Submarine Diver Dras

[DaveBrt]

Just found a Dec 31, 1862 letter from Capt. Thomas R. Sharp to the QMG stating that the account of Mr. Dras, Submarine diver, is correct and that he has remitted check in payment to Col T H Ellis.

So who was Mr. Dras? There is only a single entry in NA, Citizen's File for him. What was a submarine diver doing getting an account paid by Sharp, the hauler of B&O RR locomotives? Sharp had also done various jobs in the Richmond/Petersburg area in the spring of 1862 and was now the Superintendent of the Locomotive Shop in Raleigh.

Any Naval Forum member know anything about him? What is his connection to Sharp?

 

[Story]

Hmm. Last name DRAS does not appear on Find A Grave as a viable candidate.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial...lid=&datefilter=&orderby=&page=1#sr-164550834

That's an indicator, in that I suspect Capt Sharp may not have spelled your diver's last name the same way the diver did. Since submarine salvage can't have been that big of a community circa 1860, I have two suggestions: play with the spelling of the last name (eg; DRASS, DRACE, ad nauseum) and 2) turn your search around and look at the firms in that business in Richmond, Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston & Savannah.

Bonus - pre-war submarine diving article, albeit Michigan
annarborchronicle.com/2010/05/13/in-the-archives-ypsis-submarine-diver/

 

[DaveBrt]

Hmm. Last name DRAS does not appear on Find A Grave as a viable candidate.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial...lid=&datefilter=&orderby=&page=1#sr-164550834

That's an indicator, in that I suspect Capt Sharp may not have spelled your diver's last name the same way the diver did. Since submarine salvage can't have been that big of a community circa 1860, I have two suggestions: play with the spelling of the last name (eg; DRASS, DRACE, ad nauseum) and 2) turn your search around and look at the firms in that business in Richmond, Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston & Savannah.

Bonus - pre-war submarine diving article, albeit Michigan
annarborchronicle.com/2010/05/13/in-the-archives-ypsis-submarine-diver/

2 items:

1. Richmond Dispatch of June 6, 1862 calls for the Dras Light Artillery of the Maryland Line to muster. Nothing in Fold3 about a Dras in MD or VA.

2. There is a Dras listed in NY in the 1860 Census, born in Belgium.