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Show T fy F all callings that em-bract em-bract danger and romance ro-mance that of diving probably comes first, and well It might, for not only does a diver work in an element foreign to his own, but he faces a 23 score or more of dangers, any one of which might be fatal. Not only are there the dangers of accidents acci-dents under the water, but the diver's life is always In the hands of his helpers, who must, while he is below, not fail for a moment to keep the life-giving air pump going, but they must be able to comprehend his signals sig-nals and act accordingly and promptly. prompt-ly. Scores of stories of the work of divers have been written. Some of them are true, some are fiction, but whether real or Imagined, they do not in the least detract from the romance that seems to shine like a halo around those who perform their work deep under the water. Usually divers are associated with sunken treasure, wrecks, the gathering gather-ing of shells, pearl oysters and sponges and but few give a thought to the fact that the diver Is engaged in numerous other, and less romantic, occupations In which risks far greater great-er than the mere going into a wreck are taken. In bridge building, for instance, divers di-vers are frequently employed to lay the foundations for the great pillars of stone and concrete that will support sup-port one of the spans of the structure. A notable piece of work of this character char-acter was done on a bridge that was built a couple of years ago at Cape Colony. There It was necessary that a foundation be laid in 180 feet of water. One hundred and eighty feet of water wa-ter Is a depth that is very seldom attained, at-tained, and there are but few In- stances on record, yet the foundation was laid. It is said that the record Is held by Hooper, an Englishman, who descended descend-ed 201 feet to the wreck of the Cape Horn, lost off South America. In 1896 A. Erostarbe went down 180 feet to the wreck of the Skyro, off Cape Ftn-Isterre, Ftn-Isterre, and sent up bar silver valued at $450,000, after first having blown the ship partly to pieces with dynamite. dyna-mite. Another deep-water record was established es-tablished by Alexander Lambert, who recovered $350,000 In gold from the wreck of the Spanish mail steamer Alfonso XII., which was in 180 feet of water. It Is said that the last time he went down he remained four hours, this In itself being a phenomenal record, rec-ord, as two hours is regarded as about the limit of any diver's endurance. Diving Is a peculiar work and there are not many who can do it. It not only requires soundness of body, but one must bo something of a mechanic as well, especially If he is going to engage In under-water building. Besides Be-sides that he must be a man who is willing to take chances, must be able to keep his head at all times, no matter mat-ter how scared, and then, maybe, he will die in bed. A diver named Donovan recently eme very near dying in Baltimore harbor, but he did not know of It at the time. He was working in 25 feet of water directing piles that were being be-ing driven by a 4,000-pound hammer. In some manner the hammer was released re-leased and the gTeat weight plunged to the bottom of the harbor. Donovan Dono-van was directly In the path of the huge weight, so close that it struck his air hose within two feet of his helmet. Fortunately the force of the blow hurled the diver away from the weight, Instead of under it. In the meantime the men above were almost frantic with fear. They knew that the diver was directly under ttxham-mer ttxham-mer and they naturally supposed he had been Btruck. There was terrific commotion and the life-line man began be-gan to jerk and pull as hard as he could to ascertain whether Donovan was caught or free. The suspense for a minufe or two was fearful. In the meantime Donovan didn't know just what it was that had thrown him. The water was so muddy mud-dy and dirty that he did not see the weight; in fact, he was astonished by being jerked by the lifeline, and as soon as he overhauled his air pipe to prevent fouling it he tugged the signal to be hoisted. Up he went and It was with many sighs of relief that his big. round helmet was sighted sight-ed at the surface. He climbed partly out of water and rested on the gunwale gun-wale of his punt while his helper unscrewed un-screwed the helmet. "What the deuce is the matter?" """"" t tiro &0 he asked as soon as his head was free. His helper, pale and trembling all over, could scarcely tell him, but he finally managed to describe what he and the other workmen had thought. "Humph!" replied Donovan. "Tell those fellows to be just a little more careful. Now put on that helmet and I'll go get that hamnieV In a few minutes he had a line fast to the hammer and it was hauled up. Donovan doesn't take much stock in reports of diving deeper than 150 feet; that is, for practical purposes. He declares that a man cannot stand such a depth for more than an hour, or possibly pos-sibly an hour and a half, and that after aft-er he comes up he must rest for at least 12 hours before going down again. "Where it catches one is In the abdomen," he said. "The upper part of the body is protected by the ribs, the arms and limbs are comparatively solid, but the abdomen has no bones at all, and there is where it hurts. I heard of a man who got $10,000 for going go-ing down 204 feet, but he only lived seven days after. The strain ruptured rup-tured his intestines. In deep water 75 feet to 100 feet, that is our greatest great-est danger. The only way to overcome over-come It is by wearing heavy weights .and taking plenty of air. The air offsets off-sets the pressure of the water and the weights hold us down. If by chance '.he air pressure should lessen, even a few pounds, our situation is critical. "In the water it is pretty much like It is on land," he continued. "If a man is hunting for trouble he's pretty apt to find it. I have been diving for 18 years and I've been all along the coast, from Halifax to Florida, and I have never been attacked by anything except a conger eel. He was a big fellow, too; six or seven feet long and as big around as my thigh. "It has been my experience that if a man keeps busy nothing will disturb him. The fish are afraid of him; sharks are, anyhow, and he has . no trouble. With this eel, however. It was different. He came at me without with-out my doing a thing to him. I was so scared that I could not even find my spear, which I generally carry, and he stuck his ugly head right up to the glass In my helmet. Ugh! I could almost hear his teeth snap. I was that scared. I stuck my hands under my belt to protect them and stood still. I don't know how long, about two minutes. I guess, and then I gave the signal to go up. " 'What did you come up fdr?' asked my helper when he had taken off the helmet. " 'Came up for something to eat,' I replied. "'I reckon you did,' he replied.. 'Why man, you're pale as a ghost.' "I didn't let on just what had happened, hap-pened, and after getting a bite and taking a smoke, I went down again. This time 1 went after my spear and found it. Then I let everything else go while I looked for Mr. Eel. I soon found him, for he evidently was waiting wait-ing for me. He was lying on a little ledge or rock, but before he knew just what was what I had that spear into i him. Twist? Well, you have no Idea how that fellow squirmed. It was all I could do to hold him down and we had as lively a ten-minute tussle as you'd ever want to see. "But I finished fin-ished him all right and sent him up just to show the boys what he looked like. That night some of the boys had him for supper, but I never did like eels so I let them have It all. "As for .sharks, well, I suppose they would attack a man if he worried them, but the worst sea creatures are seals. I remember once I was working work-ing down near Halifax; working on a wreck, and there was a school of about 100 seals around. I cautioned everyone about throwing anything at them and I went on down. It wasn't very deep, not more than 50 or 60 feet, and every now and then a seal would come along, kind of nose me over and then go on. ' "Now, you wouldn't think cat fish would trouble you much, would you? Well, they will, and what is more, they bite hard. "There's another queer thing about fish. If you are wearing gloves that are split and your knuckles or flesh shows through, the fish will worry, you by biting at the exposed parts. You can hardly drive them away, but the moment you take oft your gloves and expose your whole hand they won't trouble you at all." While there has been but little improvement im-provement In divers' equipment, the rubber suit helmet or the pumps that send down the air, and the outfit of a decade ago is as up-to-date as the one made yesterday, yet the modern diver has a number of advantages over his contemporary of even a few years ago. The use of the telephone has been one of the Improvements that comes in handy, but the greatest of all is the pneumatic tool. fly means of compressed air tools a diver can now do more In one hour than he could in five with handpower-ed handpower-ed tools, because his diving suit 60 hampers the freedom of his arms. With a pneumatic tool all he has to do Is to hold the machine still and the air does the rest. He can carry a pneumatic tool wherever he can go for the hose that feeds it is no larger than his air hose, and, besides, the pressure of the water greatly reduces the weight of the tool, so much so that in deep water it is necessary to weight it down so the diver can control con-trol It. These pneumatic tools will do anything any-thing that can be done by hand. They will operate augers or drills and will also hammer. They are the greatest aid to the diver In all kinds of construction con-struction work. While diving as a trade is followed by few, the United States navy has a school for divers and encourages young men of exceptional physical stamina to take up the work. At this school the young men are taught how to take care of themselves in emergencies, emer-gencies, and before they are graduated graduat-ed they have ' been through many rough experiences, even though these experiences are carefully planned and executed. Every naval ship of any size carries two or more divers, and there is always al-ways use for them. They are sent over ttv. side to inspect the bottoms, scrape barnacles off to adjust outboard connections or to make new ones, for a ship, like a house, can always be improved a little by the addition of something new. i |