The record-union., 1897-05-22
DEVIL FISH AND DYNAMITE
Thrilling Story of an Adventure With
an Octopus.

Ben Conner, who has been employed
in the work carried on by Colonel c.
P. Goodyear in deepening Brunswick
Harbor, tells a thrilling story of an
adventure with an octopus that oc-
CURED While they were blasting in the
harbor.
The work was carried on with
mammoth sea harrow" said Ben, with
which the tenacious blue clay at the
bottom Of the bar was broken up. 1t
is a ponderous affair and was dragged
back and forth along the channel by
means of strong cables and small
steam tug, and it's weight would sink
the steel blades attached to the roller
in the sticky conglomerate and tear it
up so that the outgoing tide would
wash the loose eearth and deepen the
channel on the bar.
In addition to the harrow, dynamite
was used in fifty-pound charges, ex-
ploded at intervals where the hard
shell and coral-like formations would
not yield to the harrow. Our method
of exploding the charges was simple.
We had a small reel on another tug
around which was coiled stout cable
and around a windlass was another
smaller rope and a wire for exploding
the charge.
The dynamite was fixed for explod-
ing and placed in an old gunnysack
and carefully lowered over the side
while the tug moved off some fifty
yards, and SO soon as the dynamite was
safe at the bottom and we were at
safe distance away the button was
touched and the charge went off, send
ing up jets of water quite a hundred
feet high and frequently sending fine
fish to the top, where they were picked
up by the men. But occasionally
charge would fail to explode, and in
such an instance we would haul away
on the smaller line and tow the dyna-
mite to the surface and rearrange the
fuse and drop it overheard for a fresh
trial
'One day we We're out near the kar,
working away, and had got off several
charges successfully. AT last we
steamed off some distance from where
we had been at work, and dropped a
fty-pound bundle of the explosive
overheard, and after moving off to a
safe distance we tried to explode it.
But it did not explode, and we began
to haul in the rope to which it was at
tached to see what the trouble was
The men who We're tugging at the rope
remarked that it must have become en-
tangled in portion of some old wreck,
as ii was so hard to tow in An ex-
ira effort, however, seemed to loosen
the obstruction, and we redoubled our
efforts. Suddenly two great Shiny arms
came up out of the sea and slapped
against the side of the tug, and then
another reached out toward the gun
vale, and at the same time thei bundle
OF dynamite, clutched in the tentacles
Of a gigantic devil fish, appeared on
the surface.
The men who were tugging at the
rope dropped it and tumbled backward
in their fright, and it looked for a mo-
ment like the devil-fish was going to
come on deck or pull the entire tackle
into the sea with him. His great bale
ful eyes CLEANED angrily as he came
to the top, and his Shiny arms were
writing and tossing on the waves, and
tyou never saw lot of dynamiters as
badly frightened as. we
" Touch off the charge,' shouted the
engineer, but that was not practicable,
as 1t had already failed to explode, and,
besides, it might have endangered the
vessel One of the men grabbed an
axe and aimed a blow at the exposed
tenacle which was writhing along the
side of the tug, but his aim was bad
and he struck the rope instead and the
monster slowly sank out of sight. with
the big charge of dynamite still clasped
in his ugly arms
Il would hav egiven $50 to have
able to touch off that charge of dyna-
mite. | would have enjoyed seeing the
look of astonishment in the defiant eyes
of that hideoCs devil-fish as he was
hoisted into the air But as it was
we had to give it up and allow the old
villain to wriggle back to his Shiny lair
with valuab ble bundle of high explo-
sive on which to test his digestive ap-
paratus. | don't know what was the
ultimate result, but / rather suspect
that the devil-fish died of appendicitis.
as we were not troubled with similar
visitation during the progress of the
work. Atlanta Correspondent ST.
Louis Globe Democrat