The Peril of the Deep
Divers and engineers battle immense pressure to raise a sunken tugboat from the depths of the bay.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Attempts are still being made to raise the tug Mystic. Capt. Bryant was engaged assisting Capt. Morrison yesterday. As yet they have not succeeded in getting the strong hold of her that they would like. Yesterday grappling hooks got hold of the sunken boat, and a part of her was brought up, this being the house, smokestack and small boat. The effect of the great pressure existing at the bottom is shown by the fact that the wood pulled off the Mystic's house would not float when brought to the surface. The small boat would have sunk again had not the painter been secured. Just as an experiment a piece of the house was torn off and thrown on the water. It sunk immediately. The Mystic lies in 192 feet of water, and at that depth the pressure is about ninety pounds to the inch. Capt. John Ryan, 'the deepest diver in the world,' maintains that he can work at that depth, and will undertake to raise the boat if others fail.
“The effect of the great pressure existing at the bottom is shown by the fact that the wood pulled off the Mystic's house would not float when brought to the surface.”
Salvage operations like this highlight the precariousness of Seattle's early maritime economy. Even today, the depths of the Puget Sound remain a site of industrial mystery, with old vessels still resting on the floor of the harbor.
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