A SENSATIONAL DIVE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9711, 5 January 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

A SENSATIONAL DIVE.

Ik their ceaseless search for something novel for patrons of the London Aquarium the management have discovered a new and sensational diver. For months now a diver has daily dropped from a platform beyond the roof of the structure into a small tank of water sunk in the floor below, a distance of more than forty yards, and the feat has been hitherto accomplished without accident. But, as the phrase employed implies, this plunge has been taken feet first. On November 8 a dive of 115 feet was taken head foremost into the same shallow tank by a swimmer of some repute —Charles Peart. For purposes of the demonstration a tiny platform had been fixed with pulleys within a few feet of the glass dome of the Aquarium, and it was to this that Peart was hauled up. Hardly a minute elapsed before he had audibly inflated his lungs and taken his spring, and the sensational dive was made, his hands and head: taking the very centre of the water in the tank, amidst hearty applause. It should be borne in mind that the tank itself is only 18fb by 12ft, the depth of the water being 6ft lOin. Peart averts that he could take the plunge into 4ft of water. Asked to give an explanation of how it was that with such a fall he did not strike the bottom of the tank, Peart stated that directly he touched the water it was his custom to lift up his hands, bend and bring his legs towards his face, and turn sharply on his back. Not long Bince he took a 95ft dive, and brought his head out of the water before his legs had disappeared. Four weeks previously he dived off the Tyne High Level Bridge for £50, which at its highest) point is 112 ft above the tideway, \