Submarine Appliances And Their Uses
Deep Sea Diving, &c., &c.

A Sicilian Diver’s adventure. Fight between Divers under water. It is remarkable what a fascination anything connected with the exploration of the unknown depths has for most people. And this spirit, it would seem, was just as marked in bygone times as it is in our own. Father Kircher records the case of a Sicilian diver, Nicol Pesce, whose strength and power of endurance were astonishing-. 7 he king offered him a golden cup to explore the terrible gulf ol Charybdis, where he remained for three-quarters of an hour amidst the foaming abyss. On his return he described all the horrors of the place, and the monarch was so astonished that he requested Pesce to dive once more in order further to ascertain its form and contents. The diver hesitated, but, upon the promise of a still larger reward, he was again tempted to plunge into the gulf. Unfortunately, however, upon this occasion he did not return. We cannot help doubting the occurrence of this adventure, but if true, then loi <. lathi i s must have possessed means of supplying air and overcoming pres- sure, particulars of the construction of which have not been handed down to us. But the record at least serves to prove that our ancestors were just as much im- bued with the desire to solve the mysteries of the deep as wc are. Dining the operations on the wreck of the Royal George a desperate en- counter took place between two divers named Girvan and Jones. There had been keen rivalry between the two, and each was jealous of the other’s achievements. It appears that Girvan, whilst trying to release a certain cannon which had become deeply embedded in the sand, was reminded by Jones that that particular gun was his (Jones’) property, he having been the first to find it. It may be added that there is a rule by which, in certain circumstances, the first diver to find an article is en- titled to salve it. Girvan was, however, disinclined to give way, with the result that the two men came to blows. Jones, feeling that he would soon get the worst of it, as Girvan was much the more powerful of the two, thought it wise to retreat, and had already ascended the shot-rope a few feet on his way to the surface when Girvan seized him by the legs and tried to draw him down. A desperate struggle ensued, in the course ol which one of the windows of Girvan’s helmet was smashed in. The attendants at the surface, noticing a violent tugging at the life lines and air tubes, and realising that something unusual was happening below, hauled both men up to the surface. Girvan was more dead than alive, but after a few days in hospital he i ecovered sufficiently to be able to resume work. The two combatants after- wards became the best of friends. sunkryi54s^' WaS during the Royal George operations that the wreck of the Mary Rose, George" SUnk ln July’ I54S’ WaS accidentally discovered, by the fouling of some fishermen’s sunk 1782. nets, to be lying but a short distance from the former vessel. Turning their atten- tion to the older wreck, the divers succeeded in recovering five brass cannon, bear- 181