DIVERS’ CAPS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 311, 24 October 1929, Page 5

DIVERS’ CAPS.

A diver is anything but prepossessing to look at, yet few can watch without a thrill. There he stands in the diving-boat, encased to the "ftKk in a one-piece waterproof suit (says a writer in “The Navy’">. He dons a pair of boots which weigh about a hundredweight, and then, to satisfy superstition, he draws on a little red woollen cap. ./ The use of this cap is shrouded in/mystery, but a diver would no more feo down without it than you would deliberately upset the salt. Now he waddles over the stern on to the diving ladder an attendant claps .on his copper helmet with a clang, the little glass window is screwed into place, and down he goes like a stone All you can see is the diver’s aifi pipe, his life line, and a little trail ■of bubbles, yet you know that he is safely on, the bottom, and can remain there for a considerable time in comparative comfort. Round go- the wheels of the air pump and up come the bubbles, but still there is no diver.

Suddenly the bubbles stop, and soon after the diver reappears at the surface. How did he rise? His boots -weigh a hundredweight and you saw no one heave in his life-line. No, you are quite right. He was not -pulled up. He rose by the simple means of closing the air valve on his hijpiet, and blowing out his diving until he became sufficiently buoyant to float to the surface.