The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1910-02-26

John Olsen, a noted Boston diver,
was caught on the sharp hook of
chain cable while at work recently
raising the wrecked remains of the
steamer Birmingham from the bottom
of Boston harbor.
The veteran diver was in the act
of fastening cable about heavy
steel plate of the wrecked steamer
preparatory to its being hoisted to
the surface, when big ocean liner,
outward bound, sailed close to the
spot where he was at work fifty feet
below.
The swiftly revolving propeller of
the liner churning the water set it
in such active motion as to cause a
violent lurching of that portion of
the wreck to which the steel plate
was hanging. The chain suddenly
slipped, and the hook, flying up. came
very near catching the rubber hose
through which the life-sustaining air
supply is sent down to the diver. and
tearing it away from its connection
with the protecting helmet covering
his head.
Had this happened 1t would have
left Captain Olsen, weighted as he
was to the harbor bottom by his
heavy diving suit, without air, to meet
death by drowning, no doubt, before
he could have been drawn up out of
the water by his assistants in the
boat above.
Fortunately the hook just missed
the air hose, but its sharp point
caught the thumb of his left hand as
he threw up his arm, ripping it wide
open the whole length OF the inner
side, and causing an extremely pain
full injury. Since then he has been
nursing very bad thumb.
Captain Olsen is just entering upon
his thirtytseventh year as diver,
and he hopes to make his already un-
rivaled record forty years. For thir-
ty-six years now he has been raising
wrecked ships. repairing others while
lying many fathoms deep in the
water. bringing up valuable cargoes,
recovering the bodies of drowned peo-
pie and lost treasures that have gone
down beneath the waves and blasting
away sunken rocks and lodges that
were a menace to navigation and
threatened destruction to sailing
craft.
A plain simple man, modest and
unassuming, is this descendant of the
hardy Norseman, for Norway is the
land of his birth. He is clear eyed,
stockily built, still sturdy as ever and
capable of much endurance in his
hazardous calling at the age OF sixty.
He took to the sea while yet a boy,
and had Just reached mani ,od when
he was one. Of the crew of foreign
square rigger that put into Phila-
delphia.
He left the vessel there. and after
. couple of years service as a sailor
on coasting schooners settled himself
in Boston and became q diver, giving
mp life on the ocean wave for one
below the wave. That was in 1872.
and ever since then he has lived and
moved and had his being at the bot
tom of the sea for the greater part Of
the time.
It was in Bangor, Me-, that Cap
tain Olsen made his first professional
dive on . blasting job. II stayed
down an hour or two on that first
try Of mine, and I was Just little
bit scared. he said, when asked what
his sensations were on the first dive.
when I started down and saw
the immense wall Of water gradually
closing over me l thought it was go
ing to overwhelm and drown me, for
getting that I was looking through
the thick glass window OF the helmet
before my face that was keeping me
safe.
II felt ~ II was being smothered.
and wanted to come right up again:
but I didn't care to be laughed at and
called . coward By my mates, 90 my
pluck kept me down. The second day
stayed down longer, and by the end
Of . week I could hold my own with
the best Of them"
The frst important work as q diver |
done BY Captain Olsen was performed |
by him thirty-four years ago In the |
raising Of the Reading Company's /!
coal steamer Leopard. that was |
wrecked on . ledge on Thatcher |
Island while coming to Boston with |
, cargo Of coal. Not long after this
. schooner loaded with water pipe to |
be laid in Newton was wrecked near |
Highland light, OF Cape Cod, during |
. fierce storm. Captain Olsen was
engaged to raise the cargo and the
vessel. While exploring the sunken
craft he stumbled over the body of a
lone drowned sailor, one Of the un-
fortunate crew. lying ON the floor of |