A DIVER'S DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9711, 5 January 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

A DIVER'S DEATH.

FATAL LEAP FROM TOWER BRIDGE. v A STARTLING STORY. THE SPIRITS PROMISE A HAPPY ISSUE. Shortly after eight o'clock on Sunday morning, November 25, Ben Fuller, the well-known exhibition diver, who also followed the occupation oF a porter ati Billingsgate Fishm&rket, leaped from the roof of the eastern high-level of the new Tower Bridge into the Thames, and was drowned. A London paper thus narrates the story of the affair :—From the parapet of the Tower Bridge, far above the still; slumbering city he knew so well, within sight of the market where h» had worked all his life, he dived down into the dark, rushing river below, andthe river hides the rest. But the world has been less kind thf.n Father Thames, who tries to hide all secrets entrusted to his care, and extraordinary indeed are the stories current It*, connection with the tragedy. The fact oi th*; body not being found has suggested the theory that the daring performer is not dead after all, but is, for some purpose or other, in hiding. Unhappily for luller'e relatives and friends, there seems no chance of the rumours of his safety proving true. His professional colleagues believe that he was drowned, and his wife— widowhas no hope of seeing him alive again. Owing to the large amount of flood-water in the river the body may be carried a long way from the scene of tho catastrophe before it is recovered, and it may not come to light until nine or ten days from the time of the drowning. But while the report of his probable escap# may be dismissed as purely imaginative, an investigation into the circumstances of this affair has brought to light some very singular and sensational details. Why did Ben Fuller risk his life by undertaking this leap of 240 feet ? One account says that it was for a wager of £250. There is no foundation for this. Certainly none of his associates knew anything about any bet, and Fuller was not a man to put his life on the cast simply for immediate gain. Professional ambition had a good deal to do with the enterprise. He wished to beat the record. But there was another motive of a far more extraordinary kind. Fuller was AN ARDENT SPIRITUALIST, and he had been assured by certain spirits with whom he was acquainted that, dangerous as the undertaking seemed, there was no danger to him, as he would never meat his death that way. According to one account Fuller thoroughly believed in the trustworthiness of this assurance, and therefore had no scruples whatever in undertaking the feat. Another story carries the matter further, and represents Fuller as undertaking the leap to " test" the spirits. It is quite certain that spiritualism has been largely mixed up with the business. But before we make any further reference to this branch of the subject ib will be convenient to give a narrative of the whole affair as it appears in the light of our special inquiries. In the first place Fuller was not 48 years cf age, as stated in the reports which have appeared, bat 3S. He was foreman at a wholesale fish dealer's in Billingsgate. An appeal has been issued on behalf of his wife and one child, who are represented as destitute. The appeal seems ! to rather overstate the case. Fuller was a hardworking, steady man, who had made a good deal of money during the past twelve months. He had received between £800 and £1000 from the Aquarium, and fcr some time he had been repaying at the rate of £1 a week some money which he hiid with his wife, and which was somehow los&. Mrs. Fuller has found her husband's baak-book —the account is about £50. She has received £50 from the Aquarium as a recognition of her husband's services; and we understand that her husband's employed at Billingsgate are going to allow her to remain in her present rooms in Lower Thames-street rent, rates, coal, and gas free.- We have spoken of Fuller as a hardworking man. Every day he was en- ] gaged from six o'clock in the morning till four o'clock at Billingsgate. Then ha went to the Aquarium for the afternoon dive of 130 feet through the roof, returning after an interval for sleep at home for his ten o'clock performance. He had quite

A MANIA KOIi BIG AM) RISKY DIVES. Twice he tried in vain to manage a leap from the Tower Bridge, and he gave it out that if he succ-seded there he should go straight to Bristol and exploit the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Then he meanb to cross the Atlantic and attempt Brooklyn Bridge and the Niagara rapids. It is conjectured that he recently put by some money lor this American expedition. There must be, bis friends consider, more money stowed away than the £50 which the bankbook found by his wife represents. Although none of the eye-witnesses of the affair have come forward with any statement, soma particulars, in addition to those published' on Monday, have been ascertained from them indirectly. Fuller did nob take anyone at the Aquarium completely into his confidence. It was surmised by some that he was going to renew his attempt, but he did not ask any professional colleague to accompany him. It was known,' however, that he had made arrangements to sleep away from home on Saturday night, and that he had ordered luncheon for fourteen and dinner for the same number at a wellknown restaurant frequented by him and his friends in the city. He arrived at the Tower Bridge about eight o'clock on Sunday morning DISGUISED AS A CLERGYMAN. He wore a wig and beard, a black coat and stock, and altogether looked so unlike himself that be passed on to the bridge and up to the roof chamber, from whence the leap was made, without his identity being in any way suspected. It is said that distributed about the bridge were about a dozen men, whom he employed to act as pickets and give him timely warning of the approach of danger, and perhaps to engage the attention of anyone who should happen to be prying too curiously near the scene of the adventure. There was only one man in the boat in addition to the boatman. Having divested himself of his clerical disguise Fuller leaped from the roof into the water, the distance being 240 feet. Unfortunately for him there was not only the distance to be considered. At the Aquarium he used to drop plumb through the air into the tank with his hands at his side and his feet to gether. But on the bridge the leap had to be more or less curved. He bad to clear the roof and the lower part of the structure. He had, in fact, to " make his position" in mid-air. He came down pretty straight till opposite the bascule stage, then he j turned over and struck tho water "like a ball," aa an eye-witness says. It is the opinion of Professor Baurae, the sack diver j at the Aquarium, who was one of his inti- j mate friends, that Fuller was stunned by > the impact of the water and was drowned. If be could have "made his position" and dropped in the water feet first he might, notwithstanding the height, have succeeded. Professor Baume, interviewed on the subject, stated that he should have expected Fuller to have succeeded in the attempt twice out of three times. "I wish I had been in the boat," Mr. Baume added, " very likely I should have been able to save him. He asked me once if I would go in after him if he wanted me, and I said of course I would." We will now make more particular reference to the FART PLAYED BY THE SPIRITS in this strange affair. Fuller, as we have soon, had a very strong partiality for the occult. He frequented the house of a wellknown professional medium who does a thriving business in the spook line at Peckbam Rye. He was accompanied sometimes by professional associates, and particularly by Miss Annie Luker, an accomplished lady diver, now performing at the Aquarium. At Fuller's suggestion, and with his assistance, Miss Luker some little time ago dived from Blackfriars Bridge, and on another occasion from London Bridge. Fuller was very anxious for her to try the Tower Bridge after him. He was anxious, he said, to see what a woman could

do, and he induced her to promise that she would jump from the bridge last Wednesday. 1 "You will not doib now, I suppose." the writer asked. " No, I shall not," she replied, with a little shiver. Miss Luker is a pretty soubrefcte, small and pleasant spoken, and not at all , the sort of person one would, on appearances, associate with dangerous physical feats. She is, however, , a Very daring direr and swimmer, and if ■ her friend had survived Sunday she would have followed up her successful attempts from Blackf and London Bridge by

one which she now sees would almost certainly have proved fatal. She understood from him that ha was insured by the spirits against danger. She knew that the spirits had made other predictions which had now come true. The stances which Fuller attended were held on Sundays. There are several very EXPERIENCED GHOSTS kept on the premises, the business being a very old-established and apparently highly profitable one. The principal ghost is named John King. He is the astral double or something like that, of a ship's captain who died '200 years ago at sea, and has been hanging round Peck ham Rye ever since. John is a highly intellectual and moral bogie, who has the gift of manifestation largely developed and who often gets snapshotted. As a set off to John the Serious, there is Uncle, who was, when in flesh, a wicked old miser. He stored up money ferociously, to the detriment of himself and his relations, and his punishment is to play first comic old man at the Peckham stances. Ebeuezer, a ghost without a roof' to his mout~Jh, »nd Joey Griraaldi are two other principal dramatis persona; at this precious establishment. The result of the attempt was to have been reported to the spirits the same evening.

THE PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS. _ Fuller and his Tower Bridge project were so well known to the police that his friends did nob believe that he would succeed in bringing the dive off. On the day the bridge wat opened he appeared on the scene at about four o'clock in the morning, but it was no good. He was recognised and sent back beaten, but undaunted. When he tried a second time the ground seemed clear until he had got right on to the bridge when a policeman, who had apparently risen out of the ground, confronted nitn and said It is no good, Mr. Fuller. We know you, and we've got) extra men on to watch you." He arranged to sleep away from home the night before the fatal attempt, 30 that there should be no danger of the police spying him. A LETTER FROM THE AQUARIUM. In reference to the death of Ben Fuller, Mr. Josiah Ritchie, manager of the Aquarium, sends us the following letter:— "Sir,—A few words re poor Ben Fuller, whose sad fat« we all deplore, may interest your readers and prevent similar catastrophes. First, diving from bridges being contrary to law, the secrecy necessitated prevented adequate arrangements. Second, the various elements and conditions render outside attempts madness. At the Aquarium he would have graduated stage by stage, to the height, and thus have acquired the necessary spring. Fuller was 37 years of age, married, and has one daughter. He retained, by my advice, a position he had held for over 20 years with a Billingsgate firm as bookkeeper and fore man or porters, and he further received from this society upwards of £SOO, irrespective of side issues, for his services. In the natural course of entertainment business one attraction supersedes another, and the ' head downward' dive was, I am now informed, considered by Fuller likely to eclipse his own 1 feet-first' dive, and that he thought (although contrary to my instructions) that by diving from the Tower Bridge he would render me a service.— am, faithfully yours, Josiah Ritchie, Royal Aquarium."