The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-03-16
Jack Thompson Tells Some
thing About His Job
Plenty. of Thrills and Dan
gers Working in Missouri
River Mud Bottom, Even
Though 1t Isn't as Deep as
The Sea

For the past ten days a human
porpoise has been disporting himself
in the Missouri waters over near the
city waterworks. And small but
select audience visits the coffer-dam
aquarium daily to snap photographs
or assist the equatic phenomenon in
his play. He is Jack Thompson,
submarine diver and wrecker, i'm.
ported from Minneapolis to help run
the two Ia inch diameter intake pipes
out into the river an additional 2.
feet.
Moving around clumsily on shore
in his eighteen pounds each brass
dancing pumps" the diver becomes
an airy water dancer once the metal
helmet is clamped on. and the signal
pump" sets two men busy turning
the air pump handles.
"The hardest part of the job" says
Mr.. Thompson, who has never been
scared in all his fifteen years under
water" els. regulating the air. II
you don't work the air valve with
the side of your head properly. you
float or stand on your head. when
you want to get down upright to do
the work"
Many Pitfalls
Avoiding the coffer-dam wood
bracing, on this particular job, is the
greatest difficulty. he finds, making
it one of the hardest jobs of the kind
he has ever handled, and he thinks
nothing of running whole line
across the Mississippi. The Golfer
dam was originally intended to drain
the intake section and eliminate the
necessity for employing diver. but
it sprang leak and the water came
in. so he had to be called.
"The only danger" the diver said
"this time of year is from ice floes.
Once the ice starts to break up, and
the river has risen some six or eight
inches, diving becomes too hazard
Gus. But he worked yesterday, and
expects to get the job done before
that happens.
No, Mr.. Thompson never gets lone
some, even though he has remained
under water for five hours at a
stretch. The secret is the jerk Ian
guage, his own private code, which
enables him to carry on quite a con-
versation with his helper, Al Rogers.
what time is it?" How big an
audience?" as we'll as: "Take up
slack" or "Pull up load" all can be
spoken by we'll calculated jerks on
the life and air lines which encircle
the Divers body.
Sense of Touch Aid
For the sense of touch is the div
er's chief aid in his work. In turbid
waters like the Missouri he is as
blind as bat in the sunlight, and
just gropes and measures his way
around the river bottom.
Cold weather bothers him not a
jot, with the best of wooden clothes
worn under his 21O pound outfit,
"I've worked when it was thirty be-
low, and nobody was left on shore
when l came up except the bumpers
in the shanty," Mr.. Thompson said.
Only when the suit freezes and
cracks in spots, as it does OCCASION
ally this time of the year, and the
water seeps in, is his lot uncomfort-
able. And then it's easily remedied
by change of uniform, for he al
ways carries two with him.
II searched for drowned bodies
for about two years." he said, telling
of the varieties of work he has done,
"but it kept me awake nights and
made me nervous wreck, so quit"
Dynamite work, on the other hand,
holds no terrors for him. He'd just
as soon as not blow up job when
necessary.
"But weren't you ever afraid ?"
we asked the matter-of-fact amphi-
bian, trying to pry loose harrow
ing tale.
when I'm scared, I'll quit" was
the unromantic answer.