Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1892-10-02
SEEING UNDER WATER
DIVERS OPINIONS VARY REGARDING
THE DISTANCE.


THE DISTANCE.
q Question for Submarine Engineers.
workers ON the Wrecked Oregon saw tho
sun Through One Hundred and Twenty
Feet of foe-an-knawing Men Talk.
How far can IA diver see in n horizontal
when he n standing on the bot
tom Of the ocean hundred or more feet
from the suriacef" was asked uf 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 90 70 lOl feet and could distin-
guish objects Mt that distance Others /
laughed and said that 1t WAS impossible TO !
see even under the most favorable condi. /
tions more than ~ or o feet away. and even ]
at that distance il was hard 10 distinguish /
objects excep, of great size
The men who said they could see a great
distance sntd that they could stand on the
bottom 100 feet 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 eve wears aud had EeVer 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 a. did the party of young men.
Robert Rogers. who was a practical diver
ten years ago, aud only recently retired
from the business aud became n contractor,
said: "In all my experience don't think
was ever able TO see more than - feet away
through the water. More often Il was 10
fn.f al ,a1 Inat nf yh
I was impossible to see NJ all
AT inside work. that j.. 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 "a good
sandy bottom, the water Is clearer but even
then, at depth ~ - or 100 feet Il is sci.
/ dom clear enough To- see through although
believe the men who worked on the wreck
of the Oregon We're ahle To see the number
over the stateruom doors There was 40
feet Of water over her
DIVERS OPINION.
ION n good clear day. when the water is
clear on top when there is no ripple, IL IL
possible 10 see objects distinctly II feet
away at depth Of - feet or even 100 feet
I At that depth when You look up you can
\ notice that tho water seems 10 he of a
slightly lighter color than IL does IL you
| look horizontally You can distinguish
nothing. You can't see the bottom OF the
boat from which you are working, but II
/ You look right straight in the direction Of
/ the ship you may notice that the water Is
the same color rs il appears 10 be when you
/ look horizontally.
81 never noticed particularly the differ
q E..s u. 81. "A.
the water as went down ! think they
always looked the same, "a Kind Of dull
color The color of fishes cannot he dis
tinguished. They simply look like dark
objects moving about. NY ability to see
under water didn't increase with exper-
ience. could see as well the first time as
could the last time went down. Constant
practice, of course. enables n man 10 stand
the pressure Of great depths better.
Usually n man begins to feel uncom-
Portable when he gets down - feet and at
i25 feet the average man would faint away
He would be overcome by the pressure.
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
14O feet That was ia the lakes. lie was
after n safe full Of money belonging TO the
Wells Fargo Express company, lie got II. :"
Edward Hickman has been n diver nine
years He was one of he six divers who
went down in the ocean and brought up a
part OF the valuable cargo of The steamship
Oregon. The Oregon was sunk in 40 feet
of water In some places there was I'D 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 hay
he stopped for a moment and said;
WORKING IN THE uARBog
"On n clear day and under favorable con.
ditions diver can generally see from TWEEN.
tS to thirty feet. sometimes more In ex-
ceptional eases, the Oregon for Instance,
when we didn't 20 down except in the very
best weather, We could see further We
could stand ON the deck of the Oregon and
see iifty 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 aud OF objects
under water remember one day we
could look mp and see the sun that shone
4
was a sort Of BLUSH yellow II was bright
er than the moon, but was hazy. The bot
tom OF the ocean was fine white sand. We
could stand on the bottom and look down
at our feet and distinguish the grains OF
sand
That was five feet When we came to-
ward the surface after an hours work the
water looked lighter and lighter, and, look.
Ing up, things looked red. II resemhled
the appearance of the sky at sunrise. We
worked on the Oregon under an air press
ure OF sixty pounds. We felt all right down
in the water, hut when we came out we
felt the effect OF the pressure. II we worked
too long at the great depth we became tenn.
porarily payalyzed. Now, in harbor work
it is so muddy that divers all labor in the
dark The water looks clay color after you
get down a Zoo; or two.
IL don't think that my ability 10 see un
der water increased with practice. My
power to stand pressure did. With con
slant practice, going little deeper every
day, l think coald 20 down 10 feet
might work 20 feet down, but "a foot lower
than $50 would be mighty risky even to &c
down and come right up again. We sci
used to working under water, and Il s about
the same To US rs working on land The
worst feature OF under water work Is th,
headaches that come from IL. II n diTel
has little cold in the head and goes int
the water he is in agony till he comes out
Headaches come without cold. New
York Sun,