Evening star., 1938-05-22

4 Az FEET are cold. Hanging on the
IL descending line, about thirty feet
Iv below the surface of Lake Michi-
gan, l have nothing to do but
wait for my decomposition to be complete.
still have more than an hour to wait.
Above me can barely see the black out
lines of the Coast Guard cutter; below there
is only deep green darkness that fades into
blackness few feet away. A slight leak in
the left shoulder of my diving suit has allowed
the water to soak through my woolen under
suit The water is cold - for it is the first day
of December. 1887 have just set record -
gone down 42O feet - deeper than any man
ever went before, in diving suit But as
hang there, damp and miserable. wonder
why ever wanted to be deep-sea diver -.
did my first diving about ten years ago.
when I was in high school and bunch of us
figured out diving suit. We got hold of an
old army gas mask and hooked it up with an
oxygen cylinder from dentist Office 1t was
funny looking oontraption, but when we
tried it out, it worked. With it we could 60
down in six or seven feet of water and stay
there for several minutes. The oxygen supply
was skimpy and sometimes we swallowed
mouthful of water, but we got the feel" of
diving.
To most of the fellows this was just an
experiment and some fun. They were satisfied.
But with me it was different. had the urge
to dive - deep. clear green water held an
intense fascination for me-a fascination
equivalent to challenge.
To meet this challenge made more prac-
tical attempt to get into deep water. had
read about the simple diving helmet - the
kind you just slip down over your head. As
long as you stand straight, the air pressure
inside keeps the water out. First cut Sec
ton from fve-gallon paint can, inserted
glass for window and connected an air hose
1t worked, but l wasn't satisfied. Finally.
built pattern and had casting made This
was awfully tricky. but success. If re-
membered not to bend over, could 60 down
twenty five feet or more. 1t was profitable
too II got lot of little jobs in the lakes
recovering lost jewelry and outboard motors.
Dad wanted me to 60 to law school. but in
1929 went East and entered the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology in Cambridge
My spare time as freshman was spent hang
ing around the divers down at the docks.
got some experience filling in as bear" -
one of the divers tenders - and even went
down couple of times My first taste of real
diving
Then bought a second hand commercial
suit. I'm not superstitious or never would
have bought that suit - because man had
been killed in it. was too excited to worry
about that. 1t was my first commercial diving
suit, and with it l picked up odd jobs along
the New England coast
My first commercial salvage job was a
honey. A man had lost his false teeth off the
dock at Marblehead several days before He
was willing to pay we'll, so off / went - and
got the tusks the first time down. Funny
thing, but the glass in my helmet and the
magnifying effect of the water made those
snappers look like sharks teeth. Frightened
me for minute
That made good story at the time. but
ordinary commercial diving is grind You
inspect pilings look for lost teeth and jewelry.
recover anchors for careless yachtsmen and,
in general, just slog around in dirty harbor
water Studies at M. l. T. are difficult. Be-
tween the two, began to believe my father
had been right about the law being better
career was fed up.