Evening star., 1933-08-27
Taught to Walk About on Ocean Floor

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down to the submarine and hook up air hoses
to her salvage connections as they would to
blow up . wrecked vessel. They are also re-
Quired to climb around over the decks and
coming tower to accustom themselves to the
location Of different objects such as outside
phone connections. the signal gun and other
things which might be used in salvage work.
They are required to climb down the side Of
the submarine on a line which they have
fastened to the rail and walk along the bot
tom, inspecting her hull
Diving to the submarine is q real test Of
courage. diver can easily became tangled
with the submarine antenna or clearing lines
hold the launch over the submarine Most of
tis diving Is done of Morgantown, Md, where
the river Is deep and the current swift. AT Is
feet the water is black as night and the only
thing that can be seen is the ghostly blue light
made by tiny phosphorescent jelly fish The
submarine leaves her running lights lit on
deck, but even these can be seen only when the
diver Is within few feet OF them. It's lone
some down there, and that doesn't half de-
scribe it, There have been situations where
casualties could easily have happened. Once a
sudden blow caused the m00ring lines to start
parting with two divers down. The divers
came up the telephone cable which connects
the launch to the submarine. Their descending
line had parted and the other lines showed
signs of parting. Quick. cool work by the
divers and tenders brought the men up before
they were dragged from the deck of the sub
marine.
h NATURALLY, the diving school is well known
~ in Washington, and the officer in charge is
requested to do many outside diving jobs by
the police and others Last year the divers
aided the marine police in the search for
safe which had been dropped from a boat
after some safecrackers had opened It and
taken the contents It was q hopeless task
The mud was waist deep. SO that divers could
make little progress on the bottom. Then. too
the heavy safe must have been buried deeply
In the mud by its own weight However divers
spent two days looking for it.
Recently the school was asked to search for
the body Of boy drowned ut Whitewater Md.
The equipment had to be carried by truck part
Of the way to the lake and by hand over rough
hills the rest Of the way. The pump alone
weighs about 400 pounds and the diving suit,
not counting the great length of hose neces-
sary. weighs 200 pounds. The diving crew was
almost exhausted when it finally got the equip
ment onto a rickety little wharf at the lake.
Only few rowboats were available These
were iashed together for platform from which
TO lower the diver in the middle Of the lake
The lake is set between hills covered with
great boulders. The bottom of the lake drops
of sharply to a depth of 70 feet and has the
same jagged rock formation Is the surround
Ing hills; it is series of rock cliffs and gorges:
extremely dangerous to diver in that he
might fall or cut his suit open on q sharp
stone.
A diver was dressed on the wharf and after
being lowered into the water was dragged out
20 the middle Of the lake behind the improvised
platform Of row boats. At the most probable
spot descending line was let down and the
diver quickly slid down to the bottom. Com
plete darkness enveloped him and after grasp
ing his circling line with one hand he began
his tortuous climbing over rocks, down into
mudholes, across waterlogged trees, guided only
By his sense Of touch. On all fours, crawling
through mud. he suddenly bumped something
with his helmet It was . tree stump. He
lifted his circling line over it and crawled on
to find himself going into . hole. But he
had to 60 on into the hole. He climbed out
OF the hole and back into more solid ground
and was suddenly brought up short by sheer
rock cliff. He retraced his circle to approach
from the other direction and ct the end Of
the circle reported that the ground had been
covered and climbed up the descending line.
Finally the body was located by the IRE
rescue squad from Bethesda. Nd, using drags.
Diver Mfchels, an Instructor ct the school went
down. secured line and brought the body TO
the surface.
THROUGHOUT this period Of practical work
the student divers are making pressure
divo TO- see II they can stand the pressure to
which they Will be subjected On deep diving.
The pressure dives are made In the sealed tank
with air pressure built up above the water
equal to the depth desired. While under pres
sure the divers are required to do . task and
their proficiency Is observed by the instructors.
The pressure has . peculiar mental effect,
causing . feeling Of exhilaration similar to that
caused BY alcohol. Some men are less sub