Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1892 — AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. [ARTICLE]

AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA.

Amusements and Terrors or a Deep Water Direr. Edward H. Littlefield, a native, of Block Island and resident of Providence, now 60 years of age, modestly claims to be the most experienced submarine diver in the world. And truly he has had some wonderful experiences in his forty-four years in. the business. Mr. Littlefield has taken 100 bodies out of sunken ships, and has walked all through and around some fifty vessels lying from fifteen to 168 feet deep. The deeper one goes In the water the greater is the pressure, and under the ordinary system the air cannot be forced down to the diver if he is 200 feet deep, and will not hold his suit out from his body much below 100 feet. In that case the diver must go down by slow degrees, to avoid the numbness caused by the tightening of the suit. In 1860 Mr. Littlefield went down 168 feet to recover the bodies of a lady and her daughter, who were drowned on the ship of the husband and father. Of this he says: “Now, it’s queer, but there’s something about bodies under water. Did you know that if you went into the cabin of a vessel where one was that it would start toward you, almost as if it were alive? It Is that which makes the shock so terrible. You can’t avoid them. They come a 9 if they want to be taken away. Well, the captain’s wife aud daughter were in the state-room at the foot of the stairs, and I had to open the door. I took some blocks and braced my whole weight against the door. I weighed 200 pounds, and the suit weighed 265 more. I knew there’d be a terrible shock, so I got all ready. The door gave way at last, and broke into kindling wood like a flash. The concussion of the water flung the bodies toward me like lightning. I shut my eyes, and, reaching out to grab the bodies, caught the woman’s as she flew toward me. “I signaled and was taken up. Then I went down to hunt for the little girl. I found she had come out when her mother did, and floated under the cabin table. Why, that table was set just as when the vessel sunk, and there was food on the plates at that very time. I was pulled up with the little girl.”