Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1904-05-18
IN FIFTEEN
FATHOMS
Copyright, 1903, by C. B. Lewis.l

| Our divers could not descend to such a
depth to make an inspection, and after
| two days spent in preparing tackle we
sailed the brig out and anchored her
near the spot
| 1t was three days before we got the
breeze from the right quarter, but
! when it came we threw over our drag
and sailed over the wreck. The grap-
| nels caught her, and the ropes and
chains stood the strain. We piled sail
on the brig, but for ten minutes she
heaved and tugged and was held fast.
Something had to give as the breeze
freshened, and, to our great joy, the
| hulk was pulled out Of her sandy bed
| and towed along the bottom behind us.
We got her into thirty feet of water
and within two cables length of the
beach and anchored her. The pearl
divers then went down to make an ex-
animation. They reported her to be
the hulk of an Arabian dhow which
must have been in collision with an
other craft, as she was STAYED in on
the port quarter.
What we wanted to get our find on
| the beach was breeze from the north
west. 1t came after nearly week OF
| waiting, and the combined efforts Of
| wind, current and tide brought the
old hulk in at high water. She was
one of the most curious sights a sailor
ever clapped eyes on. From stem to
stern she was solid mass of shells.
She was about ninety feet long, and
when we came to dig down to the
wood we found it almost as hard as
iron. She had been rugged with two
masts, the stumps Of which stood up
eight feet high. A few feet of bull
warks remained on either bow, but the
rest of the deck had been swept clean.
Our grapnels had caught in the hole
which sunk her, else they would not
have caught at all owing to the solid
layer of shells.
If we had been supplied with powder
we should have blown her up, but as
| we had none we had to do some hard
work with pick and shovel. The in
| terror seemed to be solid cake Of
mud and sand, but we did not remove
much of it until we had cleared the
outside. After she had lain in the hot
sun for three or four days she began
! to dry out, and the work of digging of
the shells was much easier There
were six separate and distinct layers
on her deck, and mixed with the bot
tom one we found three Arabian
swords, two or three ancient muskets
and couple of axes.
The divers had given it as their opin-
ion that she had been run into, but
when we came to make closer in
| spection of the holes in her quarter we
concluded that she had been struck by
a shell fred from some man-of-war.
1t had sent her to the bottom as quick
as if she had been run into by thou
sand ton ship. During the week we
were freeing the hulk from her shell
armor close watch was kept on
the beach, and we picked up coins to
the value of about $500, American
money. Some Of these were Arabian
and some Persian.
When we had entirely cleared the
decks we found the craft had only one
hatchway, and that was amidships.
We enlarged this and then rugged up q
windlass and bucket to empty her as
dirt is taken from well. Every buck
etful was carefully inspected as soon
as dumped, but we found nothing more
valuable than shells until well down to
her keel. We couldn't make out what
sort Of cargo she carried until the SHOW
els began to throw out human bones
along with the sand. With the bones
| came iron shackles and other outfit
tings of SLAYER, and by and by we got
down far enough to find that she had
been fitted for false deck and thus
enabled to carry double tier of slaves
in a hold only six feet deep. We dug
out of her old bones enough to account
for at least fifty persons. and a sur
geon who afterward examined some of
them said they belonged to men and
| women of the negro race. In the fore
castle we found nothing except a cou-
| pie of gun barrels and two earthen
bowls. but in the cabin we had better
| luck.
In the last dirt we took out we found
! coins to the value Of 5000. These were
| scattered about on the floor. Many had
worked out and come ashore, and
many were doubtless buried in the
sands beyond recovery. We found a
number of muskets and swords in the
cabin, but as no bones were found
there or in the forecastle we argued
that the crew must have got away in a
small boat.
Six months later when we told our
story at Cape Town we were referred
to history to prove that the dhow had
been fired on and sunk by II. Nj. s..
Sovereign while forming one of the
fleet to suppress the slave trade. The
dhow had loaded part of cargo Of