Diver No. 1- Ready!

Chapter three: TRAINING DIVES

"The next few nights I made a few more practice dives and finally learned to swing my legs over the descending line and ride it up and down. It was a matter of adjusting the air in my diving suit. In fact, Master divers can float at any depths by controlling the chin and air valves. However, it was difficult to get use to the frigidly cold ink black water. Moreover, Chief Boatswain Mate Mortimer who was assigned as the Diving Instructor of our group, somehow managed to put me in the largest size diving suit. There were a number of tasks which we had to accomplish before passing the Diving course, and we were graded on the time and skill shown. Each task was more difficult than the previous. For example, the first task was to ride down the descending line to the bottom with a bag in which there was an elbow and two lengths of pipe. We were to screw the pipe lengths into each end of the elbow. Sounds simple, but working in utter blackness, with two mittens and a huge diving gloves over your hands is like trying to thread a needle in a dark closet with boxing golves. Following is an excerpt from my letter home dated March 11, 1943. ----- "Dad, I am having an awful time in Diving. I can not seem to work under water. I am always dropping or losing nuts, bolts, screws, etc. You see, before I put on my diving suit, I have to wear two pairs of mittens, and then the diving suit, made of rubberized canvas, is pulled over my arms and legs. The gloves of the suit are much too large for my rather small hands. When they fill up with air, I can not feel a thing. One day last week, I was sent down with some large cast iron flange plates which I was to bolt together. I tried to sit on the mud, but my legs were stuck in the mud. So I stood in a half sitting position, and tried to pull the huge plates on my lap. But the plates also were stuck in the mud. After pulling for a half hour, I finally got the plates on my lap. The I reached down for the screws and nuts which were attached to a wooden board. I search for a long time before I could find them. They were floating over my head. When I finally got the bolts and nuts sombody, I think they were gremlins, pulled the plates off my lap. Then, holding the nuts and bolts in one hand, I tried to get the plates on my lap with the other hand. This lasted a long time. After I got all set, I found that one of the plates, which I was to bolt on to the other, was not square with the first so I had to square the holes somehow. Finally, I started to unscrew one nut and bolt from the board. However, I could not feel which was the bolt and which was the nut. In fact, the nut was so small, they were only 3/8 inch, that I could not tell for sure whether or not I had the nut in my hand. However, I finally got the botls and nuts off the board, and tried to get the bolt in the holes of the plates. In the meantime the two plates had come apart, so I had to start all over again squaring the plates. Finally, I got the bolt through the hole in the two plates and when I started to screw the nut on, I found that the nut had slippped out of my hand and consequently was lost. This discouraged me somewhat. However, I decided to unscrew the second bolt and nut from the wooden board, but I could not find the wooden board; it had floated away again. By this time I was mad. I reached above my head for the board but, in moving, the plates slipped off my lap into the mud. Since I was freezing by this time, and since I had been 1 hour and 45 minutes trying to get one nut and one bolt bolted on the plates and failed, and since there were sixteen nuts and bolts in all, I gave up and asked to be pulled up. I have to do this same task another day. They give me three chances. However, yesterday I did a little better. I was sent down with a hacksaw to cut through an angle bar of cast iron, 4" x 4" x 3/8". I was to do the work on a steel stage (platform) about 20 feet below. There was another diver at one end of the stage trying to make a box. I came down, got mixed up in my direction and landed on the diver's helmet. I thought the diver's helmet was the bottom of the stage and I stood there for a while with one foot on the helmet and tried to place my other leg but there was just space. I felt something reach up my leg which I thought was an eel or a large fish. I tried to kick it away but it kept crawling back. Finally, top side called down excitedly and said "Diver No. 2, you are on Diver No. 1's head, and he is pretty mad. Get off!" I then realized that the eel on my leg was the diver's hand. I then realized where I was, and I came up a few feet, found the structure of the stage, and pulled myself over to the other end. I was able to clamp the angle bar on a rail of the stage, and I proceeded to start cutting the bar. I was about hlfway through when the clamp came loose and the angle bar, the clamp, and the hacksaw fell on the stage. I let out some air and reached around on the bottom of the stage so that I could find them. I felt something hard which I thought was the angle, and I tried to lift it. It was very heavy. Suddenly, topside called down and said that I had a hold of No. 1's foot. I let go, and searched again and was able to find all my pieces. I clamped the bar and this time I was able to cut through the angle bar after 2 hours. I put the pieces in the bag and called that I was ready to come up. When I got to the top, Diver No. 1, was waiting for me and very very angry. I had jerked around so much on the stage and in climbing all over his helmet and pulling on his shoes, he had lost all of his boards one by one and received a zero score. He wanted to pounch me after I got my diving suit off, but since he was much bigger than me, I kept my helmet on until his teammates cooled him off. However, day before yesterday, one of the fellows made an even worse mistake. He was told to bring up anything laying loose on the bottom. After wandering around the mud for awhiled, he found something loose and secured a line around it and phoned to topside to bring it up. They had not pulled for long before they found that the diver had tied a rope around the feet of another diver and he was screaming that an octopus or something had hold of him."