A GIRL DIVER

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 75, 22 December 1920, Page 7

A GIRL DIVER

SEARCH FOR SUNKEN TREASURE

WEIRD BUT FASCINATING LIFE

Diving for sunken treasure is not a life that a nervous girl ought to take up, for when one goes into the vasty deeps there arc sights to bo seen that might lUttko oven the stoutest heart quail. 1 took to tlio life just because I have a deep-seated love of adventure in me (writes Miss May Naylor, the only girl diver, in. the Glasgow "Weekly Record ), and I wanted to see what it was lik« to go down among tlio dead men 111. "Davy Jones's locker." . X cannot t?ay that wv first experience was as satisfactory as I thought it was to bo, 'and when I got dowii into the depths I rather wished I. was on top again, but after the first sensations pass away one gets used to it, and Uioie is always a certain amount of loy and fascination in seurchins about among such strange surroundings. The sensation of walkiuir about on the bed'of the ocean, with hundreds of tons of water, pressing round about one, is weird, but after a time you get to nko it. You also get to like the strange and sometimes gruesome things you see deep, deep down, though I dare say one could liave too much of it. , . There is plenty to make one think and ■ to suggest the tragedy that dogs the footsteps of those who po down t» tlio sea in ships, for the bed of the sea is littered with wreckage of all kinds, and everything one sees is eloquent of.BOUiG grout: tragedy of the sea At the present time after five years of i submarine warfavo. the bod of the ?oa is as vicli ns a cold mine—ft ascwitinjj thought no doubt which crips even me,' and I am looking forward, to the resumption of our explorations in . loberir.orv Bay for the Spanish salleous supposed to hnvo been lofct there. I have not found any cold yet, hut \ have found many things of value and iiterest. mid I havo satisfied mv hung for adventure. . , . . ■ I.think probablv the most try.n* t.ni--of all for tlio divers is when I K-re is for any reason, delay in responding w the signal to haul up. One | I'«A been down for some -.time, and 1 Ic-i that it wns about time to so uv> but thovc was some unaccountable delay m responding to my signal, and I began to' wonder whether anything had Kono W l° repeated the signal, but slill .ttiere was no reply/and then I really did begin to get the least bit alarmed. The seconds passed, and still (litre was no response. My alarm increased, and I had visions of a terrible-death overtaking me. To make mutters worse, I became conscious of some huge body moving in my direction, and X very badly wanted to scream out m my just when things seemed. In be at'their worst there was a sudden jerk at the line, and I was shot up to tlio surface ami to safety, something had gone wrong with the line temporarily, one of the everyday thrills «t the game, but, of course, there was lio real danger. , What the objbet moving towards me was I cannot say, but them me . plenty of weird creatures down there to give one thft creeps. • Personally, I like the life, and hav« no desire to give it up. The greatest danger arises from tlio entanglement of lines when nioro than one diver is working in the 6iune area, but as a'general rule wc avoid that by special precaution. , Tlio conditions under sea vary a great: deal. At some parts you get the impression of wandering about in iv very messy and sticky place, but at others ono might bo in a land of enchantment, where everything, seonis delightful,, aud one cannot tire- of walking over this ground. . , . Probably tho severest physical strain comes from tho pressure of water übou* the ears, and there is always a certain amount of strain due to ]'&iiu.ueo on artificial respiration. , Down thcro one finds plenty to suggest romance, and oven tragedy. One may find, aud wo do find, such triiles as last messages from people who have been lost at sea, and some of these messages aVa pathetio in the'extreme. They bear all dates, aud the wonder is how they havo been preserved so long. Only once have 1 had tho cxperieuoft of going over a real wreck lying many fathoms down. It was a terrible experience walking along the docks of this vessel, and feeling lhat ono was treading on ground that so many people had trod for the last time, with all the accompanying terror of shipwreck at 6ea. Jloro terrible still was to make- one's ■way below, and note alj. the signs of the Budden end the treasures of tho passengers laid ready to be taken off if circumstances permitted; aud then finally to find some of the.dead in various attitudes wlierp death had found them, some of tho bodies preserved, the others in differing states of decay. Here aud there figures in the attitude of prayer, and others suggestive of tho last leave-taking of loved' ones who knew that their last hour on earth bad come. . There is something distinctly awesome in ones contact with tlio mysteries of this Silent Land. It is much inoro overwhelming than the loneliness of desert places on land. Under the waves tliore is the stillness of der.th. No sound comes to encourage the faint heart. Only the ghostly forms of the denizens of the deep float silently round ono in tho "long Cold night that lags a ; creeping: there." No one is ever tempted to linger too long. The time comes when one feverishly gives the signal to be hauled v to the surface back to God's fresh air and tho blue of hoavqn.