But perhaps the most useful article of all was a new form of diving bell
called the _Nautilus_, a kind of submarine boat, capable of lateral as
well as vertical movement at the will of its occupants. Constructed with
double sides, the intervening chambers could be filled either with water
or air according as descent or ascent was required. A proper supply of
water enabled the machine to descend to depths impossible to be reached
otherwise; this water could then be expelled by an ingenious
contrivance, which, replacing it with air, enabled the diver to rise
towards the surface as fast as he pleased.
All these and many other portions of the submarine apparatus which had
been employed that very year for clearing the channel, lifting the
wrecks and recovering the treasure, lay now at San Francisco, unused
fortunately on account of the season of the year, and therefore they
could be readily obtained for the asking. They had even been generously
offered to Captain Bloomsbury, who, in obedience to a telegram from
Washington, had kept his crew busily employed for nearly two weeks
night and day in transferring them all safely on board the
_Susquehanna_.
Marston was the first to make a careful inspection of every article
intended for the operation.
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