Year: 1867

After the bombardment of Valparaiso, and
while the Spanish fleet was at Callao, a
German residing at Valparaiso constructed
submarine boat for the purpose of apply
ing torpedoes to the bottom of the Spanish
frigates. The boat was forty feet long, and
was propelled by screw worked by hand.
So confident was her builder in her efficiency,
that at the first experiment in the bay he
took with him into the boat his son and eight
friends. After sailing about on the surface
a few moments, the boat was made to sink
without the precaution 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 return, the spectators crowded on
the mole, began to fear that all was not
right, and as the day passed away, the con-
viction became general that the adventurous
party had gone to the bottom. Late in the
afternoon the mail steamer from Panama
came in and fired gun near the spot where
the boat disappeared.


As the small boats were passing to and
from the steamer with passengers, etc.,
bubbles were discovered rising upon the
surface of the water where the submarine
boat was last seen; and as they 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 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 an
hours anxious waiting he returned, with
the intelligence that the boat was on the bot
tom in thirty three fathoms of water.


Chains and cables were Immediately at.
tached to the boat, and repeated efforts were
made to raise her, but without avail, her
bottom seeming to have been sucked into
the oozy bed of the sea, and become firmly
fastened. All night and the next day, until
afternoon, the bubbles kept coming up like
signals, sometimes not appearing for half
an hour at a time, and then suddenly rush.
ing up for few seconds with great force
The feeling of the populace assembled
rescue 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 working
on the sides of their boat, attaching the
chains, and perhaps felt the strain as the
cables drew taut; but as time sped away
without their being raised, despair worse
than death must have taken possession of
them. Doubtless they tried to signal through
the sides of their boat to the diver hammer
ing outside, but he in bis diving dress could
hear nothing. The aperture to the interior
was so small that but one person could pass
through it at time, and that very slowly, so
that if an attempt was made to escape by
that means, all would inevitably be drown
ed.


After many hours of laborious efforts to
raise the boat the hosting machinery broke,
and the attempt was necessarily abandoned.
About the middle of the afternoon of the
next day the bubbles commenced growing
fainter and more rare, and before sundown
entirely ceased. The boat still lies where it
went down, and passengers arriving by the
steamer are told by the boatmen, as they row
toward shore, the painful story Of those poor
mems fate, and of the females who still
mourn in Valparaiso for their fathers and
brothers in the iron coffin at the bottom of
the sea.