Info Dance of the Bent Diver - "O Choros Tou Mechanicou" : Cultural and Social Impact of DCS in a 19th-century community of a Greek island

[Antonios (Holy Diver)]

I went hunting and found this web page about the subject. Although it does not say it directly, but I believe the the lack of education and sophistication of the divers slowed the adoption of new methods.

"A combination of several dives a day to depths up to 70 meters and then coming up without decompression stops did not miss its devastating effect: in the first years the standard suit was used, about half of the divers got paralised or died of decompression sickness. In her book "Bitter Sea", Faith Warn discribes that between 1886 and 1910 about 10.000 divers died and 20.000 got pemanently disabled.

This was also of big influence on all the people on Kalymnos. Every family had fathers, sons, brothers or other relatives that were paralised or never returned from the sponge diving season. By the end of the 19th century this caused big anxiety on Kalymnos, especially among women. In those days Kalymnos was ocupied by the Turks. The women asked the Turkish sultan to forbid the standard diving suit, which he did in 1882. Profits dropped: the divers had to go "skin diving" again. About 4 years later the suit was back and so were the decompression accidents."


"It is easy to understand why the divers used the standard suit not knowing the dangers: The knowledge of decompression and decompression sickness developed in the 19th century. The studies used sponge diver experiences as input. The first workable decompression table came available around 1910. After that it took several years to get the knowledge to the remote Greek islands. Decompression tables could not prevent all diving accidents. The first tables did not cover repeated dives and the sponge divers made several repeated dives each day. As soon as they found out how important the bottom time was to prevent accidents the bottom time was kept by somebody aboard the ship. They used an hour-glass for this that was not very accurate."

Greek sponge diving

 

[Antonios (Holy Diver)]

I went hunting and found this web page about the subject. Although it does not say it directly, but I believe the the lack of education and sophistication of the divers slowed the adoption of new methods.

"A combination of several dives a day to depths up to 70 meters and then coming up without decompression stops did not miss its devastating effect: in the first years the standard suit was used, about half of the divers got paralised or died of decompression sickness. In her book "Bitter Sea", Faith Warn discribes that between 1886 and 1910 about 10.000 divers died and 20.000 got pemanently disabled.

This was also of big influence on all the people on Kalymnos. Every family had fathers, sons, brothers or other relatives that were paralised or never returned from the sponge diving season. By the end of the 19th century this caused big anxiety on Kalymnos, especially among women. In those days Kalymnos was ocupied by the Turks. The women asked the Turkish sultan to forbid the standard diving suit, which he did in 1882. Profits dropped: the divers had to go "skin diving" again. About 4 years later the suit was back and so were the decompression accidents."


"It is easy to understand why the divers used the standard suit not knowing the dangers: The knowledge of decompression and decompression sickness developed in the 19th century. The studies used sponge diver experiences as input. The first workable decompression table came available around 1910. After that it took several years to get the knowledge to the remote Greek islands. Decompression tables could not prevent all diving accidents. The first tables did not cover repeated dives and the sponge divers made several repeated dives each day. As soon as they found out how important the bottom time was to prevent accidents the bottom time was kept by somebody aboard the ship. They used an hour-glass for this that was not very accurate."

Greek sponge diving

I believe you are right. Let us not forget that we speak about half-illiterate, poor people on the turn of the 20th century, working by themselves with worn-out equipment in remote places (coast of North Africa, Egypt and little Aegean islands). Without the modern means of knowledge diffusion (mass education, books and Internet), without the support of higly trained support crews and specialists (as in the Royal and the U.S. Navy of the era), and most of their knowledge being, at the best of times, hearsay and watered-down information on Haldane's tables and diving procedures, it is no wonder that we encounter such high rates of accidents. Even today, with such a wealth of information and affordable training at hand, we sometimes meet divers with an astounding lack of understanding.

 

[Akimbo]

The oldest surviving sponge diver is 74 years old.

Tables have been public information more than 100 years. Of course treatment tables were pretty limited and of marginal value without a chamber.

 

[SlugLife]

Culturally, this is an interesting "story" of sorts.

The safety-minded side of me says "in real life, you won't magically overcome scuba-injuries." Conversely, I suppose it may have brought awareness to the seriousness of these scuba-injuries.

 

[Akimbo]

I suspect there is some comparison to the illicit drug trade. Economically disadvantaged people, mostly young men, are willing to take high risks to make a lot of money. It is hard to stop once they start to make good money even if they know it is not likely to end well.

Around 13% of commercial divers were killed in the North Sea in the early 1970s. Deep diving technology was new and still evolving and a lot of divers from the Gulf of Mexico and Persian Gulf were standing in line to work "a little deeper" than they worked in for years. The combination of greater depths, pioneering bell bounce and sat systems, plus MUCH worse sea states accounted for most of the accidents.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Tables have been public information more than 100 years. Of course treatment tables were pretty limited and of marginal value without a chamber.

Oh no disputing that. But these islands are fairly isolated. 100 years ago and Kalymnos wasn't even part of Greece.

 

[Antonios (Holy Diver)]

Sponge diving wasn't limited to Kalymnos. There were sponge divers all over the Aegean. After Chernobyl (it is debatable whether it is related) the sponge population crashed and basically killed the industry. Only the divers on Kalymnos hung on.

Being as poor as they were, they'd push the limits to get as many sponges as they could. They also found a lot of shipwrecks, some of which they looted and sold on the black market. This still continues to this day.

My first visit to Kalymnos in 2011, there was this 1 meter high half a meter wide amphora used as decoration at a laundromat. I've seen looted antiquities in homes. In 2015, due to the acceptance of the reality that most homes in Kalymnos had looted antiquities and that Greece doesn't have enough museum space for the antiquities that it has (as told to me of a former senior archaeologist in the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities), people were required to register their artifacts.

I am skeptical of the hourglass. Some may have used it. The sponge diver I know (a rather controversial one due to his son) never mentioned it. I suspect that it was trial and error that they figured out how long they could stay down. If they couldn't light a cigarette back on board, they knew they were in trouble.

Well, if they were trying to use tables and didn't have a watch... the larger point is that when they had the information, the execution of proper diving procedures still were not used. Needless to say, it took a great toll.

The hourglass was called "tabukio", and every turn was called "mantaroli" or "mantzaroli".
A crewmember called "Marcuchieris" - 'Hose Man' (responsible for the constant function of the manual air pump and its connection to the air hose), kept an eye on the hourglass, counted the "mantzarolia", and shouted to the tender master, called "Kolauzeris", their number. It was Kolauzeri's responsibility to inform the 'mechanic' about his depth and bottom time by pulling the lifeline, and to raise him on the surface when he deemed necessary.

ο μπι μπι ή αλλιως "η παλιοτρεχαντηρα" - rebetiko.sealabs.net

 

[JMBL]

Oh no disputing that. But these islands are fairly isolated. 100 years ago and Kalymnos wasn't even part of Greece.

If I remember correctly in his book "Silent World" Cousteau stated that Haldane's tables where known, but not widely used in the French navy when GRS started after WW2. While testing the CG45, it seems he had (with Dumas and Taillez) a "pifométrique" approach of deco.

Pifométrique : from 'pif' (hooter, nose) and "métrique" (measuring). Could be roughly translated as "educated guess".

 

[Luis H]

I suspect there is some comparison to the illicit drug trade. Economically disadvantaged people, mostly young men, are willing to take high risks to make a lot of money. It is hard to stop once they start to make good money even if they know it is not likely to end well.

Around 13% of commercial divers were killed in the North Sea in the early 1970s. Deep diving technology was new and still evolving and a lot of divers from the Gulf of Mexico and Persian Gulf were standing in line to work "a little deeper" than they worked in for years. The combination of greater depths, pioneering bell bounce and sat systems, plus MUCH worse sea states accounted for most of the accidents.

It kind of reminds me of the sea-urchin boom we had here in Maine in the early 90’s (about 1987 to 1992). I remember over-hearing some divers that dive computers just cut into (or limit) their profit, so it was better to just leave the dive computer back on the boat. This was only 30 years ago.

The good thing is that at the time sea-urchins were abundant in only 40 feet of water. That was short lived.

The worst accidents I remember reading about involved new sea-urchin divers getting entangles with their collecting bags and lifting lines.

I don’t remember reading big issues with DCS, but I think that was luck and a relatively short profit boom.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

It kind of reminds me of the sea-urchin boom we had here in Maine in the early 90’s (about 1987 to 1992). I remember over-hearing some divers that dive computers just cut into (or limit) their profit, so it was better to just leave the dive computer back on the boat. This was only 30 years ago.

The good thing is that at the time sea-urchins were abundant in only 40 feet of water. That was short lived.

The worst accidents I remember reading about involved new sea-urchin divers getting entangles with their collecting bags and lifting lines.

I don’t remember reading big issues with DCS, but I think that was luck and a relatively short profit boom.

12 meters is a bit different than 70+. I am guessing that when the sponge population was decimated in the 1980s, a number of sponge divers. Next time I'm in Kalymnos after October/before May, I need to go to the Ouzeri of the Sponge Divers (their coffee hangout) in Pothia and listen to their stories. I'll definitely record it, as those men have quite a lot of interesting history.