Going down in a diving machine [graphic]

"A box-like room is suspended in the sea by ropes on pulleys, a shaft ascending from its roof. There is no front wall, enabling sea-monsters to attack the occupants, who are four terrified little men, naked except for breeches. In each of the three walls is a barred window; through one (right) a large fish has pushed its head to seize the head of a man in its jaws, while water gushes in."--British Museum online catalogue, description of an earlier state