DOWN AMONG THE SHARKS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 618, 20 February 1874, Page 3

DOWN AMONG THE SHARKS.

The following' is related in the Melbourne Herald by an old submarine diver—- “ Mr. Manning's steamer the Kiaraa, 'rad run ashore between Sydney and Twoold Bay, and sunk in about 104 feet of water. There was known to be two corpses m hoard, and valuable property, so as the weather looked unsettled, two other divers were told off to ntJfend me for qui"k despatch'. Down we went, and everything looked much the'same as if the vessel had been afloat instead of below. It seemed almost difficult in'that clear water to believe she never would have steam up again But we went to our bitter task, and a more touching scene I think I never beheld, before or since. The cuddy door was swinging backwards and forwards with the motion of the water, just as it might have done before by the vessel, and wo pushed it open and entered. Apart from the misty appearance everything below decks has not altered at all. A double glass, a parallel rulo, a pair of compasses lay on the table ; the chart had drifted away. Butin the middle of tho saloon stood two figures that I shall never forget as long as 1 live. They were those of an old lady and an old gentleman. The old man bad one arm tightly twisted round one of the cabin stanchions, while the other was embracing his wife’s neck. She had her arms tightly clasped rounl his body, and so they st<>od erect, as when ihe waters had nine and deprived them of life. Our disturbing the water ns we cam° in had the effect of making the bodies slightly undulate, and the poor old gentleman’s long white looks seemed to waive with a painfully life-like motion. As they had fallen asleep, they had evidently gazed their last look upon each other. Their eyes wei e open, and looks of tenderness, almost of happiness, were printed on their countenances. They were pale as white marble, but had nothing the appearance that we on shore habitually associate with death about them; No fallen jaws, no signs of decay (they had only been down two days) and the eyes glittering in the water as in life. It was hard work for tluJ three of us to get the poor old man's arm clear of the stanchion That giip had stood tho rush of water, and all wo could do was to disconnect ii. But as to getting them clear of one another the thing was utterly impossible. True to one another in death as I have no doubt in life, it seemed cruel to part them, so we made them both fast to the same, lino and they went aloft together as I hope and believe their spirits had already done. 1 believe there was a photograph taken of them ashoio before they were buried, but I never saw it. Anyhow they were as handsome an old couple as ever I saw. These two, though affecting rough men likens insused to such spectacles, even to tears (I know my he’met got wet inside s< mehow, but I’ll swear it couldn’t leak), it was nothing to the fi ightful spectacles we arc sometimes tho unwilling spectators of. In the same yew that the Dunbar was lost, tho Catherine Adamson went down, and thirty-six unfortunate wretches, besides the Pilot wi nt to their last account together, and I had to fetch them up from below. It had been blowing hard for some days, when she was wrecked, and even the water below was turbid when I'went down, and I found it a matter of some difficulty, weighted though 1 was, to keep my feet on the bottom. I found remains of these unfortunate persons spread over an area of quite ten acres, in evciy possible contortion and attitude (si me in pieces) between the crevices of the rocks, and in and under the wreck. Some smashed up beyond recognition as human beings, and some enmpa--rative’y unhurt. Si mo women (of course after death) had every particle of hair wnshe' 1 or torn from their heads by the fm ions waves, and against the jagged rocks. Nearly all were divested of even a shred of clothing. These ar'i some of the experiences of a diver, but they a-o not one hundredth part of what 1 had to undergo. When yon sen in a newspaper an account of wrecks with loss of life, and notice Ihe short paragraph that states ‘a diver wmt down and recovered the bodies,’just think of what, 1 have told you, and remembering that di'-ers are but men, ask yourself how you would like to bo in his place.”