shot up
through the wreckaSe, feet first. Capt.
Smith described this as his closest call TO
deaths door, and he added, Il have
peeped through the keyhole pretty often"
Capt. Smiths adventure reminded a
brother diver, in whose presence ii was
told, of narrow escape Of his own. 1t oc-
CURED while he was putting some copper
on the bottom of a steamship in dock Il
took some plates down with me-" said he
and worked for while on one side of the
hull after which L started to put some
plates on the other side. The vessel was
about three feet off the bottom, and 1
crawled underneath. dragging the plates
behind me. After l had been at work an
hour or so l noticed that my air was get
ting short, but when l tried to get under
the keel again to be hauled up l found the
steamship on the bottom and squeezing my
air hose between it's keel and the ground.
The tide was ebbing, and the hull had
gradually sunk until it was almost aground.
l had forgotten all about the tide, and when
l pulled the hose it refused to move an inch
If the bottom had been soft it would not
have mattered so much, but it was rock
and the hose was grpped like a vice.
There was nothing to do but wait; If she
fell any lower the air would be entirely
shut off and l would have to die. Not till
my last hour shall l forget the torture of
those few minutes while 1 waited to see
whether It rose or fell. My head felt as
though 1t was bursting and my nose and
ears were bleeding. l took heart, however
when the air began to freshen, for 1 knew
then that the tide had begun turning and
that the hull was rising. There was plenty
of time for me to recover my nerve before
it was high enough Off the bottom for me
Instead, l stood there shaking like one
stricken with palsy until l could squeeze
under the bottom and give the signal to be
hauled up. l reached the surface in half
faintng condition, and was sick for weeks
afterward. When 1 did recover it was with
hearing permanently impaired"