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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1920)
5 27 HOURS ON OCEAISTS FLOOR MENACED BY MONSTERS Trapped by .Falling Hatch a Deep Sea Diver Lives an Eternity of Horrors Until Rescued by His Companions Who Realized His Plight When He Failed to Signal - ' - xy-"""" ill viT'C LH, I J J -fk Aj if J 11. - ' Turgor, twtntvr- LP ' IZZZZT V . ; fsi.-' '-tr IiXtJ. ,-w ;-- - S-: K: ' ' ' " j The hHTT steel armor with which a direr clothes fclmaelf for worklm at Treat deptfea ao that he mar breathe air at the same preaaaxe aa at the surface. The direr worka hose clamps with his heads laalde the armor, and there are powerful electric lights on. hla shenldera to guide him la his work of salvaging treasures La suakea vessels. FEW men erer hare had as har- i panlonway. The length of ths air line rowing an experience as Captain I left me no greater circumference to John F. Turner, a Philadelphia.!!, get around in; for I was afraid to tug who in a diving suit spent 27 agoniz- Ins; hours imprisoned within the hold of a sunken monitor, many fathoms below the surface, leered at by many hideous monsters of the deep and with hunger, unappeasable even if food had been within reach, gnawing at his vitals. Captain Turner is a professional diver. He has followed this calling 23 years, and, strange to say, he is not able to swim and says he has an in surmountable dread of deep water. He claims to hold the record for deep diving. His frightful experience In the hold of the foundered vessel occurred off the coast of Bermuda. The monitor, which belonged to the British navy, had been sunk in navy target prac tice, and, sold for Junk, was being salved by the purchasing company. Captain Turner says he felt strange forebodings while preparing for his descent that day. "Somehow I couldn't get rid of the feeling that something disagreeable mas going to happen," he said, "but I tried to shake off this feeling as but another manifestation of the chronic drefed which I have always .had of the ocean. "I put on my rubber suit and pre pared to get into the water. I tripped and nearly fell; and this served only to add a sinister warning which al most made me change my mind about coins down. But I overcame this fear. Nothing unusual happened after that until I reached the monitor and went through the hatchway into the interior of the vessel. "I had not proceeded more than 10 feet from the cdmpanionway when the lid of the hatch closed and fouled my eignal line, so that it became useless The air tube, fortunatejy. injured. 1 -At first, although badly scared. I did not think that I would have much trouble forcing the lid back. But when. I tried to do so and found that it would not yield by so much as the breadth of a hair, even when I tsed a long bar of steel, which tapered to a chisel-like edge at the end, it occurred to me that, as I was more than 80 feet below the surface, the weight of the water which kept that lid battened down was equivalent to SO pounds pressure on every square inch. I was seized with a frenzy of fear that the weight would eventually press together the air tube and that I would be suffocated. To prevent this I wedsed in. a number of pieces of metal, fastening them so securely that they became, so to speak, incorporated with the very ship itself. In fact, it was by the almost miraculous plugging in of a piece of loose timber, which was floating out of the hatch way as I entered, that the air tube was not crushed altogether at the verv outset. But while the timber had done me this service so provi dentially, it had, on the other nana, caught the signal line and put it out of commission. "After the first paralyzing attack of ,.r subsided. I began to look around my prison. My electric flash lamp enabled me to get a fairly good view of everything within a radius of 11 13, Xeet from the foot of tae com at the air line, dreading that it might spring a leak, as even with all the wedging, it was tightly caught in the hatchway. "Now and then I thought I could discern a shadowy something, which my imagination clothed with a hideous form, . floating by just beyond the reach of the rays of my flashlight. I would shake the bar at the shadow and gradually It would recede out of .sight. I never discovered Just what this gruesome shadow was. But It sure did haunt me and filled me with fears which were almost as gripping as those which were born of the feeling that my air line might any moment be crushed and leave me to suffoca tion; or be cut by a swordfish and consign me to drowning. "I thought of the folly of my having stuck to a calling which brought me into constant association within ele ment which I had always dreaded. I had always considered that I was en gaged in it in a sort of temporary way. just to get enough money from it to enable me to get into some other still more profitable business. But now it flashed upon my mind that this Interim sort of living wasvafter all. the substance and web and woof itself Lof my life. And that's the way most of us live. We think we'll do our real work at some future day, when we sTiii in iat """W' i" Tr'''' '"A. have acquired what is necessary for engaging in it. And, lo! when we stand at the end of our career and look backward, we discover, too late, that what we considered merely prepara tory was In reality the very thing we were living for.. "I tell you there's nothing so calcu lated to make one philosophical as being pent up in the hold of a ship, way down on the ocean's bottom, with the almost certainty of death staring one in the face. What good would it record depth-diving honors. For I made one descent of 1E7 feet in a rub ber diving suit and another descent of 37 feet in a slut of armor. In a series of experiments made by the British admiralty two naval officers descended 210 feet, and this, according tc the Encyclopedia Britannlca. was the record up to that time. James Hooper, salvaging the wrecked steam ship Cape Horn off Plchidanque. South America, was down 204 feet. What Is all that compared to my record? And, yet, what good was this to me now. imprisoned as I was in that coffin of a monitor at the everlastingly silent bottom of the seat "AH that happened to other divers In even less harrowing plights passed do me, I thought, that I had gained the through my mind. I recalled how soma had become nervous wrecks others had gone Insane; still others had come forth from their ordeals so racked and Injured in body and limb as never to amount to anything afterward. I recalled my own previ ous plights. Once the heavy plate glass In front of my helmet dropped out. and only the prompt action of those above saved me from drowning. Another time when my legs got en tangled In ths rigging of a sunken ship I cut my air line with the ax with which I cut away the impeding rigging. Again it was by something but little short of a miracle that I was saved. This happened to me twice. 'And, yet, how trifling and insig nificant did these occurrences now appear in contrast with my situation Inside the monitor. "And, oh, the hunger and the thirst that were now beginning to torment me! And the stifling heat Inside the helmet. T called out aloud. I prayed, and the prayer brought me much relief. I felt that even though all human help was far removed, God was near and that he would not desert me. Oh, the wonderful efficacy of prayer! It makes us feel that we have an all- powerful friend, and that even if we do not Immediately obtain what we pray for he will inevitably see to It that in the end everything shall be all right What though we die; is not all eternity his to do with us and for us whatever he wills? And what else can he, who is all goodness as well aa omnipotence will for us except w-nat is sestT urns tnougnt, I say, gave me much comfort and calmed me considerably. "But soon the torturing hunger and thirst, especially the thirst, threat ened to unhinge my reason. What if I become mad? This fresh cause of alarm was almost more terrifying than the others had been. For imagined that, with my mind over thrown, I would probably cut or tear the air line. If I only attempted to move one foot beyond the tether al lowed me by this line the latter would part and my fate would be sealed In evitably. "And that I was going mad was very apparent, for I began .to see things which I had not seen before. The spaces beyond the sheen of my light began to be peopled with all sorts of enormous shapes. Dogfish of frightful size and more hideous aspect than I had ever seen; ballast fish, and even big codfish with rav enous maws, kept coming at me. I parried with the big iron bar, which had not once left my hand In all the seemingly interminable time that I had been imprisoned, and the attack ing swarm vanished. "Clearly I could see that I was be coming insane. Another hour and I would no longer be master of m- self and would be at the mercy of the hungry fish and the graveliks silent water. "And then a mist cams befers my eyes and It seemed to me that the hatchway began to open in the cen ter, and that this epenl&g gradually grew larger and larger. And I felt rather than heard thuds, and pres ently I saw a terrible form coming through the opening and groping its way toward me. "As it drew close I recognised that was another diver. Thank htaven! rescue had come at last! Within another minute I was be ing drawn toward ths surface; and when I reached there and was dlssn- oumbered of my diving suit I felt a rush of blood to my head and fell In a faint." Captain Turner says that so far from abandoning hlra to his fate when they received no signal from him while he was pent up in the sunken craft, his companions above immediately sent for another diver. It was not, however, until twenty seven hours had elapsed before they could find one possessing a sufficient ly adequate outfit to attempt the rescue. Not until the year 1240 or so was there any real improvement In de vices for diving. In the latter year Friar Roger Bacon is said to have Invented the diving bell. Asked when the first diving salt was Invented. Captain Turner said: Well, that's hard to tell; but la 1511 a book was published, on ths title page of which was the picture of a diver in a regulation diving suit with a helmet over his head and a long leather pipe leading to a bladder floating on the surface. "But that's a long way from ths finished product, as dlVng suits go today, is It not?" he was asked. Tes, Indeed," replied Captain Tur ner. "Like everything else that was merely in a rudimentary stage little more than a few years ago. Diving suits have been improved to such an extent that the sight of one of them would probably take away old Aris totle's breath with surprise. Why, nowaways, we have a telephone out fit In our helmets, and can carry on a conversation not only with out help ers on the surface, but with other divers at the bottom of the sea. Besides, we have, in addition to the rubber suits for near-the-surfaee diving, suits of armor with which we can reach the greater depths. If any diver In a rubber suit were to try to descend to S76 feet, the record which I have established, he would be crushed to death.' He also told of the "self-contained" diving dress, which goes with a knap sack-like steel cylinder containing oxygen compressed to a pressure of 120 atmospheres (1800 pounds) to the square inch. Within one of the chambers of this cylinder is caustle soda or caustic potash, through which the air exhaled by the diver passes. During its passage through this chemical this vitiated air loses the carbonic acid which it has accumulat ed during respiration and is carried back into the man's lungs revivified and fresh as any salubrious zephyr that is wafted across hay-mown fields. Captain Turner Is 41 years old. He married IS years ago, and his wife has occasionally made diving descents with him.' She has been down 2f feet in a rubber diving suit. They have a daughter 12 years of age and their home is at Newburyport, Mass. Captain Turner is regarded aa one of "the bright particular stars" of his profession. He has worked In al most every part of the western hemisphere, from Halifax to Pata gonia. This summer he is busy along the northern Atlantic coast. CHEERS GREET REVIVAL OF MOZART MUSIC, IN DISCARD IN FNCH THEATERS SINCEJ.863 Opera "Cosi fan Tutte" Given Before Enthusiastic Audience As Benefit Performance in Paris, and Will Have Run Next Fall Because of Success in Premier Offering. -V4.RIS. One of the prime events 'of the musical year, here took place at the Opera Comlque the revival of Mozart's opera bouue "Cosi tutte" ("So Do They All" the last two words being of the feminine gender). The occasion was quite special a matinee for the benefit of the pension and emergency funds of the Opera Comlque. The work will not be re peated until next autumn, when it will constitute one of the new season's chief additions to the repertory of the Opera Comlque. Performances of "Cosi fan tutte" are rare enough anywhere to make this revival singularly interesting. The extreme demonstratlveness of representative musical audience. which applauded in and out of season and several times burst into cheers, augurs well for the success of the revival in the autumn. The last previous revival of "Cosi fan tutte" in Paris in any form took place in 186 J. After 18 performances it was withdrawn. I do not know the history of the work in Italy or in England, if it has ever been given in either country at all. I believe there has been no performance in America unless long, long ago in an ex tremely garbled version. For many years it was produced at the annual Mozart festival in the little Residenz theater in Munich. Once upon a time, some 18 - or 20 years ago. when Sembrich. Emms .Euaei jind FriUxi Scheff were 11 members of the company at the Met- ropolitan opera house togethe.', there was talk of a Mozart cycle there, which should include, besides "Ie Nozze di Figaro." "Don Giovanni" and Die auberf loete." productions of Die Bntubrung aus dem Serail" and Cosi fan tutte." Sembrich and Eames were to be the fair sisters in "Cosi fan tutte," the vivacious Fritz! Scheff. their effervescent serving maid. But the production got no further than Emma Eames acquiring a magnifi cent green gown, which she later wore in concert when singing one of the airs from the score. "Cosi fan tutte" had as librettist. like its predecessors. e Nozze di Figaro" and "Don Giovanni." the Abbe da Ponte, who later came to New York, where ultimately he died and was buried, though the most scru pulous research has been unable to locate his tomb. But the good Abbe was less successful with this book than with the others, not having com edies by Beaumarchais, Tirso ds Mo lina and Moliere to back up his work. Briefly, the intrigue is as follows: At the instigation of an elderly cynic, two young men determined, to test the constancy of their affianced brides, fair Neapolitan sisters. They pre tend to depart for the wars, but really return in short order, disguised as wealthy Albanian merchants. The Albanians pay court to the ladies anil finally, after particular resistance on .the part of one of the sisters, ostein the promise of their hands in mar riage. These machinations go on un der the auspices of the elderly cynic and the sprightly serving maid. The latter even goes so far as to disguise herself as the officiating notary. Finally, the wedding .with the Al banians Is about to take place and the marriage feast Is spread when word comes of the approaching re turn of the fiances. Immediate con fusion and the precipitate departure of the Albanians! Naturally, the two sisters find themselves in great dis may, and the arriving fiances appear highly enraged at what meets their eyes. But the elderly cynic explains the ruse to the ladies, there is a gen eral reconciliation, and the betrothed couples proceed to their marriage. The conclusion of it all is that this test will have taught fidelity, even where fidelity was a little lacking before! Cosi fan tutte Fable Did If ot Seeam Too Absurd. About the baslo morality of this fable I hare nothing to say, but, as played at the Opera Comique, it did not seem unduly absurd opera Is the land of the absurd nor was it bore- some. Indeed, it acted in a decidedly more diverting manner than many another lyric comedy I could name. And yet one of the striking things in the history of "Cosi fan tutte" is the numerousness of the attempts to adapt the music to modified or en tirely changed librettos. Alany puca thins s."- revised versions have been staged In Austria, in Germany, in France. "Cosl fan tutte" was first produced at the Burgtheart -n Vienna, January 26, 1790, a little less than two years be fore Mozart's death. There were ten performances. The revival in 1794 was already In a modified version. according to an arrangement made by Gieseke and entitled "L'Ecole de l'Amour." The production at the Opera Co mlque is authentic. The "dry" reci tatives which that theater discards in the cases of "Le Nozze di Figaro" and "The Barber of Seville" are re tained to a harpsichord accompani ment. The orchestra, directed by M. Messager, was yesterday one of the best elemtns. M. IVeulle sang well as the elderly cynic, but of the singing of the rest. Mmes. Ritter-Ciampi. Val landrl and Favart and Messrs.. Ga zette and Audoin. I prefer to eay nothing, save that it shirked no diffi culties. The acting was capital. There is no need of my saying much about the music, for, if we don't hear it performed in America, it is perfectly easy for us to examine it in the score. The part of Flordi- ligi is of excessive difficulty, calling for exceptional range and her chief airs, like the stronger airs in "Don Giovanni" and "Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail," are cast in the heroio mould. The quintet of parting in the first act is one of the divinest things that even Mozart ever penned. As a whole, the music has less singularity, less profile than the music of "Le Nozze di Figaro" and of "Don Giovanni. At times, in new of the cynical lightness of the story, one misses the spicy irony of Mo zart's great Italian disciple, the Ros sini of "Lltaliana In Algeri" and "The Barber of Seville" his comic raillery, the boastful frankness of his epicureanism. The gayety of Mozart, here as . always, is idealized. Here and ttvere the musio is tinged with the Mozartean melancholy, like unto GREEK, ARMENIAN REFUGEES CROWD INTO ISMID, TURKEY Onrush of Turkish Nationalists Recalls Slaughter of Thousands of Christians in 1917. ISMID, Turkey, June 31. With the onrush of Turkish national ists toward the Gulf of Ismid this historic old city was filled to overflowing with Greek and Arme nian refugees, who were being shipped on to Constantinople as fast as trans portation was available. Tales of the incoming refugees recalled the terrors through which the local Chris tians paasea in 1917, when all the Armenian section was burned, thou sands of Christians were slaughtered and others fled into the mountains. This ancient city, which was called Nlcomedia in biblical times, was the capital of Blthynia and under the Roman empire became one of the chief cities of Asia Minor. Pliny de scribed it in his letters to Trajan as having a senate house, an aqueduct, a forum and many temples and other public buildings. Diocletian made Ismid his residence and began the persecution of Christians which the Osmanli continued when they came into possession in the fourteenth cen tury. - Now Its population has been swelled by crowds fleeing before the nation alist advance and by British troops camped among the ruins of the old Roman and Byzantine walls on the mountain side, which now bristles with barbed wire entanglements and are converted into machine gun shel ters. Shabby Turkish soldiers, the rem nants of the Sultan's forces which re mained loyal to the Constantinople government, kilted Scots and turbaned Sikhs drag ammunition carts throueh WO .nui.' i...i. .. -j, ..Kv Kj.nuo u.e. ...... - - . " no other, his "sense of tears in mortal I the streets and make ready for the I forces oi Musiapna u.enai wmcn oc cupy the mountains which enclose the head of the Gulf of Ismid on three sides. Many of the Armenian orphanages established by the Americans and British in interior cities have been evacuated through Ismid to points be tween here and Constantinople less liable to attack by the nationalists. There is no peace for the Armenian and Greek children. Many of them have been moved scores of times since they were rescued from the Moslems and the stories of their sufferings ars almost incredible. Official figures show that 33,000 Armenian children have been recov ered up to date and about 66.800 are still in the hands of the Turks or Arabs. Many of the Armenian girls who passed through Ismid were tattoed on the forehead, cheeks and chin in such a manner that their faces will always hear the marks. Some of the older girls, were taken as wives by the Turks and Arabs, and the refusal of their Armenian associates to forgive their shame makes their rescue seem almost as great a tragedy as their life in the harem. Armenian children captured by Turks were so thoroughly frightened by the Moslems into denial of their nationality that many of them still insist they are Mohammedans. Fre quently they have been provided with falsified birth certificates and family records, so skillful was the effort to Islamize the Christian children. Since the foregoing was written the Turkish nationalists have made sev eral attempts to take Ismid but were defeated by British and Turkish gov I ernment troops.
