In addition to the nets and trawls and dredges, the ship is equipped
with a diving apparatus. It is a helmet or head piece, but not the rest
of a suit.
This tall helmet is made of thick brass with a triangle shaped glass
window in the front. It fits on the shoulders and there is an air space
inside so one can breathe. Then fresh air is pumped in by a hand pump,
and whole flocks of bubbles keep rising to the surface coming out from
under your arm pits.
Uncle Will is the best one at it for he has used it most and goes down
oftenest. It can be used at any depth a man can stand pressure, and of
course the deeper down, the stronger the pressure, and one feels this
especially in the ears. They buzz and hurt as though someone was
pushing on them. You have to swallow hard to keep back this feeling and
equalize the pressure, the same as going down in a high elevator.
There is air in front of your eyes so you can see just as perfectly as
when you are on the surface. Whole crowds of tiny fishes swim by, many
of them different colors and very bright. Pink, or green, or blue, or
silvery or striped ones.
One day as Uncle Will entered the water, and was just going down, a
huge shark swam by. He waited a few minutes and then went down, and the
shark had apparently gone along on his business. Later he had a cage
built, so he could stay in that and look around if there were too many
sharks.
That afternoon when he went down he saw many very strange fish, some
bright orange and black with a white cross like a belt, others dark
gray with yellow tails.
Of course there is always a chance in these waters to see octopus, big
sting rays or devil fish and sharks. So the cage with three heavy wire
sides one can stand in, is pretty nice.
One day I went down. I was a little scared because the helmet weighs
forty pounds or more and the stuffy feeling of having something over
one’s head is unpleasant. I went over the stern of a rowboat in about
fifteen feet of water near shore, and climbed down a heavy iron ladder,
holding onto the rounds. There is a kind of roar from the air coming
in, and a curious feeling against the ears, but otherwise it is grand
fun to be down underneath the sea and see all the rocks and ledges and
fish swimming past.
Your feet seem to float out around you and the distances under the
water all look different. You think you can reach out and take hold of
something, not believing it is far away.
It must be fun to go down often enough to get used to the feeling and
then walk all around on the bottom like the pearl divers do, or the men
who go way down below to salvage wrecks.