DIVERS EXAMINING THE WRECK OF THE STEAMER ATLANTIC.

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 204, 30 August 1873, Page 2

DIVERS EXAMINING THE WRECK OF THE STEAMER ATLANTIC.

Tru: New York Evening Express of April Bth gives the following sensational revelations of a special newspaper correspondent, who it states procured a diving suit, with permission, and under the direction of the wreckers and divers who were at work upon the hull of the ill-fated steamer Atlantic, descended into the interior of the wreck. He says :—": — " The waters were clear, and every object was plainly visible around the ship where she lay on tho reef. Picking my way towards the hull, I catch hold of a rope and scramble up to tho deck. The place where I have descended is where the ship parted, and a sensational view of the bull and cargo is obtained. The forward hatch is open, and I peer down the hold. Oh ! what a spectacle is here presented ! The cargo has broken in bulk, and lies in a coufused mass ; bodies of men and women bruised and torn were jammed up among the cases and crates. It is a horrible sight to losk upon -and the magnifying power of the orbs through which I gaze upon it, renders it all the moie horrible. Fishes swim in and out among the bodies and boxes, feasting among the ghastly corpses, which, in their mutilation, look most horrible. Limbs are strewn round, having been broken off from the bodies by the continual action of the waves, which, when agitated, drive against the ugly pieces of the broken hull that stick up hore and there, and render my movements Tcry hazardous. Having seen enough of this part of the broken horror, I proceeded towards one of the steerage cabins, the one where all tho women and children were drowned as they lay in thoir bunks. Scrambling along the decks, guided by tho rope above, as assisted by one of the divers who lias undertaken to conduct me through the wreck, I reach the companion way. If tho sight in tho hold among the cargo was horrible, the one that now met my gaze was ten times more so. There, lying in an immense heap, were a hundred or more bodies. They looked for all the world as if they were alive ; with arms dislocated, eves staring wildly, faces grinning as if it were at you, and moving backward and forward with the under-current. Some were dressed j soino ware half nude ; children were clinging to their mothers, and stout men were clasping their wives, ii. i.l seeming as if they met thoir fate with calm resignation. No description of the bodies brought to the surface could convey an idea of tho horrid sight in the cabin. I close my eyes, and motion to my conductor my willingness to leave. I have seen enough of that charnel-house, the recollection of which will never fade. My conductor motions me towards tho steerage cabin, where the men were by themselves, and where was such a rush for companion-way. Feeriug down into the cabin I saw a similar picture of death. Bodies of stalwart men old anil young, were bustled together on the stairway, giving — from their distended nostrils, gaping mouths, and staring glassy eyes— -somo conception of the terror which seized them as they vainly struggled to reach the deck, but were prevented by the wares which swept over the ship as she heeled over and filled the cabin. From another part of the vessel I obtained a view of the sleeping apartinonts. Here, piled up in heaps on the port tide, were numbers of the frodios of men, and strewn among the bedclothing of one kind or another. Imagination cannot picture anything more terrible than what was shown in this apartment. The flesh is torn from the faced of many of the dead ; others aguin are. bruised and but tercel about their heads and fuccs, which arc red and bloody, m striking contrast to the pale, livid feature* of the other* which the netion of tho water has not disturbed. While I btund hen- another of the divertdescends and commenced to send u,i some of the bodies. Ho, however, is more bent upon securing the cargo than sending up the bodies, and only doesi so now to gum access to some boxe< mid trunks that are. lying beneath them. Ha\ing seen enough of horror.-) uciipa,th the water on thut fatal reef—

Iturroi s which, w ill never b? ei'^swl fyoiu ui> uund — I decided fo <*<> nhovo, and motioned accordingly to the men who were .i'mu- in the Ixxit, nnd pumping down to mo the necessary supply of air to sustain life, in ft few minutes I am again at tho sui'faoe, gazing upon the light of heaven, and experiencing a sensation of relief at having left tho chambers of death in tie cabins of the Atlantic "