seventeen minutes past two
The emotion of the officers and sailors on board was now divided between the prisoners in the projectile and the prisoners in the submarine apparatus . As to the latter , they forgot themselves , and , glued to the windows of the scuttles , attentively watched the liquid mass through which they were passing . The descent was rapid . At seventeen minutes past two , J. T. Maston and his companions had reached the bottom of the Pacific ; but they saw nothing but an arid desert , no longer animated by either fauna or flora . By the light of their lamps , furnished with powerful reflectors , they could see the dark beds of the ocean for a considerable extent of view , but the projectile was nowhere to be seen . The impatience of these bold divers can not be described , and having an electrical communication with the corvette , they made a signal already agreed upon , and for the space of a mile the Susquehanna moved their chamber along some yards above the bottom . Thus they explored the whole submarine plain , deceived at every turn by optical illusions which almost broke their hearts .