DIVERS' YARNS. 87 



great service in clearing ports, and in facilitating the execution of other submarine work, 

 " The principle of the machine is very ingenious. Externally, it has the appearance of one 

 large rectangular box, surmounted by another smaller one, completely closed in except at 

 the bottom. The interior consists of three principal compartments. The hold communicates 

 by a large shaft with the upper compartment. Between these is a third compartment, or 

 orlop deck, which only communicates with the others by means of stop-cocks. The hydro- 

 stat is twenty feet in height, and its base, which has the bottom of the sea for a floor, covers 

 an area of 625 square feet. It may be made to rise and fall at will, and it will readily float 

 about like a raft/' This ingenious machine has proved of much service. The port of 

 Fecamp was choked up with shingle, which closed it against all vessels beyond a certain 

 tonnage. The hydrostat was employed, and the port cleaned, and again opened to commerce. 



The old divers are fond of recounting the glories of their craft, and are specially im- 

 pressed with any information as to the fate of the vessels of the Armada. This spirit has 

 been fostered no less by the successes of the ancestor of the Mulgraves than by the good 

 fortune of John Gann, of Whitstable. The old diver was, many years since, employed on 

 the Galway coast, and used to pass his evenings in a public-house frequented by fishermen. 

 One of these men, repeating a tradition which had long existed in the district, told Gann 

 that one of the Spanish vessels had been wrecked not far from that coast, and intimated 

 that he himself <:ould point out the spot. Gann, having finished his special job, made terms 

 with the fisherman, and they were both out for many weeks dragging the spot indicated for 

 any traces of the wreck. They were at last rewarded by coming upon obstructions with 

 their grapnels. Gann brought out his diving apparatus, and sure enough the truth of the 

 tradition was vindicated by the finding of a number of dollars, which had originally been 

 packed in barrels. The barrels, however, had rotted away, and left the gold stacked in barrel 

 shape. With the money so I'ecovered John Gann built at Whitstable, his native place, a row 

 of houses, which, to commemorate the circumstance, he called Dollar Row. 



Corporal Harris, almost entirely by his own diligence, removed in little more than two 

 months the wreck of the Perdila, mooring lighter, which was sunk in 1783, in the course 

 of Mr. Tracy's unsuccessful efforts to weigh the Royal George. It was about sixty feet 

 in length, and embedded in mud fifty fathoms south of that vessel. The exposed timbers 

 stood only two feet six inches above the level of the bottom, so that the exertions of Harris 

 in removing the wreck were Herculean. Completely overpowered by fatigue, he claimed a 

 respite for a day or two to recruit his energies, and then resumed work with his accustomed 

 assiduity and cheerfulness. 



There was a sort of abnegation, an absence of jealousy, in the character of Harris which, 

 as the rivalry among the divers made them, somewhat selfish, gave prominence to his kind- 

 ness. He met a comrade named Cameron at the bottom, who led him to the spot where he 

 was working. For a considerable time Cameron had fruitlessly laboured in slinging an 

 awkward timber of some magnitude, when Harris readily stood in his place, and in a few 

 minutes, using Cameron's breast-line to make the necessary signals, sent the mass on deck. 

 It was thus recorded to Cameron's credit ; but the circumstance, on becoming known, was 

 regarded with so much satisfaction that honourable mention was made of it in the official 

 records. 



