Divers and Diving in the 1870s

While researching the development of marine salvage in the New Jersey-Massachusetts region, I came across a series of fantastic Scientific American articles about “submarine engineers,” divers and wrecking (what we now call salvage). They are priceless bits of late-nineteenth century Americana. The text below accompanied the image above in the article “Submarine Diving,” which appeared in periodical’s January 25, 1873 edition.

Loaded with a weight of over one hundred and forty pounds, under a pressure of nine atmospheres, beneath a hundred feet of fluid, two minutes’ existence in which is impossible, and in depths where no ray of light has ever penetrated, man cannot only live but work. Not only can he labor but, remaining submerged for hours with impunity, performs operations which require skill; placing the explosives which are to tear up sunken reefs, leveling unequal bottoms or plunging into the holds of wrecks, with marvelous intrepidity he can force the sea to yield its buried treasures.

A ‘sea-rious’ shipwreck

I came across this lovely tidbit while trolling nineteenth-century newspapers for shipwreck ephemera. Originally published in the New York News, this filler appeared in the February 5, 1879 edition of the New Haven Evening Register. O, the wit.

We’ve an ocean that a shipwreck is a very sea-rious matter, and are not disposed to wave our opinion.

Salvage Yards and Postcards

Old school dissertation research has stalled for a few days as I finish up a book review (more on that next week). This is worrisome–we all know how brief stalls can lead to deadly tailspins, which I’m hoping to avoid. So what better way to keep up momentum than rummaging the internet at all hours of the night? Here’s what I stumbled across relevant to my current research focus, Captain T. A. Scott of New London, Connecticut. [For other posts on Scott look here and here.]

Historic postcards, like the two above, are fantastic sources for “seeing” the past.

Salvage Poetry: “The Shot Toker”

Here’s a fine piece of poetry about shipwreck and salvage that I ran across a few years back at the Mystic Seaport Library in Mystic, Connecticut. The faded, mimeographed sheet was in a file marked “company lore” in the Records of the Merritt-Chapman & Scott Corporation. It was incredibly difficult to decipher (U.P., for example, might actually be A.P.–as in Associated Press). But here it is, a paean, written between 1897 and 1922, to the wreckers of Merritt & Chapman Derrick & Wrecking Company. The image above depicts the lighter Resolute (left and referenced below) and derrick Commodore (right) salvaging an unidentified vessel. Enjoy!

Capt. Thomas Albertson Scott – “One who was not afraid, and who spoke the truth”

from Ships on the Shore's collection

I recently started research for a new chapter of my dissertation. It traces the development of wrecking–marine salvage–around the port of New York during the nineteenth century. I’ve been scouring newspapers and various archives ferreting out this hidden, yet essential (and surprisingly large) industry. The historical literature on the topic is scarce to say the least and filled with inaccuracies and twice-told tales, so I’ve had to cast a wide net to place the chapter in its historiographic context. More on all that in posts to come.

The chapter will be organized around one of the more successful wreckers working in the greater New York littoral, Captain Thomas A. Scott. Scott entered the salvage business in the early 1860s—a time when the increasing number, size, and value of shipwrecks had exacerbated the inefficiencies of the region’s ad hoc salvage industry. During the 1870s, he founded a wrecking firm in New London, Connecticut, becoming a key player in the industry’s consolidation and industrialization. He remained active in the field until his death in 1907 at the age of 77. F. Hopkinson Smith, noted author, painter, civil engineer, and long-time friend of Captain Scott, eulogized him as “one who was not afraid, and who spoke the truth.” By all accounts, Smith was not exaggerating.

I’ll be posting much about marine salvage and Capt. Scott in the weeks and months ahead. (It will be a welcome respite from the Odyssey “silver” news that’s been flooding in these days. )