DIVER IMPRISONED IN 15 FEET OF MUD.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 145, 20 June 1931, Page 10

DIVER IMPRISONED IN 15 FEET OF MUD.

RESCUERS SUCCEED AFTER SEVEN HOURS. . t Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received June 20, 1.30 pjn.) LONDON, June 19. An unusual drama was enacted on the bed of the Thames at Dagenham, where a jetty was being constructed. For seven hours a diver was imprisoned beneath fifteen feet of mud with the lifelines passing the jagged edges of a steel cylinder, weighing 100 tons, which was being sunk in the mud to provide foundations. A diver descended to ascertain what was preventing the cylinder sinking. Shortly afterwards the cylinder sank abruptly. Simultaneously there was a sharp tug on the diver’s safety rope and those above realised that the diver had been sucked down and buried in the mud. Other divers descended and worked continuously to locate their comrade. After seven hours he was released and brought to the surface still conscious, but with his face swollen and red. He explained that the greatest trouble was i the pressure of the mud on his body.