The Ely miner., 1929-08-30


diver, hero of hundred desperate
adventures under. the water and fa-
nous for his work during the raising of
the sunken submarines, S4 and Sol,
which won for him the Navy Cross and
the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Tom Eadie likes diving. He says
so in a book which he has written,
published recently by the Houghton
Mifflin company. Its title is 81 Like
Diving" He starts off the story of
his career thus:
l like diving. There is always a
thrill in it. / felt it before l ever
made a dive, and I feel it now when
l have been diving for nearly twenty
years. You have to like it, or you
don't stay at it, for it is no boys play.
There's a heap to diving besides put
ting your head under water. 1t means
the hardest kind of work-real manu-
al labor-under the most difficult con-
ditions, and sometimes under condi-
tions of great distress.
Take a job when the ocean water
is down to the freezing point of fresh
water and when you can't do work in
gloves. To get an idea of it, just sit
in boat in your warm overcoat and
stick your hand over the side into the
salt water. Hold it there for five min
utes in that freezing brine, and then
try to think what it would feel like if
you kept it there an hour.
1t isn't easy to explain the thrill
you get out of diving. 1t isn't exact
ly the love of adventure, though every
dip is an adventure, or may be one
before a man comes to the surface
again.
Certainly it isn't the thrill of facing
danger, though a divers life is really
in the hands of the man on the top
side tending him, and any one of a
lot of little things may in an instant
reduce a divers chance of seeing his
family again to one-to-ten shot.
Certainly it isn't the thrih of just a
new experience One dive would sat-
isfy that craving. There is something
more that makes men keep at it and
become divers. 1 suppose l just hap
pened to be one of those men that
have that something more, though
sometimes it seems to me as if l
couldn't be anything but a diver.
Whatever the thing is, it makes div
ing a profession instead of a trade
for l take it that a profession is an
occupation where the work is more in
teresting than the pay. Not that the
pay isn't good-for some divers at
least. With nothing but my pay l have
managed to acquire good home of my
own; / have a car, and l live along
with the other millionaires and navy
men in Newport.
1t is apparent that, despite the fl
nancial reward which he mentions,
diving means much more to Tom
Eadie than just the money it brings.
Perhaps the traditions of the United
States navy in which he served for a
score of years has something to do
with it. Rear Admiral Philip Andrews,
who wrote the introduction to Eadie's
book, has this to say about it: "Eadie's
story of dangers and difficulties over
come carries lesson to all readers,
this is what it has meant to him: Do
your best and give your best to the
task in hand. l believe can say that
this is the spirit of the navy"
And if money had been the main
end for Tom Eadie, Commandant c. P.
Plunkett of the New York navy yard,
in reporting to the secretary of the
navy concerning Eadie's work in sal
vaging the S-51, could not have writ
ten these words:
The Commandant desires to call at
| tention to the fact that for his serv-
ices as a diver during the spring oper-
ations, period of about three months
Eadies entire compensation was $1,000
The amount that the government saved
In money alone by Eadie's services car