Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-04-12
HOW DRELLISHAK
SET WORLD MARK
FOR DEEP Diving

Chief Gunner Mate >. J. Drell
shak, now here with the crew OF divers
on the L. S. S. Maryland. holds the
worlds record in deeIrsea diving.
The Technical World MAGAZINE fol-
this month tells how he won il, as
follows
A few weeks ago Chief Gunner's
Mate S !. Drellishak OF the United
States navy took Promenade on the
bottom Of the sea, 215 feet below the
surface. BY so doing. he established
a new worlds record for deep sea
diving in an ordinary flexible Rubber
diving suit. bettering by % feet the
previous worlds record held for seven
Years by the British navy.
All this was made possible by means
Of a new power driven air compress sor
invented after years Of experiment by
Gunner George D. StilsOn of the Unit
ed States navy. BY means OF this
and an improved reducing valve.
Diver Drellishak was able TO walk
about on the sea bottom 275 feet IN
der water for 20 minutes, and he says
he could have remainded down twice
that length OF time had he been allow
ed to do so.
The great difficulty to be overcome
in performing such feat is the fact
that, at that depth. the divers body
must sustain a pressure OF over 100
ounds TO the square inch. The usual
practise in making dives at such
depths has been to use diving bells,
or one Of the "armOred' diving suits
IN
numbers: but Diver Drellishak went
down in an ordinary navy rubber div
ing suit. inflated with compressed air
IS protection against water pres.
sure.
This method of protection requires
elaborate apparatus for controlling the
air pressure in the suit. keeping it
just sufficient to withstand the water
pressure from outside the suit. There
should be no excess, since the diver
must breathe the compressed air, in
order that the pressure within his
body be the same as that surrounding
him. The recent performances by ma
val divers, of which Drellishak's dive
was the climax. were made for the
purpose of testing Stilson's new de.
vice for regulating and controlling
pressure, and were successful only be-
cause the apparatus worked perfectly.
Drellishak's dive was made on No
vember from the U. s. 8. Wake,
about a mile off Race Rock Light, near
New London, Conn. The high current
and the season Of the year made the
dive even more remarkable; and al
though the men conducting the tests
were quite satisfied with the results,
Drellishak declares that he was quite
comfortable, and could easily have
gone deeper, if the bottom had not
been in his way.
Elaborate precautions were taken to
guard against disaster Drellishak was
provided with the new telephone used
by naval divers in place of the old
life, line, and the men above kept in
constant communication with him. He
was lowered gradually, in order that
he might become accustomed to the
increasing pressures, and when he
reached bottom, he was allowed to
stay only 10 minutes. The ascent took
an hour and a quarter and he was
left in the water at a depth of 10
feet for over half an hour, in order
that he might not be attacked by the
trouble commonly known as the
bends" which results when men
working under compressed air come
out into the air at normal pressure
too quickly.
Had this occurred in spite of all pre-
cautions, the men on the Wake were
prepared to give Drellishak the best
of care. A large chamber or cylin-
der was specially constructed, and DR..
G. r. W. French Of the United States
navy was ready to take proper relief
me 'sures. The cylinder which was
to have been used was nothing more
or less than a tested decomposition
chamber fitted up like a modern no,
tel room inside, with electric light,
heater and telephone, hospital stretch.
er, pillows, blankets, mattresses, two
suits of clean dry wooden underwear,
a watch for timing operations. type,
written instructions, a copy Of signals,
notebook and pencil Had it been at
all necessary, DR.. French would has
entered his cylindrical chamber with
Drellishak as his patient, and remain.
ed with him in the compressed air
until he became accustomed again to
the normal pressure of the outside air.
1t has long been the contention of
the United States navy that there is
practically no limit to the depths of
which a diver may descend in safety,
and exhaustive tests and experiments
which have been conducted by the
United States navy, tend to prove that
deep-sea diving is in its infancy. The
success of the experiment aboard the
Wake has demonstrated that men
may go down into the sea and remain
down and work on the bottom to
greater depth than was possible a year
ago, and with the improvements that
are being developed, the mysteries of
the deep will not remain yelled from
human knowledge very much longer.
0UACTCDnANCC