Year: 1867

Bottom OF the Sea. 500


The New York Heralds Valparaiso
correspondent sends the following: ~
After the bombardment Of Valparaiso
and while the Spanish feet was at Cal.
lao, German residing at Valparaiso
constructed submarine boat for the
purpose of applying torpedoes to the
bottom of the Spanish trigates. The
boat was about forty feet long, and was
propelled by a screw worked by hand.
SO confident was her builder in her eff E
cheney that at the first experiment in the
bay he took with him into the boat his
son and eight friends. After sailing
about few moments on the surface, the
boat was made to sink without the pre-
caution of having the cables attached
for use in case of accident, or even a
buoy to mark the spot where she went
down. Several hours elapsed, and, the
boat failing to appear, the spectators
crowded on the mole began to fear
that all was not right, and as the
day passed away the conviction be-
came general that the adventurous
party had gone to the bottom. rr1 11 y


Late in the afternoon the mail steamer
from Panama came in and fired a gun
near the spot where the boat had disap-
peared AS the small boats we're passing
to and from the steamer with passengers,
etc, bubbles were discovered rising upon
the surface of the water where the sub
marine boat was last seen; and as those
came up at regular intervals in small
numbers it was supposed that the party
was still alive, and hearing the steamers
gun and knowing that great many
boats would be going to and fro, was
signaling for help by ejecting air A
diver belonging to one of the English
men -ofwar was at once sent down, and
after half an hours anxious waiting he
returned with the intelligence that the
boat was on the bottom in thirty-six
fathoms of water. Chains and cables
were Immediately attached to the boat,
and repeated efforts were made to raise
her, but without avail, her bottom seemed
to have been sucked into the oozy bed of
the sea and becoming firmly fastened.


All night and the next day until after
noon the bubbles kept coming up, like
signals, sometimes not appearing for
half an hour at a time, and then sud-
denly rushing up for few seconds with
great force. The feeling of the popu-
lace assembled to rescne the party from
their terrible fate may be imagined; but
what must have been the reflections of
the men during those awful hours at the
bottom of the bay, knowing, as they did,
what little hope there was for them.
They could have heard the divers work
ing on the sides of their boat attaching
the chains, and perhaps felt the strain
as the cable drew taut; but as time sped
away without their being raised,
despair worse. than death must have
taken possession ofthem. Doubtless they
tried to signal through the sides of their
boat to thediver hammering outside, but
he in his diving dress could hear nothing
The aperture to the interior was so small
that but one person could pass through
it at a time, and that very slowly; so
that If an attempt was made to escape BY
that means all would inevitably be
drowned. After many hours oflaborious
efforts to raise the boat the machinery
broke and the attempt was necessarily
abandoned. About the middle Of the
afternoon of the. second day the bubbles
commenced growing fainter and more
rars, and before sundown entirely ceased.
The boat still lies where It went down,
and passengers arriving by the steamer
are told by the boatneu, as they row
toward shore, the painful story Of those
ten mems fate, aud of the families who
still moan in Valparaiso for their fathers
and brothers in their iron coffin at the