LIFE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 158, 12 May 1876, Page 14

LIFE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA.

HWhile on a visit to Herne Bay in 1871, Mr. Frank Buckland had an interview with W. Wood, a retired diver, who told some curious stories of under-water life. Mr. Wood made his first real start in life by an extraordinary, and, as it turned out, a very lucky piece of diving. If the reader will look at the map of Ireland.^e will see that outside Belfast Lough, and a little to the southwest*'opposite Donaghadee, are situated the Copeland Islands. It so happened that a Whitstable man was a coastguardsman in this district. He heard a legend that a ship laden with a heavy cargo of silver, had been wrecked off the Copeland Islands some hah* a century ago. He therefore communicated with some of his friends at Whitetable who were divers. Accordingly, Mr. Wood and four others put their diving dresses on board a vessel, and sailed from Whitstable to Donaghadee. It appears that the people on board the ship had tried to escape, having first filled their shirt sleeves with dollars ; but in getting up the rocks many of them had fallen back and met with an untimely end, as the weight of the dollars had kept their heads under water. No one had ever disturbed the wreck since the vessel went down, so Mr. Wood and his friends set to work to find out where she was. They put on their diving dress, and for two or three days walked about to and fro at the bottom of the sea, in about forty feet of water, searching for the treasure. This they did by clearing away the weeds and turning over the stones with crowbars, and feeling for the dollars with their hands, as the water was too thick to see. The wood part of the wreck itself had entirely perished through lapse of time and the ravages of seaworms. After a long- and careful search at last they came up#a the dollars ; they were mostly spread out among the stones, but many had slipped down among a heap of iron ore which had formed the ballast of the ship. Many of the dollars were worn thin by the action of the water. When hunting among the wreck for dollars Mr. Wood had some curious under-water adventures. One of the divers complained that he was annoyed by a lobster and couldn't work. Mr. Wood learned the whereabouts of the lobster and went down after him. He soon discovered Mr. Lobster, sitting under a rock, looking as savage as a lobster can look. His feelers were pointed well forward, and he held out his two great claws wide open in a threatening attitude. Wood, knowing the habits of lobsters, offered this fellow his crowbar, which he immediately nippei with his claws. Then, watching his opportunity, he passed his signalline over the lobster's tail, made it fast, and signalled to the men above to " haul away." This they did, and instantly away went Mr. Lobster flying through the water into the air above with his claws still expanded, and as scared as a lobster could be. A great conger eel also paid the divers a visit. He was an immense fellow, and kept swimming' around Wood, but would not come near him. Wood was afraid of his hand being bitten, as a conger's bite is very bad. He once knew a diver whose finger was seized by a conger. The brute took all the flesh clean off the man's finger. A conger is a very dangerous animal to a man when diving in the water. However, this conger kept swimming round about Wood, so he took his clasp-knife out and tried to stab him ; but the conger would not come near enough to be " knifed." It was a long while before the conger would go away ; and even after he had gone away Wood could not go on working, because he was not sure the brute had gone for good, and he might have come out of some corner at any minute and nipped his fingers. — ' Chambers' s Journal.'