Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-05-03
SLEEPING DIVERS.
Habit Growing Worse Every Year, and
ApparentIy Cannot Be Cured.

Habit Growing Worse Every Year, and
Apparently Cannot Be Cured.
Sleeping sickness has developed
among the divers employed in the
Mediterranean and the Levant to such
an extent that 1t has seriously affected
the revenues of the wrecking and sal
wage companies-that is, the divers
say 1t is sleeping sickness" but their
employers have another name for 1t.
The companies do all their business
by contracts with the owners of the
wrecked steamships, and the divers
are paid according to the time they
are under the water at work. Wages
are regulated by the number Of hours
the men can stay down. A diver, for
example, who received IS for the first
hour, would get $40 for the second
hour and $50 for the third.
Captain Samuel Ridge, who passed
through Suez recently on his way to
Alden to scuttle steamship which had
been on fire for two weeks, spoke very
freely on the subject. His salty, wealth
er-beaten countenance resembled
Mercators Protection, with its lines
of latitude and longitude, when he re-
lated the fondness Of divers for sleep
at the bottom Of the sea-
"It is quite true" said Captain
Ridge, that divers spend the greater
part of the time under the water In
comfortably snoozing instead OF doing
their work. have been down myself
and found fourteen men asleep In the
cabins on board a wrecked steamship.
They prefer. to get inside the wreck
because the ground sharks cannot
knock them about with their tales and
try their jaws on their copper he'll
NETS. In the Levant there Is danger
from the big devil fish which swarm
around the coasts, and divers have
been frequently carried off some lit
tie distance before these huge mon
sters discovered their mistake and
dropped them.
"Diving appliances are so perfect
nowadays that 1t is pleasant ex-
perience to go down an easy depth
and walk about with an electric lamp
along the sandy bed Of the sea. Good
divers can easily remain under water
for three hours, IL the depth is less
than ten fathoms. The greatest depth
have seen men go down Is % faith
oms and they only remained for 20
minutes, as the pressure was so
great" ~
Asked why it was that divers had
developed the submarine sleeping
habit, Captain Ridge said:
There is a soft undulating motion
under the water which is most sooth-
ing and almost irresistible. The most
fractious baby would be instantly luil-
ed IL It was placed carefully In the
bed of the ocean. I have felt the in
fiuence myself, and have had to re-
frain from going down to any more
wrecks, in case I should get the sleep
ing habit myself. can only describe
the sensation as one Of Peace, beauti-
full peace There are no cars, no
crowds, no subways and no street
lhawkers or flies TO bother you. la9s,-
Strange looking Ash peer into the
glass of your headdress and dart away
when you flash your electric lamp on
them. These new powerful lamps en-
able divers to see as well as IL they
were above water. Many Of the veal
thier divers have their habit OF Sleep
ing under water so badly that they
cannot sleep on land. I know two
men who have recently retired and
bought a big diving outfit between
| them, so that each man can go down
and have three hours below while his
mate sits in the boat above and sees
that he gets his supply Of air.
"I don't see what remedy can De
adopted to cure divers Of the habit,
and they seem to be getting worse
each year in the east, where the water
is so warm and pleasant. 1t Is very
hard to tell whether a diver is work.
ing or not, and it is worse to stay
down under water and watch him
Public Ledger.