The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-09

as often as the government ealIs on
him.
His escapes from death have been
so frequent that he talks Of them now
in an even voice and without any hard
pedalling- He has often beaten death
in a race TO the top OF the water. He
sleeps with a stick of dynamite under
his pillow, and finds that it induces
extremely pleasant dreams.
He worked as a diver about three
weeks when he went to New York and
shipped as a cabin boy on vessel
bound to England. He followed the sea
for years and worked up to the position
of captain of one of the clipper ships out
of Boston. He gave up the sea in 1871
and went back to his old home in Ohio,
where he remained a year.
He saw an announcement that the
government wanted men to do the work
of blowing up wrecks, clearing OBJ
structions. etc, and applied for the po-
sition.
THE first work that was laid ouk
for me-" said Captain McMahan, "ways
to blow up a sunkeH schooner off New
port. I found a man with a .mall
catboat to tend me and I shall not for
get the experience l had in a long
time. The man did not know his bust
ness, and at one time would give me
too much air. while at others J had
hardly enough to sustain me. I ex-
pected mOmentarily that my supply Of
air would be cut off, and I did some
tall worrying down under the wreck.
in my diving suit.
About that time there was a Yes
sci sunk on the Pollock Rip Shoal and
was sent to blow her up. | went TO
Chatham and walked down 20 the
shore looking for a man and a ooat
FfoT,I IL
about thirty feet long and made up
my mind that if the owner of that
boat was any good / would get her.
Il found the owner, a tall. keen
eyed man about my own age. Captai1
George W. CrDWell and made up my
mini at a glance that he was the sort
of man | wanted. His sloOp, the Pen
rose. is one of the ablest little craft
l ever stepped aboard. l engaged him.
He can handle his craft in splendid
shape. and when l go over the side
and give him my life line I feel JUS
as safe as if ] was on shore. I would
not go down TO a wreck without MIN.
When asked what he thought was
the hardest job ne ever undertook, he
replied:
81 think it was the blowing up Of
William X. Vanderbnts big steam
yacht, the Aiva, which was run into and
sunk by the II. NJ Whitney in the
Handkerchief channel. l had to use one
charge of Loo pounds of guncOttOn and
dynamite before she WbUil break up at
all. If 1 remember rightly I used a lit
tie over four tons of dynamite on her"
"Once when / was at work or ~.
tie vessel in HyanniS harbOT,' said
Captain McMahan, Il had a narrow es-
cape. The vessel had caught fire and
run into the harbOT, where she sank in
about twelve or fourteen feet of water.
/ suppose l got a bit careless, being in
such shallow water. I went down on
the port side and walked around the
bow, when my life line caught. Instead
of going back and clearing il. as /
should have done. 1 gave it a pull.
Captain CrOwell, thinking 1 wanted
to come up, began TO pull on the line.
/ was not expecting this and was
thrown off my feet and pulled under
the fOrefOOt of the vessel. / realized
that I was in a bad predicament. and.
to make matters worse, my air pipe be
came damned and I was not getting
enough air. 1t was a case Of work quick
or die of suffocation. You bet 1 hus1
tied.
Il first got off my lead shoes ana
| then dropped the lead belt around MY
waist. l reached quickly for my life
line and air pipe. and. taking a turn
/ in the latter. with my knife, J cut both
1 the life line and the hose.
Captain Crowell. as he pulled on the
line, realized that something was wrong
/ but before ne could decide what had
/ happened | had come to the surface.
Captain Crowell caught me and
/ hauled me aboard the sloOp. He worked
az fast as he could TO get my helmet
/ off, and when he succeeded I was about
! all in.
in a job like the one 1 am doing now
we have on board the slOOp about ton
of dynamite, but there is no danger, not
half as much as there is with gasoline
l have twenty pound can of dyn&=
mite under my pillow so my head will be
high, but l never lost any sleep over
it."
Before Captain McMahan took up this
work for the government, the work was
let out to contractors, who used mines
To blow up a wreck cost from SI2 900
to $4,000 under the old system, but now
the work is done for practically as many
hundred dollars.
Pollock Rip. where I frequently have
to go down, is by ali odds the worst
place on the coast. The Jessie Barlow.
for instance, lay about twelve miles off
shore, where the tide runs six or seven
knots, the water is gray with sand. and
the slack lasts only from fifteen to thr-
ty minutes. I have had the current on
those shoals swing me off my feet, SO
that l had to drag myself back on hands
/ and knees. It's dangerous, I admit,
/ but with q sane man at the upper end
of things I'm likely to get out all right