Submarine Appliances And Their Uses
Deep Sea Diving, &c., &c.

THE DIVER’S COMPARATIVE IMMUNITY FROM ACCIDENT. Considering the conditions under which the diver works, accidents are surprisingly few, and it is the proud boast of Siebe, Gorman and Co., Ld., that, notwithstanding the fact that there are several thousands of divers using their apparatus in various parts of the world, not a single accident attributable in the slightest degree to faulty construction or defective materials has ever occurred. Such accidents as have happened have been due to causes beyond control, and , ,, unconnected with the diving appliances. Take, for instance, the case of a Diver killed . _ ° 1 1 with box of diver engaged in a salvage operation on the Chilian coast some years ago, who sil'vct“ • was killed through a heavy box of silver, which he had worked hard to recover, falling" out of its sling and crushing him. This was hard luck indeed. Then there is the case of Diver Pearce, who some years ago was engaged in salving bales of cotton from the s.s. “London.” A chain, having at one end of it four sharp-pointed hooks, was let down to the diver, whose duty it was to fix the hooks into the bales which were then hauled to the surface. One morning, Pearce, having fixed the hooks in one of the bales, signalled to those above to try whether the strain would hold. Whilst feeling to ascertain if the bale had started, Diver . . hooked the hooks, not being surnciently secured to stand the strain, gave way, and, tearing hand. out of their grip through the packing, one of them caught Pearce in the palm of the hand and dragged him from the bottom of the hold to the upper deck. When brought to the surface, he was in a state of collapse. In three months, however, he was at work again. Encounters Of encounters with the denizens of the deep, many tales have been told, some true, the majority fit only to be relegated to the limbo of most “fish ” stories. Octopus. The most dangerous foe the diver ever meets is the octopus. Once this creature, if of any great size, gets its tentacles, with its countless suckers, fastened to a diver, it is only by almost superhuman effort that he is able to free himself from its terrible grasp. There are cases on record where the struggle has only terminated when both diver and his adversary have been hauled bodily to the sur- face and on to the deck of the diving vessel, and even then the octopus has fought furiously. Sharks. Sharks, as a rule, do not interfere with the diver, but the famous Lambert had an adventure with one in the Indian Ocean which deserves mention. The diver, whilst engaged in fixing copper sheets to a coal hulk off Diego Garcia, was annoyed by the attentions which the same shark paid him several days in suc- cession. Each day it ventured a little nearer, but Lambert, by opening the air 179