"So, sir, it seems that you've set your heart on learning something of
everything?"
The man who said this was a tall and rugged professional diver. He to
whom it was said was Edgar Berrington, our hero, a strapping youth of
twenty-one.
"Well--yes, I have set my heart upon something of that sort, Baldwin,"
answered the youth. "You see, I hold that an engineer ought to be
practically acquainted, more or less, with everything that bears, even
remotely, on his profession; therefore I have come to you for some
instruction in the noble art of diving."
"You've come to the right shop, Mister Edgar," replied Baldwin, with a
gratified look. "I taught you to swim when you wasn't much bigger than
a marlinespike, an' to make boats a'most before you could handle a
clasp-knife without cuttin' your fingers, an' now that you've come to
man's estate nothin'll please me more than to make a diver of you.
But," continued Baldwin, while a shade clouded his wrinkled and
weatherbeaten visage, "I can't let you go down in the dress without
leave. I'm under authority, you know, and durstn't overstep--"
"Don't let that trouble you," interrupted his companion, drawing a
letter from his pocket; "I had anticipated that difficulty, and wrote to
your employers. Here is their answer, granting me permission to use
their dresses."
"All right, sir," said Baldwin, returning the letter without looking at
it; "I'll take your word for it, sir, as it's not much in my line to
make out the meanin' o' pot-hooks and hangers.--Now, then, when will you
have your first lesson?"
"The sooner the better."
"Just so," said the diver, looking about him with a thoughtful air.
The apartment in which the man and the youth conversed was a species of
out-house or lumber-room which had been selected by Baldwin for the
stowing away of his diving apparatus and stores while these were not in
use at the new pier which was in process of erection in the neighbouring
harbour. Its floor was littered with snaky coils of india-rubber
tubing; enormous boots with leaden soles upwards of an inch thick;
several diving helmets, two of which were of brightly polished metal,
while the others were more or less battered, dulled, and dinted by hard
service in the deep. The walls were adorned with large damp
india-rubber dresses, which suggested the idea of baby-giants who had
fallen into the water and been sent off to bed while their costumes were
hung up to dry. In one corner lay several of the massive breast and
back weights by which divers manage to sink themselves to the bottom of
the sea; in another stood the chest containing the air-pump by means of
which they are enabled to maintain themselves alive in that
uncomfortable position; while in a third and very dark corner, an old
worn-out helmet, catching a gleam from the solitary window by which the
place was insufficiently lighted, seemed to glare enviously out of its
goggle-eyes at its glittering successors. Altogether, what with the
strange spectral objects and the dim light, there was something weird in
the aspect of the place, that accorded well with the spirit of young
Berrington, who, being a hero and twenty-one, was naturally romantic.
But let us pause here to assert that he was also practical--eminently
so. Practicality is compatible with romance as well as with rascality.
If we be right in holding that romance is gushing enthusiasm, then are
we entitled to hold that many methodical and practical men have been,
are, and ever will be, romantic. Time sobers their enthusiasm a little,
no doubt, but does by no means abate it, unless the object on which it
is expended be unworthy.
Recovering from his thoughtful air, and repeating "Just so," the diver
added, "Well, I suppose we'd better begin wi' them 'ere odds an' ends
about us."
"Not so," returned the youth quickly; "I have often seen the apparatus,
and am quite familiar with it. Let us rather go to the pier at once.
I'm anxious to go down."
"Ah! Mister Edgar--hasty as usual," said Baldwin, shaking his head
slowly. "It's two years since I last saw you, and I _had_ hoped to find
that time had quieted you a bit, but--. Well, well--now, look here: you
think you've seen all my apparatus, an' know all about it?"
"Not exactly all," returned the youth, with a smile; "but you know I've
often been in this store of yours, and heard you enlarge on most if not
all of the things in it."
"Yes--most, but not _all_, that's where it lies, sir. You've often seen
Siebe and Gorman's dresses, but did you ever see this helmet made by
Heinke and Davis?"
"No, I don't think I ever did."
"Or that noo helmet wi' the speakin'-toobe made by Denayrouze and
Company, an' this dress made by the same?"
"No, I've seen none of these things, and certainly this is the first
time I have heard of a speaking-tube for divers."
"Well then, you see, Mister Edgar, you have something to larn here after
all; among other things, that Denayrouze's is _not_ the first
speakin'-toobe," said Baldwin, who thereupon proceeded with the most
impressive manner and earnest voice to explain minutely to his no less
earnest pupil the various clever contrivances by which the several
makers sought to render their apparatus perfect.
With all this, however, we will not trouble the reader, but proceed at
once to the port, where diving operations were being carried on in
connection with repairs to the breakwater.
On their way thither the diver and his young companion continued their
conversation.
"Which of the various dresses do you think the best?" asked Edgar.
"I don't know," answered Baldwin.
"Ah, then you are not bigotedly attached to that of your employer--like
some of your fraternity with whom I have conversed?"
"I _am_ attached to Siebe and Gorman's dress," returned Baldwin, "but I
am no bigot. I believe in every thing and every creature having good
and bad points. The dress I wear and the apparatus I work seem to me as
near perfection as may be, but I've lived too long in this world to
suppose nobody can improve on 'em. I've heard men who go down in the
dresses of other makers praise 'em just as much as I do mine, an' maybe
with as good reason. I believe 'em all to be serviceable. When I've
had more experience of 'em I'll be able to say which I think the best.--
I've got a noo hand on to-day," continued Baldwin, "an' as he's goin'
down this afternoon for the first time, so you've come at a good time.
He's a smart young man, but I'm not very hopeful of him, for he's an
Irishman."
"Come, old fellow," said Edgar, with a laugh, "mind what you say about
Irishmen. I've got a dash of Irish blood in me through my mother, and
won't hear her countrymen spoken of with disrespect. Why should not an
Irishman make a good diver?"
"Because he's too excitable, as a rule," replied Baldwin. "You see,
Mister Edgar, it takes a cool, quiet, collected sort of man to make a
good diver, and Irishmen ain't so cool as I should wish. Englishmen are
better, but the best of all are Scotchmen. Give me a good, heavy,
raw-boned lump of a Scotchman, who'll believe nothin' till he's
convinced, and accept nothin' till it's proved, who'll argue with a
stone wall, if he's got nobody else to dispute with, in that slow sedate
humdrum way that drives everybody wild but himself, who's got an amazin'
conscience, but no nerves whatever to speak of--ah, that's the man to go
under water, an' crawl about by the hour among mud and wreckage without
gittin' excited or makin' a fuss about it if he should get his life-line
or air-toobe entangled among iron bolts, smashed-up timbers, twisted
wire-ropes, or such like."
"Scotchmen should feel complimented by your opinion of them," said
Edgar.
"So they should, for I mean it," replied Baldwin, "but I hope the
Irishman will turn up a trump this time.--May I take the liberty of
askin' how you're gittin' on wi' the engineering, Mister Edgar?"
"Oh, famously. That is to say, I've just finished my engagement with
the firm of Steel, Bolt, Hardy, and Company, and am now on the point of
going to sea."
Baldwin looked at his companion in surprise. "Going to sea!" he
repeated, "why, I thought you didn't like the sea?"
"You thought right, Baldwin, but men are sometimes under the necessity
of submitting to what they don't like. I have no love for the sea,
except, indeed, as a beautiful object to be admired from the shore, but,
you see, I want to finish my education by going a voyage as one of the
subordinate engineers in an ocean-steamer, so as to get some practical
acquaintance with marine engineering. Besides, I have taken a fancy to
see something of foreign parts before settling down vigorously to my
profession, and--"
"Well?" said Baldwin, as the youth made rather a long pause.
"Can you keep a secret, Baldwin, and give advice to a fellow who stands
sorely in need of it?"
The youth said this so earnestly that the huge diver, who was a
sympathetic soul, declared with much fervour that he could do both.
"You must know, then," began Edgar with some hesitation, "the fact is--
you're such an old friend, Baldwin, and took such care of me when I was
a boy up to that sad time when I lost my father, and you lost an
employer--"
"Ay, the best master I ever had," interrupted the diver.
"That--that I think I may trust you; in short, Baldwin, I'm over head
and ears with a young girl, and--and--"
"An' your love ain't requited--eh?" said Baldwin interrogatively, while
his weatherbeaten face elongated.
"No, not exactly that," rejoined Edgar, with a laugh. "Aileen loves me
almost, I believe, as well as I love her, but her father is dead against
us. He scorns me because I am not a man of wealth."
"What is _he_?" demanded Baldwin.
"A rich China merchant."
"He's more than that," said Baldwin.
"Indeed!" said Edgar, with a surprised look; "what more is he?"
"He's a goose!" returned the diver stoutly.
"Don't be too hard on him, Baldwin. Remember, I hope some day to call
him father-in-law. But why do you hold so low an opinion of him?"
"Why, because he forgets that riches may, and often do, take to
themselves wings and fly away, whereas broad shoulders, and deep chest,
and sound limbs, and a good brain, usually last the better part of a
lifetime; and a brave heart will last for ever."
"I am afraid that I have yet to prove, to myself as well as to the old
gentleman, that the brave heart is mine," returned Edgar. "As to the
physique--you may be so far right, but he evidently undervalues that."
"I said nothing about physic," returned Baldwin, who still frowned as he
thought of the China merchant, "and the less that you and I have to do
wi' that the better. But what are you goin' to do, sir?"
"That is just the point on which I want to have your advice. What ought
I to do?"
"Don't run away with her, whatever you do," said Baldwin emphatically.
The youth laughed slightly as he explained that there was no chance
whatever of his doing that, because Aileen would never consent to run
away or to disobey her father.
"Good--good," said the diver, with still greater emphasis than before,
"I like that. The gal that would sacrifice herself and her lover sooner
than disobey her father--even though he is a goose--is made o' the right
stuff. If it's not takin' too great a liberty, Mister Edgar, may I ask
what she's like?"
"What she's like--eh?" murmured the other, dropping his head as if in
reverie, and stroking the dark shadow on his chin which was beginning to
do duty for a beard. "Why, she--she's like nothing that I ever saw on
earth before."
"No!" ejaculated Baldwin, elevating his eyebrows a little, as he said
gravely, "what, not even like an angel?"
"Well, yes; but even that does not sufficiently describe her. She's
fair,"--he waxed enthusiastic here,--"surpassingly fair, with wavy
golden tresses and blue eyes, and a bright complexion and a winning
voice, and a sylph-like figure and a thinnish but remarkably pretty
face--"
"Ah!" interrupted Baldwin, with a sigh, "I know: just like my missus."
"Why, my good fellow," cried Edgar, unable to restrain a fit of
laughter, "I do not wish to deny the good looks of Mrs Baldwin, but you
know that she's uncommonly ruddy and fat and heavy, as well as fair."
"Ay, an' forty, if you come to that," said the diver. "She's fourteen
stun if she's an ounce; but let me tell you, Mister Edgar, she wasn't
always heavy. There _was_ a time when my Susan was as trim and taut and
clipper-built as any Aileen that ever was born."
"I have no doubt of it whatever," returned the youth, "but I was going
to say, when you interrupted me, it is her eyes that are her strong
point--her deep, liquid, melting blue eyes, that look at you so
earnestly, and seem to pierce--"
"Ay, just so," interrupted the diver; "pierce into you like a gimblet,
goin' slap agin the retina, turnin' short down the jugular, right into
the heart, where they create an agreeable sort o' fermentation. Oh!
Don't I know?--my Susan all over!"
Edgar's amusement was tinged slightly with disgust at the diver's
persistent comparisons. However, mastering his feelings, he again
demanded advice as to what he should do in the circumstances.
"You han't told me the circumstances yet," said the diver quietly.
"Well, here they are. Old Mr Hazlit--"
"What! Hazlit? Miss Hazlit, is _that_ her name?" cried Baldwin, with a
look of pleased surprise.
"Yes, do you know her?"
"Know her? Of course I do. Why, she visits the poor in my district o'
the old town--you know I'm a local preacher among the Wesleyans--an'
she's one o' the best an' sweetest--ha! Angel indeed! I'm glad she
wasn't made an angel of, for it would have bin the spoilin' of a
splendid woman. Bless her!"
The diver spoke with much enthusiasm, and the young man smiled as he
said, "Of course I add Amen to your last words.--Well then," he
continued, "Aileen's father has refused to allow me to pay my addresses
to his daughter. He has even forbidden me to enter his house, or to
hold any intercourse whatever with her. This unhappy state of things
has induced me to hasten my departure from England. My intention is to
go abroad, make a fortune, and then return to claim my bride, for the
want of money is all that the old gentleman objects to. I cannot bear
the thought of going away without saying good-bye, but that seems now
unavoidable, for he has, as I have said, forbidden me the house."
Edgar looked anxiously at his companion's face, but received no
encouragement there, for Baldwin kept his eyes on the ground, and shook
his head slowly.
"If the old gentleman has forbid you his house, of course you mustn't go
into it. However, it seems to me that you might cruise about the house
and watch till Sus--Aileen, I mean--comes out; but I don't myself quite
like the notion of that either, it don't seem fair an' above-board
like."
"You are right," returned Edgar. "I cannot consent to hang about a
man's door, like a thief waiting to pounce on his treasure when it
opens. Besides, he has forbidden Aileen to hold any intercourse with
me, and I know her dear nature too well to subject it to a useless
struggle between duty and inclination. She is certain to obey her
father's orders at any cost."
"Then, sir," said Baldwin decidedly, "you'll just have to go afloat
without sayin' good-bye. There's no help for it, but there's this
comfort, that, bein' what she is, she'll like you all the better for
it.--Now, here we are at the pier. Boat a-hoy-oy!"
In reply to the diver's hail a man in a punt waved his hand, and pulled
for the landing-place.
A few strokes of the oar soon placed them on the deck of a large clumsy
vessel which lay anchored off the entrance to the harbour. This was the
diver's barge, which exhibited a ponderous crane with a pendulous hook
and chain in the place where its fore-mast should have been. Several
men were busied about the deck, one of whom sat clothed in the full
dress of a diver, with the exception of the helmet, which was unscrewed
and lay on the deck near his heavily-weighted feet. The dress was wet,
and the man was enjoying a quiet pipe, from all which Edgar judged that
he was resting after a dive. Near to the plank on which the diver was
seated there stood the chest containing the air-pumps. It was open, the
pumps were in working order, with two men standing by to work them.
Coils of india-rubber tubing lay beside it. Elsewhere were strewn about
stones for repairing the pier, and various building tools.
"Has Machowl come on board yet?" asked Baldwin, as he stepped on the
deck. "Ah, I see he has.--Well, Rooney lad, are you prepared to go
down?"
"Yis, sur, I am."
Rooney Machowl, who stepped forward as he spoke, was a fine specimen of
a man, and would have done credit to any nationality. He was about the
middle height, very broad and muscular, and apparently twenty-three
years of age. His countenance was open, good-humoured, and
good-looking, though by no means classic--the nose being turned-up, the
eyes small and twinkling, and the mouth large.
"Have you ever seen anything of this sort before?" asked Baldwin, with a
motion of his hand towards the diving apparatus scattered on the deck.
"No sur, nothin'."
"Was you bred to any trade?"
"Yis, sur, I'm a ship-carpenter."
"An' why don't you stick to that?"
"Bekase, sur, it won't stick to me. There's nothin' doin' apparently in
this poort. Annyhow I can't git work, an' I've a wife an' chick at
home, who've bin so long used to praties and bacon that their stummicks
don't take kindly to fresh air fried in nothin'. So ye see, sur,
findin' it difficult to make a livin' above ground, I'm disposed to try
to make it under water."
While Rooney Machowl was speaking Baldwin regarded him with a fixed and
critical gaze. What his opinion of the recruit was did not, however,
appear on his countenance or in his reply, for he merely said, "Humph!
Well, we'll see. You'll begin your education in your noo profession by
payin' partikler attention to all that is said an' done around you."
"Yis, sur," returned Machowl, respectfully touching the peak of his cap
and wrinkling his forehead very much, while he looked on at the further
proceedings of the divers with that expression of deep earnest sincerity
of attention which--whether assumed or genuine--is only possible to the
countenance of an Irishman.
During this colloquy the two men standing by the pump-case, and two
other men who appeared to be supernumeraries, listened with much
interest, but the diver seated on the plank, resting and calmly smoking
his pipe, gazed with apparent indifference at the sea, from which he had
recently emerged.
This man was a very large fellow, with a dark surly countenance--not
exactly bad in expression, but rather ill-tempered-looking. His
diving-dress being necessarily very wide and baggy, made him seem larger
than he really was--indeed, quite gigantic. The dress was made of very
thick india-rubber cloth, and all--feet, legs, body, and arms--was of
one piece, so perfectly secured at the seams as to be thoroughly
impervious to air or water. To get into it was a matter of some
difficulty, the entrance being effected at the neck. When this neck is
properly attached to the helmet, the diver is thoroughly cut off from
the external world, except through the air-tube communicating with his
helmet and the pump afore mentioned.
"Have ye got the hole finished, Maxwell?" said Baldwin, turning to the
surly diver.
"Yes," he replied shortly.
"Well, then, go down and fix the charge. Here it is," said Baldwin,
taking from a wooden case an object about eighteen inches long, which
resembled a large office-ruler that had been coated thickly with pitch.
It was an elongated shell filled to the muzzle with gunpowder. To one
end of it was fastened the end of a coil of wire which was also coated
with some protecting substance.
As Baldwin spoke Maxwell slowly puffed the last "draw" from his lips and
knocked the ashes out of his pipe on the plank, on which he still
remained seated while the two supernumeraries busied themselves in
completing his toilet for him; one screwing on his helmet, which
appeared ridiculously large, the other loading his breast and back with
two heavy leaden weights. When fully equipped, the diver carried on his
person a weight fully equal to that of his own bulky person.
"Now look here, Mister Edgar, an' pay partikler attention, Rooney
Machowl. This here toobe, made of indyrubber, d'ee see? (`Yis, sur,'
from Rooney) I fix on, as you perceive, to the back of Maxwell's helmet.
It communicates with that there pump, and when these two men work the
pump, air will be forced into the helmet and into the dress down to his
very toes. We could bu'st him, if we were so disposed, if it wasn't for
an escape-valve, here close beside the air-toobe, at the back of the
helmet, which keeps lettin' off the surplus air. Moreover, there is
another valve, here in front of the breast-plate, which is under the
control of the diver, so that he can let air escape by givin' it a
half-turn when the men at the pumps are givin' him too much, or he can
keep it in when they're givin' him enough."
"An' what does he do," asked Rooney, with an anxious expression, "whin
they give him too little?"
"He pulls on the air-pipe,--as I'll explain to you in good time--the
proper signal for `more air.'"
"But what if he forgits, or misremimbers the signal?" asked the
inquisitive recruit.
"Why then," replied Baldwin, "he suffocates, and we pull him up dead,
an' give him decent burial. Keep yourself easy, my lad, an' you'll know
all about it in good time. I'll soon give 'ee the chance to suffocate
or bu'st yourself accordin' to taste."
"Come, cut it short and look alive," said Maxwell gruffly, as he stood
up to permit of a stout rope being fastened to his waist.
"You shut up!" retorted Baldwin.
Having exchanged these little civilities the two divers moved to the
side of the barge--Maxwell with a slow ponderous tread.
A short iron ladder dipped from the gunwale of the barge a few feet down
into the sea. The diver stepped upon this, turning with his face
inwards, descended knee-deep into the water, and then stopped. Baldwin
handed him the blasting-charge. At the same moment one of the
supernumeraries advanced with the front-glass or bull's-eye in his hand,
and the men at the pumps gave a turn or two to see that all was working
well.
"All right?" demanded the supernumerary.
"Right," responded Maxwell, in a voice which issued sepulchrally from
the iron globe.
There are three round windows fitted with thick plate-glass in the
helmets to which we refer. The front one is made to screw off and on,
and the fixing of this is always the last operation in completing a
diver's toilet.
"Pump away," said the man, holding the round glass in front of Maxwell's
nose, and looking over his shoulder to see that the order was obeyed.
The glass was screwed on, and the man finished off by gravely patting
Maxwell in an affectionate manner on the head.
"Why does he pat him so?" asked Edgar, with a laugh at the apparent
tenderness of the act.
"It's a tinder farewell, I suppose," murmured Rooney, "in case he niver
comes up again."
"It is to let him know that he may now descend in safety," answered
Baldwin. "The pump there is kep' goin' from a few moments before the
front-glass is screwed on till the diver shows his head above water
again--which he'll do in quarter of an hour or so, for it don't take
long to lay a charge; but our ordinary spell under water, when work is
steady, is about four hours--more or less--with perhaps a breath of ten
minutes once or twice at the surface when they're working deep."
"But why a breath at the surface?" asked Edgar. "Isn't the air sent
down fresh enough?"
"Quite fresh enough, Mister Edgar, but the pressure when we go deep--say
ten or fifteen fathoms--is severe on a man if long continued, so that he
needs a little relief now and then. Some need more and some less
relief, accordin' to their strength. Maxwell has only gone down fifteen
feet, so that he wouldn't need to come up at all durin' a spell of work.
We're goin' to blast a big rock that has bin' troublesome to us at low
water. The hole was driven in it last week. We moored a raft over it
and kep' men at work with a long iron jumper that reached from the rock
to the surface of the sea. It was finished last night, and now he's
gone to fix the charge."
"But I don't understand about the pressure, sur, at all at all," said
Machowl, with a complicated look of puzzlement; "sure whin I putt my
hand in wather I don't feel no pressure whatsomediver."
"Of course not," responded Baldwin, "because you don't put it deep
enough. You must know that our atmosphere presses on our bodies with a
weight of about 20,000 pounds. Well, if you go thirty-two feet deep in
the sea you get the pressure of exactly another atmosphere, which means
that you've got to stand a pressure all over your body of 40,000 when
you've got down as deep as thirty-two feet."
"But," objected Rooney, "I don't fed no pressure of the atmosphere on me
body at all."
"That's because you're squeezed by the air inside of you, man, as well
as by the atmosphere outside, which takes off the _feelin'_ of it, an',
moreover, you're used to it. If the weight of our atmosphere was took
off your outside and not took off your inside--your lungs an' the
like,--you'd come to feel it pretty strong, for you'd swell like a
balloon an' bu'st a'most, if not altogether."
Baldwin paused a moment and regarded the puzzled countenance of his
pupil with an air of pity.
"Contrairywise," he continued, "if the air was all took out of your
inside an' allowed to remain on your outside, you'd go squash together
like a collapsed indyrubber ball. Well then, if that be so with one
atmosphere, what must it be with a pressure equal to two, which you have
when you go down to thirty-two feet deep in the sea? An' if you go down
to twenty-five fathoms, or 150 feet, which is often done, what must the
pressure be there?"
"Tightish, no doubt," said Rooney.
"True, lad," continued Joe. "Of course, to counteract this we must
force more air down to you the deeper you go, so that the pressure
inside of you may be a little more than the pressure outside, in order
to force the foul air out of the dress through the escape-valve; and
what between the one an' the other your sensations are peculiar, you may
be sure.--But come, young man, don't be alarmed. We'll not send you
down very deep at first. If some divers go down as deep as twenty-five
fathoms, surely you'll not be frightened to try two and a half."
Whatever Rooney's feelings might have been, the judicious allusion to
the possibility of his being frightened was sufficient to call forth the
emphatic assertion that he was ready to go down two thousand fathoms if
they had ropes long enough and weights heavy enough to sink him!
While the recruit is preparing for his subaqueous experiments, you and
I, reader, will go see what Maxwell is about at the bottom of the sea.