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I wrote this article so many years ago that I had forgotten about it... until it surfaced today..
May or may not be interesting....It is an event that occured prior to NAUI, PADI, DIR and the rest of the alphabet...even before SCUBA was in common useage..but it had it's orgin in Long Beach.
(The article has been edited for space considerations)
LONG BEACH,HUSSONGS & COLUMBIA TREASURE
It no secret to most "vintage" divers that the popular Baja bar Hussong's was once a divers hang out. In the 1950 & the early 1960s it was a place that was "Muy Tranquillo." The music was Strauss Viennese walzes played by a group of locals in the corner. The Maggies were huge, served with a glass and the container they were mixed in (at least to the divers) -a few sips and the Cantina was transformed into another time and another place.
The owners's son Walter Hussong, was a very knowldgeable experienced pioneer diver and a darn good one. It was only narural that divers of the 1950s and early 1960s would check in on the way south to check on conditions or on the way back to the states to report on the diving.
Bill Hogan who owned the Underwater Sports shop (now located at the base of the Belmont pier) in Long Beach, California, teamed up with Walter Hussong in 1956 to salvage what silver remained in the ship "Columbia" which was in 200 plus feet of water in or near the La Paz harbor. (To place this in perspective self contained (aka SCUBA) diving was only five (5) years old in the US, equipment was rudimentary, crude and dangerous to use and unheard of in most of Mexico; there was only one certification agency LA County, wet suits were only a few years old, floation and gauges were unknown, so it was truly pioneer diving
Bill and Walter dove on the Columbia every day for a month returning to the US with nothing but the ships bell which Bill located 50 feet from the wreck. They "did not find the silver" = and "were poverty stricken."
HOWEVER, There is an epilog to this tale..
With in a year of returning Bill managed to purchase two large lots at the base of the Belmont pier in Long Beach and establish a huge dive operation including one of the first training pools. He then divorced his wife, concurrently losing the dive operation in the process. Next he established a "Divers Bar" called "Hogans" which he gave away more than he sold, In the early 1960s he packed up and moved to Costa Rica where he remarried, raised a daughter and lived the life of a gentleman famer for most of the remainder of his years, departing to to the big reef in the sky about thre years ago--But--- He "never found the treasure of the Columbia."
Walter was living the good life in Ensenada. He was aways at the bar always avaliable to drop every thing if he recognized you to "talk diving." However, the good life caused his demise-- He ran his new 1962 Corvette of the road at La Mission and was no more --but Walter also maintained -- "never found the treasure of the Columbia."
It all happened a long, long time ago....to a bunch of "lousy divers" as we referred to our selves at that time...My how things have changed...
30
May or may not be interesting....It is an event that occured prior to NAUI, PADI, DIR and the rest of the alphabet...even before SCUBA was in common useage..but it had it's orgin in Long Beach.
(The article has been edited for space considerations)
LONG BEACH,HUSSONGS & COLUMBIA TREASURE
It no secret to most "vintage" divers that the popular Baja bar Hussong's was once a divers hang out. In the 1950 & the early 1960s it was a place that was "Muy Tranquillo." The music was Strauss Viennese walzes played by a group of locals in the corner. The Maggies were huge, served with a glass and the container they were mixed in (at least to the divers) -a few sips and the Cantina was transformed into another time and another place.
The owners's son Walter Hussong, was a very knowldgeable experienced pioneer diver and a darn good one. It was only narural that divers of the 1950s and early 1960s would check in on the way south to check on conditions or on the way back to the states to report on the diving.
Bill Hogan who owned the Underwater Sports shop (now located at the base of the Belmont pier) in Long Beach, California, teamed up with Walter Hussong in 1956 to salvage what silver remained in the ship "Columbia" which was in 200 plus feet of water in or near the La Paz harbor. (To place this in perspective self contained (aka SCUBA) diving was only five (5) years old in the US, equipment was rudimentary, crude and dangerous to use and unheard of in most of Mexico; there was only one certification agency LA County, wet suits were only a few years old, floation and gauges were unknown, so it was truly pioneer diving
Bill and Walter dove on the Columbia every day for a month returning to the US with nothing but the ships bell which Bill located 50 feet from the wreck. They "did not find the silver" = and "were poverty stricken."
HOWEVER, There is an epilog to this tale..
With in a year of returning Bill managed to purchase two large lots at the base of the Belmont pier in Long Beach and establish a huge dive operation including one of the first training pools. He then divorced his wife, concurrently losing the dive operation in the process. Next he established a "Divers Bar" called "Hogans" which he gave away more than he sold, In the early 1960s he packed up and moved to Costa Rica where he remarried, raised a daughter and lived the life of a gentleman famer for most of the remainder of his years, departing to to the big reef in the sky about thre years ago--But--- He "never found the treasure of the Columbia."
Walter was living the good life in Ensenada. He was aways at the bar always avaliable to drop every thing if he recognized you to "talk diving." However, the good life caused his demise-- He ran his new 1962 Corvette of the road at La Mission and was no more --but Walter also maintained -- "never found the treasure of the Columbia."
It all happened a long, long time ago....to a bunch of "lousy divers" as we referred to our selves at that time...My how things have changed...
30
