Year: 1879

of the Seal


From the Philadelphia Record.1


Gerster and Kellogg and Carey and
Campanini and Brignoli and a host of
others have time and again enraptured
their critical audience with displays of
their vocal powers, and the fair lasses
and budding swains who have secretly
and openly wished that they could sing
as sweetly may be called legion. But
down in the southern portion of this
city, near the Delaware River, there
lives an unassuming German who has
sung to audiences that no tenor or prima
donna who ever appeared on the stage
of the Academy of Music or any other
opera-house would have dared to ap-
pear before. His name is Herman
Wolters, and it was by the mereSt acci-
dent that his vocal powers were discoY-
cred. No criticisms of his vocal talents
have ever appeared in public print, and
! even if one OF the most complimentary
character were spread broadcast
throughout the land, the audience
which he sings to would not care a flo;
/ they would never know that the criti-
cism appeared, for they do not inhabit
the earth nor the air. Mr.. VOTERS
makes no pretensions of being a vocal
ist, but away down, eighty feet below
the water, surrounded by the finny tribe,
he sings his merry roundelaY as cheeri-
ly as a shepherd watching his focks on
the mountain side. Incased in an air.
tight armOr that weighs over two hun
dred pounds, the diver, having first
made a rope secure to the vessel or
dock, whichever it may be, lowers him
self by sliding down the rope to the bed
of the water which he is to explore
The sensation in going down, says Mr..
Wolters, is very peculiar, causing a
heavy roaring sound in the head. Not
more than ten in one hundred are able
to endure the strain on the drum of the
ear, and if that organ is derapged in
! any way by reason of physical ailments
the compression of the atmosphere is
likely to burst the ear drum. The roar
ing sound is continued during his stay
under the water.


" How far can you see when you are
under waterP" inquired the reporter.


't Beyond II or Is feet a diver can see
nothing. At % feet it is as dark as a
dungeon. No, sir; if you were to put
20-dOllar gold piece close to my nose, 1
could not see it. We work altogether
by the sense of feeling, crawling along
on our knees. 1 can't tell you how it
is; it seems to be a special gift, for |





down in the water, where all is black as
midnight, as l can out of the water
where I can see. When the connecting
bridge was built on the Pennsylvania
Railroad, there were five divers at work
there. We had to 90 down and take a
survey of the bottom of the river, where
the piers were to be built. There were
two Golfer dams constructed and let
down to US, covering a circumference of
$50 feet. Then we had to spike plank
to the dam in such places as it did not
fit to the river bed, so as to make it as
tight as possible; then it had TO be calk-
ed and finally cemented with concrete


g eRt 10y Be B8 Bar9 etg5 E9 Ysaaf5 Ysaf5kg in % a H. d2 Is
well as taking it up and after the piers
were built, was done by feeling. Edi-
son, however, has invented an electric
/ light to be attached to the armor which,
it is said, will reflect some three or four
feet under water


s. Yes, sir, diver takes his life in his
hand every time he goes below con-
tinued Mr.. Wolters, in response to q
suggestion of the danger attending his
submarine operations. 'fI have had
several narrow escapes; the most mi
raculOus one, perhaps, little over
year ago, while was working on Pen
rose Ferry bridge. l was working near
the pier, and few feet away from it
were the stumps of piles that had been
driven there and subsequently, broken
off. & steamer having in tow a number
of canal boats came along, passing near
by where 1 was working, and created
current which caused the pier 10 swing
/ in, and caught my armor between the
pier and the broken piling and snapped
the air-tube in two. l remained wedg-
ed in there for fully fifteen minutes, and
managed to live on the air that was in
| the armor. At last the pier receded and
L was pulled up. When got my armor
1 off 1 tainted. Another time a large
/ quantity of mud fell on me, and [ man
! aged to dig my way out and escaped
/ without in jury. The most dan
gerous work is going into YES
/ sells that have been sunk, especial
/ ly in unloading cargoes, the danger
! being that something may fall on the
air tube and shut off the air. The last
/ job did was in rescuing the two bodies
that were drowned at Ship Johns light
house off Sea Breeze. had to feel my
way down into the cabin and grOpe
around until 1 found one body; then
come up with that and go through the
I same process again. You see, a man to
be q diver must be a fair seaman
enough so to thoroughly understand a
ship; and, besides, he must be a good
carpenter and mason, in order to know
how to lay foundations for piers and to
do carpenter work under water.


s'There is this popularity about work
ing under water, and that is, no matter
how rough the water is above it is al
ways smooth below. The greatest trou-
BILE we experience is from rapid cur
rents a days work for a diver is
reckoned at five hours, and he used to
get $50 per day, but the prices have
come down with every thing else; but
have my own terms, and if can't get
them can sit still, s. observed the diver
and he added, " any time you want to
90 down with me, let me know, and
we'll take trip together"