The morning call., 1890-09-28

aDout TO make my first descent under water
In the suit of q submarine diver. A cele-
bfated philosopher and poet has said that
as the memory relieves the mind in her
vacant moments; and fills up the chasms of
thought with ideas of what is past, we have
other faculties that agitate and employ her
upon what is to come" That what is to
come" precisely describes fear and rs |
stood on the ruDgs Of a diving-launch'S lad
der, encased in a waterproof suit. fully
two sizes too large for me, with breast
plate and helmet firmly screwed down,
and shoes on my feet weighing twenty
pounds each, l am convinced l had a full
cargo OF it, a necklace of lead, weighing
eighty pounds, having been adjusted around
my shoulders and my manila lifeline having
been hauled taut around my waist and
strapped with the aiT-hose to the side Of my
helmet my instructor gave the signal TO his
assistant to start the pump questioned me
with regard to my signals, cautioned me not
TO make a fool of myself" as many others
had done, and then screwed on the face-plate
which cut me off from all ordinary commu-
nleatlOn with the world, said a submarine
diver TO writer for tie PittSbuig Press.
What emotions welled within me as l de-
scended step by step shall not tTeSpass on
SPACE to describe; suffice it to say it was
almost one hundred to one against my de-
-s7g1fding at all, | felt so dreadfully afraid.
Pride and will finally conquered, however.
/ compelled my almost paralyzed limbs to
perform their Office, the lat rung of the lad
der was reached, er8sped my guide-rope
ard slowly let myself down to the bottom.
During my descent / had experienced n
most frighttul ringing in my ears; it seemed
as II the drums were about to burst On my
reaching the bottom ! remembered the in
junction Of my instructor to swallow my
breath, yell or sing l praeticed all three,
with the result that was instantly relieved.
] then set about tour. The fish, of which
there were q great number, SWAN around
Inc, peered curlously into the glass plate of
satisfied, swan away again. put out my
hands, as if to catch them, but this did not
seem
TO SCARE THEM
In the lsast on the contrary
they clustered. around me all the More
closely. They appeared much larger than
the same species which l had seen out
OF water. After awhile, the bottom being
very muddy and being unable TO see per-
fectly, my feet slipped from under me and l
made " hat thought was Brooklyn bridge
leap. After Tesalning my footing and re-
ceiving one tug on my life line, which was
signal inquiring whether was all right, |
explored this apparent chaSm ard found 1t
was only about feet deep. | suppose l
remained under water fully half an hour
on my first essay. did not ask to be hauled
Tlp, but waited until the signal lone up
SFas giverIsme.
During pny stay under water | had made
the acquaintance of more live eels than ever
before in my life, although L had only
descended to a depth of 30 ieet. felt none
the worse for my descent on my arrival on
top and began to think had within me the
making of a model diver
Ny second essay was not so successful 1t
was in deeper Watsr-probably twelve or
fourteen fathOms. | started out to lind a ca
bic that was somewhere near where l had
been let down. ! scrambled around for some
time without any success, when my right
shoe having become entangled in something
on the bottom, had the misfortune to lose
it. Finding it impossible to keep my right
" leg on the bottom because of its decided ten
dency to pr actice high-klcking every time L
moved l signaled pull me up. When my
face plate was unscrewed explained that L
had lost one Of my shoes. My shoe having
been replaced in few minutes was de-
scending again, this time to hunt up
my lost one. After search OF prob
ably a quarter OF an hour, L espied
it half jammed under stone.
Unfortunately for myself, in my eagerness
r to grasp it, | bent forward from standing
position instead of dropping on my knees
The consequence was that the air IN the
upper part of my suit escaped to my legs
and lifted my feet. l tried and tried again
to regain my footing, but could not, and
eventually had to 90 up feet fist. My sec
ond essay was not without fruit, however.
| had regained my lost shoe and had learned
Z. very valuable lesson.
| Since then | have worked on ships hot
fcJas on stages weighted with hedge
a,dchorS and placed in position by mYseI,
-fand have rarely experienced any dlhculty
l. G performing the work which set out TO
accomplish. When a man once becomes
accustomed to working under water he can
handle tools with almost the same pre-
cisfon as
HE DOES UPON DRY LAND.
In shallow water-say from SIX to eight
fatkoms-it il difficult to keep ones footing,
because the pressure Of the water is not sui
ficieut altogether to overcome the air in the
suit A man can easily work for three
hours in ten fathoms of water, but in twenty
an hour is considered very good wofk. IL
takes strongly constituted man and good
diver to work at all in thirty fathoms. All
this talk of men descending to fifty fathomS
| believe to be utter rot. have conyersed
with some OF the most expert divers from
time to time, and the concensns oil
stay in thirty-four fathoms OF water for
half an hour is good one. In submarine
diving one soon discovers that In order to
descend to any great depth and remain a
length OF time It Is desirable 10 leI one sen
down slowly. Going down quickly starts
rush Of blood to the head, and III almost all
cases the diver will find himself bleeding
from the eyes, rose, mouth ana ears, ana
suffering intense pain on his touching the
bottom. Given a light, sandy bottom and
clear water, man can discover objects ut
great distance; but if the bottom Is at all
muddy it is almost equivalent to ones Crop
ing his way in thick fog.
The average weight OF the submarine
divers suit and its equipment IS about 100
pounds, so that when man weighing, say
100 pounds-and men of that weight gen.
eraIiy make the best divers II perfectly
sound-descends below the blue depths he Is
carrying on his body twenty pounds more
lthari his own weight, yet on his touching the
A-ottom he feels SO light that he could run
y race if freed from his air-hose and lifeline
The signals in usein submarine diving are
as follows: One tug on the line slghiIes
''all right; three, "haul me up. one B. tug
on the hose means 'more air.; two, less
air" In case the lifeline gets damned or
f0uled by any means, and the hose is clear,
three tugs on the hose signifies 'haul me
up" If the two are jammed then it be-
comes necessary TO send second diver down
to clear the first
While on the subject pei haps it would be
worth while to relate few incidents which
have come under my norice while attending
other men, BY the way it takes three men
to attend a diver-one to dress him and at
tend to his signals while below and two 10
One very dark night about three years ago
diver descended under the boat-house
AT THE ToRPHnp STATION,
Newport, r. l., for the purpose Of testing
100 candle-power incandeScent submarine
lsmp. He had scarcely been under water
i've minutes when, owing to the imperfect
insulation of the wires. he became short
circuited'' and was knocked fiat on his back.
His attendant, scarcely more fortunate, re;
ceived the current along the wet line and
hose and for few minutes he thought
spring had come. 1t needed only a lew mo-
nients TO cut off the circuit, haul up the
diver and nnsrrew his face-plate. Strange
to relate he said Ire felt ''all right. having
only been stunned for few minutes, lie
was able TO tell us that, by the aid OF the
light. he could see perfectly within radius
of fourteen 10 fifteen feet.
On another location we had the misfortune
to lose the anchor Of submarine mine In
Newport Harbor. The senior member OF the
diving class, a youth Of some 80 summers,