DIVER'S LUCKY ESCAPE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20650, 23 August 1930, Page 9 (Supplement)

DIVER'S LUCKY ESCAPE.

JAMMED IN AIR PIPE. RELEASED AFTER SIX HOURS. Harry Rodgers, aged 44, a naval diverfitter, had a remarkable escape from death when he was caught and jammed in an air suction pipo in Portsmouth Dockyard recently. Ife was imprisoned in the pipe, which was 20in in diameter and about 20ft. long, for some six hours. His air pipo and his life line remained intact, so it was possible to continue to supply him with oxygen, otherwise ho would have lost his life. Welders, after strenuously _ working for six hours, succeeded in cutting the pipe and bringing that section containing Mr. Rodgers to the ground, where they eventually had the satisfaction of sliding him out of tho pipe. He complained chiefly of his limbs being cramped, but otherwise ho appeared little tho worse for his iniprisonment. Mr. Rodgers had been sent with another divor into a culvert underneath tho generating station in tho dockyard to clear some obstruction. Ho was walking along the culvert when ho approached tho air pipo. Tho suction was so great that ho was drawn into tho pipo and carried halfway along it. Tho diver's headpiece fitted tight, and Mr. Rodgers could neithor movo nor bo moved. The top of his helmet was slightly above tho water,_ but tho remainder of his body was in tho water. Throughout tho six hours tho rescuers kept up conversation with the imprisoned man, who was quite cheerful and never lost consciousness. . To release the man from the pipe alter lifting it to tho ground floor it was necessary to cut away a part of his diving outfit and to clean and thoroughly grease the pipo to make it slippery. Piestoratives had previously been supplied to the man, but ho was little the worse when liberated; It was discovered after liberation that had tho man's head gone a little further it would have struck a valve, and in all probability ho would havo been killed.