MYSTERIOUS DEPTHS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 261, 3 November 1928, Page 12

MYSTERIOUS DEPTHS

DIVER’S STORY OF TERRORS BOTTOMLESS MAINDY POOL 11 There is no diver in the country who has solved, or is likely to solve, the mystery of Maindy Pool. It is the worst of all pools.” This statement was made to a Sunday News correspondent by Mr David Skene, a I famous South Wales diver, when speaking of the horrors of the mysterious Alaindy Pool, near Cardiff Barracks, somewhere in the depths of which lies the body of Lilian Manley, an eight-ycar-old Cardiff girl. Every day since the child, while I crossing over the pool’s treacherous surface of refuse in search of Howers, fell through into its unknown depths, the distracted father has kept vigil at its edge, anti was present at two attempts made by Mr Skene to find the body. A few years ago, Air Skene made four descents of the mysterious Pool in search of the body o« a local lorry driver named Gallop, and has more knowledge of its dangers than any other living diver. Thousands of tons of refuse have since been dumped into the pool and the work of diving has thus been made more dangerous than ever before. It is quite unlikely now that its real depth will ever be known. There are, of course, many “bottoms” to Alaindy Pool, but from each of these one can proceed into further depths of mud and slime. Six Descents Into the Pool Pumps, machinery’ and a brickyand are said to be below the pool’s dark and evil surface, and the danger a diver has to face in descending its impenetrable slime can well be imagined. Mr Skene has now made half a dozen descents of the pool—four when he tried to recover the body of Gallop, and two in search of Lilian Manley. Describing his experiences, Air Skene denied that in these descents he had come upon 'what might have been human bodies. He said: “So dark is it beneath the surface of the pool, that I was never able to see a yard in front, around, or above me. The greatest menace of the Maindy Pool, however, so far as the diver is concerned, is in the impossibility of finding a definite bottom. “Down in the depths of the Pool there are shipways which have never been fully explored, and pumps and machinery which worked them are

hidden by banks of refuse mud which have been tipped in. “Ono might work on a 1 bottom ’ for ten or twelve feet, and. suddenly find himself precipitated into a large pothole, until dropping twenty to thirty feet another large ‘bottom’ is found; then, working round this, another drop over a ridge, lands one into a further great depth, and so on. Diver Goes Down 89ft. “And since on.’y one foot below the surface it is absolutely impossible to see a yard in any direction, the conditions as far down the pool to which 1 have descended makes it utterly impossible to work, other than by sense of touch. “When 1 went down on this last occasion,” he continued, “we had to drag tons of rubbish from off the surface of the pool, so as to make a place to descend, and on which to place a raft for the pump-men. For every J 4ft. descent I made I discovered. that there were surrounding banks of refuse mud; of considerable height made by tho regular tipping on the ono side of the pool. “After descending 56ft. I returned to the top for another length of pipe, and descended an additional 33ft., making altogether 89ft. When I found a bottom to work in, I groped around an area for about 12ft., when I found, at an arm’s length, a solid bank of refuse mud, and suddenly felt myself being enve oped up to the armpits in mud. Yet I was still sounding water with tho enormous banks of refuse mud towering above. “It was when I suddenly made another considerable drop that the emergency signal from above called me to the top. I realised then the futility of continuing the search of this tragic pool. Every diver knows that by working too light to master the softness of the bottom there is always the possibility of ‘blowing up’ to the surface. Mystery Ridges in the Pool “In the case of Maindy Pool this risk cannot now be taken, because it would be deadly dangerous, inasmuch as with practically the whole surface of the Pool covered; by refuse and lumber of all kinds until almost a solid covering is afforded, there would be the danger of not being able, to regain the limited rubbish-cleared space which had been made, especially if one was working some distance away from his .search-line. “This was one of my experiences when, a couple of years ago, I descended Alaindy Pool in search of the body of the lorry driver, who together with his lorry, toppled over tho edge of tho pool into its awful depthos. “On that occasion I worked for 3J hours, until finally dropping over one of the mystery ridges, I nearly capsized by pump-men’s raft. I had worked, to the end of my search-line before going over this ridge. “When ultimately I returned to the top I was so certain that the man’s body had travelled in the direction I myself had taken that when it eventually came to the surface, it 'was within a foot or so from where I had exactly indicated: it would be.”