ROMANCE OF DIVING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19019, 15 November 1923, Page 11

ROMANCE OF DIVING.

THE LONELIEST JOB. SALVING COLD. A WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENI. When the salving of the vast treasure on board the. ■ sunken AVhite Star Miner Laurentic—variously estimated at £8,000,900 to £10,000,000 —is complete, tne formal official story of the diving operations will surpass in romantic interest the wildest imagination of fiction. Twenty fathoms down, among gravel, sea slime, and weird marine forms of animal and vegetable life, naval divers, during the past three years, have been extracting nearly four millions sterling in gold ingots and silver specie from tiie twisted,« steel wreckage representing tho once-proud 15,000 tons vessel which a German submarine torpedoed off Lough Swilly in January, 1917 (says the London Evening Standard). A wonderful achievement. But what of the courageous men—‘‘toilers of the deep” .in its most literal sense —engaged in mis strange task? The present salving feat recalls the his| torie operations carried out during thtj summers of 1859 to 1844 on the tamoiuj Royal George, which foundered at Spit-l head in 1782. f Tho work was successfully performed by Mr A. thebe, founder of the well-known British firm of Messrs Siebs. Gorman, and Co. (Ltd.), submarine engineers, and in- 1 ventor of diving apparatus on the- principle in universal use to-day. Among trophies of the Royal George still to ba seen at the firm’s headquarters are flintlock pistols and an officer’s sword, which may have been the one worn by Admiral Kempenfeldt himself. Interesting tacts about divers and their work were mentioned by the diving expert; of the firm, who is an ex-Servica; tjiver, and pas trained some hundreds of men for the work, including, in fact, one of the chief divers engaged in the Laurentic operations. CARRIES I7OLB. “A man,” he explained, “must bo physically tit in every way before being taught diving, and, wherever possible, ha is examined by a doctor every morning. In the Service he has to undergo ’About 10 to 12 weeks’ preliminary training. “Usually he is submerged about three or four fathoms in open water to begin with, being told off for duty in connection with cables or searching lor lost articles. As his experience increases he is given more responsible work at greater -depths until he reaches the maximum depth in training, about 25 fathoms. “The approximate weight of the diver’s outfit, including helmet, leadeil-soled 1 boots weighing 161 b each, and 801 b of lead;.-over the shoulders, totals about 1701 b '.out of the water. The strain of this - weight is practically lost while the diver is submerged, owing to the presence of the' air which is being forced down to him through the air-tubes connecting his .helmet with, the air-pumps or compressors on the salvage boat above. “The length of time a diver can remain below depends upon the depth at which he is operating. The greater the depth the shorter the time ho can remain there. This is because allowance has to be made for the fact that a diver breathing compressed air is so saturated with nitrogen otfeat if he were to come suddenly to the surface from a great pressure ho might lose his life or become seriously ill from ‘caisson’ disease, or compressed-air illness. “Accordingly great care has to be taken by the men in the salvage-boat while raising a diver to the surface. A diver working in 25 fathoms should not remain below at that depth any longer than 20 minutes, if this can possibly be avoided. Evenythen, it. will take another 30 minutes to' - bring him gradually to the surface while his system is meanwhile throwing off the.-niro-gen temporarily absorbed.” SEEING UNDER WATER. “As to visibility under water, a diver is very fortunate it he can even see what he is doing, and a great deal ‘depends upon his knowledge of touch and feeling. This particularly applies to diving round the Coasts in moderate depths where adjacent rivers pour out mud and sewage from inland points; or where the water lias been churned up by recent storms. In great depths, however, approaching 25 ,to 30 fathoms, hard bottom sand and shingle are generally found, aiid visibility is verygood, providing there is good light above and a clear sky. “In diving 27j fathoms off Zante, near Greece, I have been aide to see objects within a, radius cf 400 to 500 yards.' From the position where I was diving, for instance, 1 colild see quite plainly the chip’s anchor and cable at two and a-half cable lengths away. - “there is, however,’ an eerie feeling sometimes when one is alone. No solitary traveller in the desert or in the Austro lian bush has any ctfriceptiou of the utter sense of loneliness that at times comes over the diver in great .depths, if he has time, to meditate upon his environment. OCI'OPUS A DANGER. ’ “Apart from the danger of ‘caisson’ disease, there is always the risk of becoming entangled in wreckage. After the diver ■ leaves the surface he never knows what awaits him at the bottom or where he may land. The danger from sharks in topical waters lias also to be reckoned with, and the diver has always his sharp, two-edged knife- ready at hand for an emergency, the shark, however, is not so dangerous as some people imagine. He is quite a nervous fish, and is usually scared away by the movements cf the diver and the air-bubbles escaping from the helmet. “The octopus, on the other hand, |s (despite tho reassuring comments that have been published lately) probably the most dangerous form of marine life. Even at’ Gibraltar I have seen these creatuies with tentacles about 3jft long, and, including the body, giving a spread of about 9ft. “Unlike the shark, tho octopus 'goes for anything it sees moving. The danger is that if a large one is encountered itlmay throw ono of its feelers, with a long-" row of suckers round you, and immediately encircle you with its other tentacles and bind your arms helpless by your side before you can slash at them with your knife.”