York In 1852, The cargo of this vessel was flour, and strange as it may seem, very little of this flour was damaged] The year of 1853 found him salvaging the cargo of the propeller PRINCETON, which had gone down in Lake Erie, a short distance west of Van Buren Point, New York. Harrington recovered most of the cargo and returned it to the owner, which was the Erie Railroad. The cargo consisted of hardware, agricultural implements, dry goods, and stoves. The next two years he spent diving to wrecks in the upper lakes, and recovering many valuable cargoes for their owners. His diving ability was known from the northern shores of Lake Superior, to the South shore of Lake Erie. He never lacked for work. Whenever ship owners or Marine Underwriters needed the services of a diver, a call was sent out for Mr. Harrington. Early in June 1858 be began to lay his plans for the attack on the ATLANTIC. To him it was a challenge, for the ship as fate would have it, had gone down in one of the deepest holes in Lake Erie. His first step was to have a talk with the purser of the sunken vessel, who had been one of the survivors of the sinking. He readily told Harrington as to where the strong box would be found on the wreck. He stated that, it was in his stateroom, which was the third room aft of the wheel-house, on the port side. With this vital information, Harrington picked his partners, all experienced men in the marine field, and June 19th found them aboard the salvage vessel FLETCHER and anchored over the sunken hulk of the ATLANTIC. His partners in this venture were William Newton, Charles Gardner, and Martin Quigley. Quigley was also a submarine man, but he made no dives to the ATLANTIC. The day was ideal for the beginning of operations, not a ripple broke the surface of the lake, she was as smooth as a piece of glass. Harrington was made ready by his tender for the first dive, which was to be mere or less exploratory. For this particular salvage attempt, he had discarded the conventional diving gear of the day because of the great depth. Instead, he was using a sort of combination diving bell and dress. He had free movement of his arms in it, though it was a sort of copper armor shell, shaped like a man. Mr. Harrington has often been given credit as the inventor of this odd diving gear; this is inaccurate. An inventor of recognized ability, Harrington did, however, make improvements on it, that made it easier for the submarine men who used it later to carry out their work on the bottom of the lakes. By nine a.m., young Harrington was encased in his diving gear, lowered over the side, and on his way down to the wrecked ATLANTIC. At the fifty foot depth, complete darkness closed in on him, and as he continued to go down, the water became colder. By the time his lead shoes thudded on to the deck of the sunken craft, he was chilled to the marrow of his bones, and might just as well have been working in a huge bottle of black ink. Harrington*s guess was that he had landed on the promenade deck of the silent ATLANTIC, about forty feet aft of the pursers cabin. He had no way of actually knowing for sure, the only way he would be able to confirm his belief, was to prowl the promenade deck and search out the cabin that contained the coveted strong box. The only working tool that Harrington had taken down with him was a short iron bar, roughly three foot in length. He carried it for use in helping to extricate himself, in the event that be became entangled in any debris that might have been strewn on the wreck. This same iron bar turned out to be the means of his locating the stateroom he sought. Due to the intense cold of the water, Harrington*s hands soon became numb, and in the many ensuing descents to the treasure ship, be used the bar as a crudgel to beat his way to the wanted room. His hands were so cold that he could not distinguish the feel of wood fiom glass, and as he made his way forward in the search, he would strike blows with his bar. If the blow landed solid he knew it was wood he was hitting, if it crashed through an opening, he knew without a doubt, that he was breaking the glass in the windows of the staterooms. By this