Vintage Diving Stories?

[Paladin]

My old dive buddy, Fuzz, and I were diving at Sutton Lake one late spring weekend ('77, I think). We were sliding along an underwater rock face and found a rather wide overhang. From under the overhang, I looked out and saw a night crawler dangling on a hook just a few inches from the opening. I tapped Fuzz on the shoulder to get his attention, then reached out to take the fishing line above the hook with a thumb and forefinger. I gave it a quick little tug and let it go. The worm jerked up and disappeared.

A few seconds later, it was back and I gave it another little tug. Again it disappeared, then came back. I did this a few more times before carefully cutting the hook off the end of the line. I grabbed the line above the sinker and pulled hard. I could feel the fisherman topside pulling on the line as I jerked my end of it around like some monster fish fighting the hook. After a few seconds of this, I suddenly let go. I looked over at Fuzz and I thought he was going to drown from laughing.

Later, at the dock, when we were out of the water and back in street clothes, we heard a guy telling another man about the huge fish he almost caught.

 

[AfterDark]

Beautiful. Reminds me of a time probably 65 - 66 at a beach called Fogland Beach in RI. At one end was a rock jetty where people fished. I swam underwater to the jetty and surfaced a short distance from it. I guess the old green horns had never seen a snorkeler before or thought I'd scare the fish. They all started yelling and casting their lines at me! They had some BIGASS sinkers on those lines! So away I went down to the bottom where I proceeded to cut or entangle every line I could find. When I came up again they were still yelling but only a couple had lines to cast! So they started throwing rocks! I left laughing into my snorkel. Little bas***d at age 12!

 

[AfterDark]

I posted this in the A&I section but then remembered this thread so here's
another old bold diver story.

The year was 1972 I had been certificated for 4 years. The dive site was Narragansett Bay at the site of the L8 a WWI sub sunk by the Navy to test a torpedo in 1925. The L8 is in 120FSW. This was to be the 1st dive to or below 100fsw for either of us. The dive plan was to dive the sub for 15 mins with a 5 min stop at 10' because we wanted to be safe. US NAVY tables were used. We carried all the air for the dive on our backs in the form of twin 72's maxed out at +10%. This was going to leave us with plenty of air to end the dive as planned.
The plan was "modified" when we found a deck cleat unattached from the hull.
We were going to get it to the surface. We had a lot of trouble getting
the cleat onto the hull to rig it for the ascent. We then had trouble
rigging it. We were narc'ed but hadn't realized yet. Time went by and with
the cleat still not ready our original 15 minutes were up. We decided
that another 5 mins would do it. Being the stronger of the 2 of us I did
most of the bull work, as a result my air consumption skyrocketed.
After a few mins we were done. I tried to recalculate my decon time.
That's when I realized I was narc'ed because I couldn't do it. We ascended
to 10' were we decided that 10 mins was a good stop time. I thought that
as hard as I worked I should stay at least that long and my buddy wanted
to stay with me. After hanging for 1 min. my j-valve informed me it was
time to go. I signaled to my buddy that I was soon to be out of air and
we would need to BB to stay the full 10 mins or take a chance on DCS.
Strictly by the tables I could have ascended after 2 min but as stated I
wanted to be as sure as possible that I'd have good memories of this dive.
So when my air again began to come hard, I gave the OOA sign and we began
buddy breathing. We had another slate debate and decided that tacking on
another couple of mins would be a good idea as now we weren't breathing
normally and the gas purging might be compromised. We did our time and surfaced
only to lose the cleat. In my defense I wanted a tank at 10' but was
talked out of it as unnecessary as we had no real decon obligation just
what we call today a safety stop. If we got low we could ascend and still
be within the tables. I didn't like it but hey what can go wrong huh?

 

[SwimJim]

There are old divers and there are bold divers, but there are no old bold divers. LOL. At least that's what they taught in the late 70's long after you dropped the cleat.

 

[Gilldiver]

I posted this in the A&I section but then remembered this thread so here's
another old bold diver story.

The year was 1972 I had been certificated for 4 years. The dive site was Narragansett Bay at the site of the L8 a WWI sub sunk by the Navy to test a torpedo in 1925. The L8 is in 120FSW.

You sure it was in 72? Mike didn't find it till the early 80's. Perhaps you were on one of the G-Class boats up in the bay.

After he found the wreck, Mike spent the summer, and I don't know how many blades, hacksawing off the upper propellor. The wreck is in 110' on a nice soft bottom, anything over the sides gets lost in the mud which stirs up quickly. Mike and Doug were the ones who used a come-along to pull open the crack in the forward torpedo room. Mike got one tube, Bill Palmer got one or two, and a girl by the name of Eva got one.

My own L-8 story is about worming my way into a hatch, having one light flood on me, kept going and got an arm away from the hatch insides when my second light burns out, all I had then was a small Ikelit Mini-C. I figured that God did not want me in the wreck that day and got out.

 

[AfterDark]

You sure it was in 72? Mike didn't find it till the early 80's. Perhaps you were on one of the G-Class boats up in the bay.

After he found the wreck, Mike spent the summer, and I don't know how many blades, hacksawing off the upper propellor. The wreck is in 110' on a nice soft bottom, anything over the sides gets lost in the mud which stirs up quickly. Mike and Doug were the ones who used a come-along to pull open the crack in the forward torpedo room. Mike got one tube, Bill Palmer got one or two, and a girl by the name of Eva got one.

My own L-8 story is about worming my way into a hatch, having one light flood on me, kept going and got an arm away from the hatch insides when my second light burns out, all I had then was a small Ikelit Mini-C. I figured that God did not want me in the wreck that day and got out.

I thought it was 72 maybe it was 82 if so then I've got my details confused because by 82 I'd been diving to that depth for quite awhile. Also by 82 I had a SPG which I don't recall having for that dive. I wish I hadn't lost my log books so much diving info lost, and now well things are a little harder to remember. Bill Palmer there's a name I haven't heard for awhile. Do you know what he's doing these days?

Gilldiver is there a GS-8 sub in the Bay? That designation came to mind when I was thinking about this incident but I decided it was the L8 instead. Maybe my 1st thought was correct?

 

[Paladin]

At 5 pm on December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge spanning the Ohio River at Point Pleasant, WV, collapsed into the river, taking 31 vehicles and 46 people with it. The collapse took less than a minute. Most of those who survived the actual collapse were trapped in their vehicles, many of which were swept downstream in the current. Witnesses reported seeing the unfortunate victims pounding futilely on the windows, trying to get out as the vehicles sank into the murky water. Emergency crews were on the scene in minutes, but it was already too late too save those who had fallen into the river.

A call went out for divers to aid in the recovery effort and, later, the investigation and cleanup. Divers from all over, with all kinds of equipment, answered the call. Even hardhats gave a hand. It was a long, painful task to locate the sunken vehicles, and recover the bodies of the victims, because they dotted the riverbed like a long, scattered string of pearls. Some of the victims had managed to escape their vehicles only to drown in the frigid water, adding to the difficulties involved in their recovery.

I grabbed my gear and went along with Harold and his friends but was not allowed to dive. The water was cold and I didn't have a wetsuit. Besides, I was 13 years old and the authorities believed the site was too hazardous for me. In the end, my contribution was to run Harold's compressor and keep his and the others' tanks filled. Some of the divers using single hose regulators had trouble with their regs icing up and were forced repeatedly to the surface to clear them. The double hose divers had no trouble with icing.

At the time, I remember thinking about all those people who had been on the bridge; coming home from work and looking forward to time with their families or coming home from Christmas shopping with loads of presents in the trunk and thoughts of Christmas on their minds. It had all come crashing down in less than a minute, accompanied by the screams of tortured steel and terrified victims.

Guys, don't miss a single opportunity to kiss your wife/husband and hug your kids. Tell them you love them every chance you get. Don't put it off for a single minute. Life is too uncertain and you may not have that minute to waste. For those people on the Silver Bridge that cold day in December, 1967, one minute was all that separated them from Eternity.

May God bless and keep you all and I hope you all have a merry Christmas and a safe, happy New Year.

 

[RickI]

Harsh lessons, hard won. I recall taking a half day off from looking for Columbus' Santa Maria in 1976 on the barrier reef off Cap Haitian, Haiti. I headed up to Sans Souci and the Citadel by moped. I intercepted a line of corrugated metal coffins being carried up the mountain on the dirt tract. Apparently some people had tried to weather a particularly intense storm under a Napoleonic era stone bridge. The bridge failed in the violence of the storm. The closing line above is particularly worth remembering and acting upon,

"May God bless and keep you all and I hope you all have a merry Christmas and a safe, happy New Year."

All the best. Have a story to follow on a lighter note.

 

[RickI]

Here's an interesting story from 1972. I had hooked up with Don Bartlett through the Underseas Sports Diving Club in Ft. Lauderdale. We were running down to Key Largo via US 1 through south Miami in his VW van (the Turnpike Extension was years in the future). Don was a fireman and a hell of a nice guy. I was a sophomore in High School. It was my first trip to dive Pennekamp. The Keys were a lot quieter and less developed in those days. Lots of mom and pop small places from the 1950's with the larger flashy stuff well off in the future. We were on our way to Carl Gage's Key Largo Diving Headquarters, (now occupied by Quiescent). Made it to the shop, checked in and hung around the dock. I can recall just how clear the water of Florida Bay was, a bit green but a lot clearer than what I have seen in recent times. We loaded up Carl's cattle boat and headed out and through the cut to the ocean. The water was blue, well at least that hasn't changed particularly outside Hawks Channel. Still, like Florida Bay it was CLEAR, really clear. We were only heading out to Molasses Reef if memory serves, over the Florida Reef Tract and not in deep water. In those days there weren't large, well known wrecks in deep water like the Speigel or Duane, those were still well off in the future. Most of the action was over the Reef Tract and to a lesser degree in the patch reefs of the Channel.

We get out, anchor in sand, no mooring balls yet. You could look over the side and all over there was this peculiar but beautiful blue water with these abundant patches of golden brown all over the place. The brown was patches of elkhorn coral (Acropora palmatta). We gear up in our single steel 72's with thin diving vests in some but not all cases and jump in. It was a calm day adding to the visibility which was on the order of 100 ft.. Viz. in this range was fairly common both in the warm months of summer and in particular in the cooler months of the year when plankton populations eased. There were the spur and grove features, tall mounds of coral pointing offshore, crowned with dense, continuous stands of healthy elkhorn. There were thick patches of staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) in various areas. There were massive corals as well, star coral (Montastrea annularis and cavernosa), brain coral (Diploria clivosa), electric stands of vertical fingers of fire coral (Millipora) and a great deal more. The corals were brilliantly and uniformly colored, free of blotches, blemishes, spots or bleaching. Even reef building crustose algae like Halimeda was a rich green with white carbonate flecks going to town.

There was a "normal" diversity and abundance of fin fish over the reef. In particular some LARGE grouper and hogfish. I can recall regularly seeing a four footer on Molasses in a similar area for sometime afterward. This was before domestic fishermen were kicked out of the Bahamas and redoubled efforts to further deplete domestic stocks. Large grouper had yet to be taken by poachers from this Federal Park in subsequent years. It was so clear, I left the tank onboard for the second dive and just jumped in with a mask. Free diving was so easy in all that clear, warm and fairly shallow water.

Today, visibility is consistently less, elkhorn coral is largely gone, staghorn too. Massive corals are still there although so are common blotches, discolored areas and bleaching. Algae covers a lot more bottom that was previously viable coral growth. There are lots of mooring balls today. Large grouper are still not that common to my knowledge although jewfish may be coming back. Not sure where the effects of climate change stop and development impact begin. At any rate, the intensely lush and vibrant reefs from all those years ago are gone. Perhaps someday, they'll come back, we can hope so. I was shown an area of young elkhorn just north of Key Largo a couple of months ago. The colonies covered a couple of acres perhaps more and seemed to date after the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005. Hope they come back in full.

In the meantime, the reefs of the Keys are still well worth visiting and striving to protect as best we can. I still run down there many times each year, there's nothing like the Keys even today, certainly not in the rest of the USA. Best enjoy what they have to offer, it still both special and unique.

I tried to find some photos online of some of the reef features from that time without success. I have my own slides from the early '70's and collect photo books of that vintage. So, I'll see if I can upload some to this story.

 

[psiborg1812]

At 5 pm on December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge spanning the Ohio River at Point Pleasant, WV, collapsed into the river, taking 31 vehicles and 46 people with it. The collapse took less than a minute. Most of those who survived the actual collapse were trapped in their vehicles, many of which were swept downstream in the current. Witnesses reported seeing the unfortunate victims pounding futilely on the windows, trying to get out as the vehicles sank into the murky water. Emergency crews were on the scene in minutes, but it was already too late too save those who had fallen into the river.

A call went out for divers to aid in the recovery effort and, later, the investigation and cleanup. Divers from all over, with all kinds of equipment, answered the call. Even hardhats gave a hand. It was a long, painful task to locate the sunken vehicles, and recover the bodies of the victims, because they dotted the riverbed like a long, scattered string of pearls. Some of the victims had managed to escape their vehicles only to drown in the frigid water, adding to the difficulties involved in their recovery.

I grabbed my gear and went along with Harold and his friends but was not allowed to dive. The water was cold and I didn't have a wetsuit. Besides, I was 13 years old and the authorities believed the site was too hazardous for me. In the end, my contribution was to run Harold's compressor and keep his and the others' tanks filled. Some of the divers using single hose regulators had trouble with their regs icing up and were forced repeatedly to the surface to clear them. The double hose divers had no trouble with icing.

At the time, I remember thinking about all those people who had been on the bridge; coming home from work and looking forward to time with their families or coming home from Christmas shopping with loads of presents in the trunk and thoughts of Christmas on their minds. It had all come crashing down in less than a minute, accompanied by the screams of tortured steel and terrified victims.

Guys, don't miss a single opportunity to kiss your wife/husband and hug your kids. Tell them you love them every chance you get. Don't put it off for a single minute. Life is too uncertain and you may not have that minute to waste. For those people on the Silver Bridge that cold day in December, 1967, one minute was all that separated them from Eternity.

May God bless and keep you all and I hope you all have a merry Christmas and a safe, happy New Year.

:shocked2:

Wasn't the movie "The Mothman Prophecies" based on that event?