DIVERS DON’T FEAR SHARKS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2282, 28 May 1921, Page 4

DIVERS DON’T FEAR SHARKS.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT A VERY HAZARDOUS CALLING.

Most people imagine that the shark is the diver’s deadliest enemy. This, however, is an entirely erroneous impression.

The ordinary rock cod is the diver's greatest foe, because of its voracity and utter lack of tear. No real diver is afraid of the shark, but all dread a really big and hungry codfish.

Sharks are at best cowardly creatures, and even when made bold by hunger can easily be frightened away by the sudden emission of air bubbles from the valve of the divers helmet.

The codfish, on the contrary, is afraid of nothing, and will nose up to a diver, smell round him until it discovers his naked hands, and then bite them off.

A diver’s hands, it should be explained, are the sole portion of his body outside the diving suit, the dress ending at the wrisis, where thick india-rubber bands prevent the admission of water and expulsion of air.

DEVIL FISH ARE DANGEROUS. Another under-sea enemy of the diver, says Captain C. A. \Y. Mouckton, F.R.C.S., in his most interesting travel book, “Some Experiences of a New Guinea Resident Magistrate,” is the octopus, or “devil fish.” Fortunately, however, these loathsome creatures arc rarely met with-of a size sufficient to be really dangerous. Not so, however, the giant clams llc.it are so frequently found lurking amid the seaweed coral at the bottom of the sea in the tropics. In one case an unfortunate diver landed his log in a big clam shell, which, of course, immediately closed upon it, the shell weighing probably three or four hundred pounds, and being fastened to the bottom. The diver, losing his presence of mind, frantically signalled to t lie men in the boat above to “puli up. ' This they started to do, blit, of course, found their efforts of no avail, and before another diver could be sent down to ascertain what was wrong the man was dead.

RISK OF BEING DROWNED

But accident.- of this kind arc comparatively rare. A diver’s mo-l real danger is the risk he runs of being drowned when on hi- way to the surface, and it occurs in thi- way:

After a time the be-l. of diving dres-e- become leaky to a greater or less extent, and llte water that finds its way through -ettle- about the feel and legs.

Now, suppose ti diver has his (Ires- full of water to the knees or thigh-, and having completed hitnrn below signals to be pulled up. As he ascends he may involuntarily or by accident allow his body to assume a horizontal position, in which case the water at once rushes into the helmet, overbalances him —in effect, stands him on hi- head! —and drowns him inside hi- dress. A curious fact is the extraordinary effect air prCs-ure lttts upon a men’s temper when diving. An ordinarily quite amiable diver will lly into it perfect fury of rage a! some frequently wholly imaginary grievance when working in twenty fathom- of water.

WHY DIVERS GET CROSS

This peculiarity leads to frequent squabbles between rival pearldivers working on the same patch of shell, and occasionally they will go so far as to forget themselves and start fighting together on the sea bottom, usually with results more or less disastrous to themselves.

An angry diver Ims even been known to pull up the anchor of hirival’s vessel, and tangle the (lakes round the hawser, with the result that the little pearling schooner goes drifting olf with the wind or the tide, towing her own diver after her. For a man to pull up a ship’s anchor single-handed in this way sounds a difficult and indeed a wellnigh impossible feat. In reality, however, it is easy of accomplishment, that is if the diver is working at any considerable depth, the reason being that even very heavy article- are practically devoid of weight anywhere below the twenty fathom line.