San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-11-24


Workers on the Wrecked Oregon Saw the
Sun Through One Hundred and Twenty
Feet of Ocean-Knowing Men Talk.
GLOW far can a diver see in horizontal
direction when he is standing on the bot
tom of the ocean hundred or more feet
from the surface?" was asked of a group of
practical divers standing in State street one
day last week. No two of them agreed.
Several said that all conditions being ia
vorable and bright sun shining they could
see from 80 to 100 feet and could distin-
guish objects at that distance. Others
laughed and said that it was impossible to
see even under the most favorable condi-
tions more than 20 or % feet away, and even
at that distance it was hard to distinguish
objects except of great size
The men who said they could see a great
distance said that they could stand on the
bottom 100feet down, and looking up could
distinguish the outlines of ship above
them. These divers are practically new in
the business. The oldest one had only been
a diver five years, and had never been down
in the ocean more than hundred feet.
The same question was put to divers of
more experience. They also disagreed, but
not so much as did the party of young men.
Robert Rogers, who was practical diver
ten years ago, and only recently retired
from the business and became a contractor,
said: "In all my experience l don't think
was ever able to see more than 20 feet away
through the water. More often it was 10
or 10 feet, and a good deal of the time it
was impossible to see at all
cat inside work, that is, in the harbor
this side of Sandy Hook, divers work in
the dark almost always. The water is sell
dom clear enough to see your hand in front
of your face, and everything is done by
feeling. Outside, where there is good
sandy bottom, the water is clearer, but even
then, at depth of IS or 100 feet, it is sell
dom clear enough to see through, although
believe the men who worked onthe wreck
of the Oregon were able to see the number
over the stateroom doors. There was ITO
feet of water over her.
A DIVERS OPINION.
con a good clear day, when the water is
clear on top, when there is no ripple, it is
possible to see objects distinctly 10 feet
away at a depth of IS feet or even 100 feet
At that depth when you look up you can
notice that the water seems to be of a
look horizontally You can distinguish
nothing. You can't see the bottom of the
boat from which you are working, but if
you look right straight in the direction of
the ship you may notice that the water is
the same color as it appears to be when you
look horizontally.
81 never noticed particularly the differ
ence in the color of the water or objecls in
. he II II hi,,l-
always looked the same, a kind of dull
color. The color of fishes cannot be dis
tinguished They simply look like dark
objects moving about. Ny ability to see
under water didn't increase with exper-
fence. could see as well the first time as
could the last time went down. Constant
practice, of course, enables a man to stand
the pressure of great depths better.
Usually a man begins to feel uncom-
Portable when he gets down IS feet, and at
lbs feet the average man would faint away
He would be overcome by the pressure. I
have been down that deep and have come
up all right, but tell you didn't enjoy
the trip. know one diver who went down
40 feet. That was in the lakes. He was
after safe full of money belonging to the
Wells-F Fargo Express company. He got it."
Edward Hickman has been diver nine.l
years. He was one of the six divers who
went down in the ocean and brought up
part of the valuable cargo of the steamship
Oregon. The Oregon was sunk in 100 feet
of water. In some places there was 120 feet
of water above her decks. This is the
deepest water in which divers of New York
have ever been asked to work. No effort
has been made to raise ships sunk in deeper
water, or to save their cargo. Hickman
is now working for the government in the
New York harbor. The other day, just
about the time he was preparing to begin !
his days work on the bottom of the bay,
he stopped for a moment and said:
WORKING IN THE HARBoR.
son clear day and under favorable con- |
ditions diver can generally see from twen- |
ty to thirty feet, sometimes more. In ex- |
ceptional cases, the Oregon for instance, |
when we didn't go down except in the very
best weather, we could see further. We |
could stand on the deck of the Oregon and |
see fifty feet in every direction. We could |
stand six feet away from the brass plates |
over the doors on the steamer and could \
read the inscriptions. We could distin- |
guish the colors of the wood and of objects |
under water. | remember one day we |
could LOOK up and see the sun that shone |
through the 100 feet of water. Its color /