The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1885-10-17
WORKENG UNDER DT4TER.
A PeriIous Occupation-Workin Wrecks
Blasting Rock, Laying Pipe, and Now
and Then Sleeping Under the Water
New York Divers In Europe

I'm not going to tell you about
ghosts under water or corpses sitting
upright in the staterooms ofsteamers,
with books open on their knees as if,
they had been reading when they were
drowned, because | haven't seen such.
Nor has any other diver. You can't
see anything in a sunken vessel. If
any one tells you such stories he's not
a diver-he's a liar. You can tell him
No. l said So"
"No. l ?"
Yes, No. /. See here" and the
speaker unfastened a shield-shaped
badge from his vest upon which was
engraved: "New York Divers, f. c. No.
l."
"What does the F. c. stand for?"
'First class. There aren't many of
us-only ten OF those badges are out.
No diver who hasn't reached a high
grade of proficiency can get a badge
from us. | have the giving out of the
licenses, SO | know how few are allowed
to wear them. The ten divers who
have them are sent for to work all
over this country and Europe. 1t
rarely happens that one or another OF
us isn't abroad. Whenever we hear
of big wreck in foreign waters we
know that an order will come to this
place for some of us to take the next
steamer over"
Suppose a perfectly green hand
should come to you and want olearn
the art of diving. How wouldyou put
him through ?"
First of all I'd send him to sea be-
fore the mast and let him work as a
sailor until he knew all parts of yes
sel-Or better still, of various kinds of
vessels. He ought to sail on every
kind OF craft from sloop to an ocean
steamer. He ought to know the ins
and outs of such vessels, where the
cabins and staterooms are and the
parts OF the vessel in which various
kinds of freight is slowed. When he'd
made himself thoroughly familiar with
vessels Ia put him to work on the air
pump. After that I'd let him dive"
"Then at last he's a diver?"
"No, not necessarily. The chances
are he'd be a dead failure"
"a dead failure after the whole
course?"
L
trying to be a diver unless he's natur-
ally handy; and on the other hand,
there's no use in a naturally handy
man taking that course. I'd make a
man take it to make him handy If he
wasn't so naturally. You see there's
all kinds of work to be done under
water. People always associate div
ing with wrecks, dead bodies, or treas
ure. But that's a small part of our
work, not a particularly fine line of. it
either. The fine work of a divers oc-
Cupation is that in which he has to
ply some trade like like carpentering
or pipe laying under water. You see
a diver should be skillful at MANY
trades to be a success. That's what |
mean by being handy. For instance,
we think the Job that's being done
by Bill Smith just now one
of the finest pieces OF work
diver ever had to do. He's
laying line OF pipe for the health
department from Port Morris to
North Brother Island. He has every
thing to do connected with laying that
line OF pipe. He has to keep the line
straight, unpack the pipe, put it to-
gether, and, in fact, he has to do the
work OF skillful pipe layer all by the
sense Of touch. That is, he has to do
in the dark work usually done in
broad daylight by skilled laborers."
"Why does he have to work in the
dark? Heisn' in acaisson, is he?"
"No. But on account of the sewage,
] suppose, it's pitch dark under the
water all about New York. That
the reason New York divers are at the
top of the profession. Put them in
clear water and their work seems child s
play to them. They can work twice
as fast there as divers from elsewhere.
But get a diver from elsewhere, for in
stance an English diver, here, and he
can't do a stroke OF work. Now, we
can work as fast in these dark waters
by touch as they can work in their
own waters by sight"
"Then your sense of feeling must be
almost as fully developed as that OF a
man born blind?"
II take it that our sense of touch
under the water is. We can tell by
touch all the metals from one another
copper from brass" ."
Cant you tell metals apart when
they're not in the water ?"
mo. Lay the metals on this table
and blindfold me, and | can't tell one
from another. Chuck 'emin that wash
basin and | can tell them apart as
easily as if | saw them. Under water
in the dark, lean find my way all over
the decks OF vessels, down companion
ways, into cabins and staterOoms.
about the baggage and freight away
down in the hold, and about the ma
chinery of a steamer. Blindfold me
here and | don't believe | could grope
my way to the front door"
"You spoke OF the hardness re-
quired OF diver. Is there any skill
required in the act OF diving mean
getting down to the object on which
you are to work."
mo. That is to say, no particular
skill, only care. You must be careful
not to 90 down the life line too fast,
because if you did the pressure on you
would be too sudden. But the art OF
going down is easy enough. The dress
weighs the diver down. You see, his
shoes weigh twenty pounds each.
Then he has on his chest and back
weights of forty pounds each. In ad-
dition to this the helmet and collar
are heavy. The dress consists of two
layers OF duck with layer OF rubber
between them. To the toppart OF the
dress a collar OF copper is affixed, and
10 this the helmet Is firmly screwed
afterit has been placed over the divers
head. The helmet is large enough to
allow space of three inches around
the head, and there are three tubes
through which the,air reaches the inte-
rior OF the helmet. Before diver goes
down, weighted line is sunk to the
spot he is to reach below The life
line is tied around his waist, and TO
his helmet Is attached thehos through
which the air Is pumped into the he'll
met. The diver gees down the weight
ed line, the hose and the life line being
run out as he desCends. As he moves
about below, those above must regu-
late the life line and hose and should