Peter Carroll is the author of Queen of Misfortune – A Lady Jane Grey Novel. For more information, see his website.
Before technology came up with all the modern diving equipment it must have been terribly dangerous to don one of the cumbersome diving suits of old when the only lifeline between you and certain death by drowning was a fragile air tube – controlled by a manual air pump on the surface.
And inevitably many underwater explorers lost their lives either by tangled and fractured airways or in taking a risk too far and too deep to suffer the horrible pangs of the bends.
As a boy I remember seeing pictures and old movies and brave divers wearing the standard diving suits later made of rubber as used in the early days of World War 11 and many film dramas were built around their brave deeds.
I remember imagining if only we could be like fish and develop gills, what fun that would be, imagining all those exploring adventures discovering the remains of old ships laden with artifacts of silver and gold.
Then I remember reading about John Lethbridge at school – an ingenious inventor of his time, and in researching this piece I came across the name again, and was particularly fascinated when I learned he lived locally in Newton Abbot, Devon.
Plying his trade as a wool merchant it may have been thought unlikely he would become famous but happily he gained new employment in the salvage trade with the Dutch East India Company when he invented a diving machine as early as 1715. Looking back it looks very primitive but then it was the state of the art, and was used to salvage valuables from the many wrecks around the South Devon coast.
It was an airtight barrel made of wainscot oak paneling just large enough to accommodate an average sized diver.
The question in my mind asks why own earth did this guy take so many risks being a devoted family man who fathered no less than 17children? But maybe the answer is plainly he needed the money to support his flock, much more than a wool merchant would earn. And with all those records of sunken ships with a very attractive bounty’s just lying there beneath the sea, it was time to put on that thinking hat and experiment in the garden – and he didn’t have horticulture in mind or, as his neighbours may have perceived; making a sunken garden of sorts. But what was that deep oblong sized trench all about? It didn’t take long for the rains to fill it up and although neighbours scoffed at his attempt to lay out his posh garden it was just what he wanted, to enable him to experiment with a new concept, a diving machine which would enable him time and access to the rich pickings below the sea.
Gradually and with great care, aware that his life was on the line, he constructed his submersible machine; an oak cylinder with a glass porthole about four inches in diameter and six ft. in length which he was easily able to slide into it and lie inside on his stomach.
There were two holes to put his arms through, and oiled leather cuffs around the upper arms formed a good water seal.. Another line was used to signal instructions to his colleagues above. And a cable was attached to a handle on the top for lifting.
During further trials he was delighted to discover, when the cylinder was filled with air from a manual pump on the surface, thus sealing the two inlet air vents to contain the air inside – he could stay 12 fathoms under water for 30 minutes at a time, giving him good time to collect valuable artifacts, place them in a receptacle attached to a rope, which could easily be pulled up to the surface boat.
When he came to the surface, fresh air was pumped in through the one vent and used air let out through the second – then he was ready to submerge again..
It is a remarkable achievement that during his first salvage operation using the machine, he recovered 25 chests of silver and 65 cannons and soon was to become a very rich man after recovering much sought after artifacts which had been thought lost forever, from four English men-of-war, one Indiaman, two Spanish galleons and a number more. One of his famous recoveries was on the Dutch Slotter Hooge which had sunk in storms off the Madeira coast with over three tons of silver on board.
He has to be one of the few local inventors, who lived in South Devon, to join the ranks of the greats, those who played such a significant role to enhance future development and technology, like Isaac Merritt Singer who made the sewing machine a viable project by inventing a new simpler stitch mechanism, and Charles Babbage inventor of the Computer.
Where would we be today without them!
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QUEEN OF MISFORTUNE
A Lady Jane Grey Novel by Peter Carroll
A Love Story of Shakespearean Dimension!
Queen Of Misfortune is the fictional story of Lady Jane Grey as told by her beloved tutor, John Aylmer. At the time of her execution a stranger is recorded to have assisted her when, blind folded, she lost her way upon the scaffold. Was it the same strange who was also recorded to have visited her when she was imprisoned in the Tower? Little is known of this unfortunate girl who was beheaded for treason in the 16th Century. She was only 16. She is omitted from the list of monarchs but was actually queen for nine days. Author Peter Carroll, in his novel, follows John Aylmer’s close relationship with Jane as her tutor and later, as she grows up, her lover. [More...]
Available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.
