Dive bar

“ Funny; he’s been diving forty feet into an eight foot tank for several years, and never got a scratch, and then he slips on a banana peeling and breaks his arm. It’s too bad, too, for the diving act always goes big in these small towns. I’d give twenty-five dollars for a diver this afternoon,” concluded the man.
“Hand over the twenty-five,” said Dick suddenly.
“What do you mean,” asked the circus man in surprise.
“Just that you give me the twenty-five dollars and I’ll do your high dive for you this afternoon.” ”

“ Leaping from the davits of the boat-deck above, they plunged downward, their faces and shoulders bowed forward, looking at the water. And only at the last moment did they abruptly straighten up and enter the water erect and true.
"It was a pretty sight. Their diving was not so good, though there was one of them who was excellent at it, as he was in all the other stunts. Some white man must have taught him, for he made the proper swan dive and did it as beautifully as I have ever seen it. ”

“ Where there is either a strong current, or the bottom is very shelving, the diving-bell is embarrassing if not dangerous. In one case it is said that the diver was taken from the bell by a shark. Expert swimmers can dive from the outside, and, passing under the lip of the bell, rise suddenly inside of it, a feat which always surprises those who are in the bell. [596] There is also sometimes danger that the bell may settle in the soft mud, and be held there by suction. Such a case once occurred in New York harbor, when a party had gone in the bell as a sort of pleasure excursion. ”

“ About a dozen dropped out at the mere reading of the test and accepted their rating as Perch without a trial; as many more failed either to execute their dives properly or to give satisfaction in their swimming strokes. Sahwah, burning with impatience to show her skill, climbed nimbly up to the very top of the tower and went off the highest springboard in a neat back dive that drew applause from the watchers, including Miss Armstrong. ”

“ The longest time that a natural diver has been known to remain beneath the surface is about two minutes. Some pearl and sponge divers rub their bodies with oil, and put wool, saturated with oil, in their ears. Others hold in their mouth a piece of sponge soaked in oil, which they renew every time they descend. It is doubtful, however, whether these expedients are beneficial. The men who dive in this primitive fashion take with them a flat stone with a hole in the centre; to this is attached a rope, which is secured to the diving boat and serves to guide them to particular spots below. ”

“ As diving is a very large subject, it is impossible to give in detail all the varied dives. There are three important dives everyone should know—the front, back, and shallow or racing dive. The beauty of diving is in the form.
The Front Dive.—The diver stands erect at the end of the spring board, falls forward, then as the body passes the balance point, the arms are raised straight over the head, knees bent; then spring out so that the body is parallel to water, arms above head; the body is curved downward and enters the water, arms, head, body, and legs forming a straight line. ”

“ No diver is any good until he can see where he is going or what he really is after under water. Why not get the others to try, too,” replied Elizabeth.
So they were all trying to dive and keep their eyes open. “The one who keeps his eyes open the longest while under water will be given an extra dish of dessert at lunch time,” cried Billy.
“But it feels so funny to have the water biff your eyes,” commented Paul, who had experimented when the others did.
“Why, I don’t know whether I see anything or not! I tried but couldn’t see the white sand-bag,” said Dudley. ”

“ The diving bell has this advantage over the dress, that several men can work in company; on the other hand, should an accident happen, more lives are involved. Some years ago the chain of a diving bell in use at a pier in Dover, England, got fouled in some way and its occupants found themselves in a most alarming predicament. However, a diver named William Wharlow, donning his suit, descended, crowbar in hand, and after several hours of hard work, succeeded in freeing the chain, when the diving bell was hauled up in safety. ”

“ Guess it’s because they’re always diving for conchs or maybe because they’re as much at home under water as on land. Greatest divers in the world; fact, I’ve seen ’em diving for sponge and coral many a time and when we get to Nassau this afternoon you’ll see about ten thousand naked nigger boys crowding about, begging you to toss pennies to ’em so they can dive and catch them. Little beggars can grab a coin long before it gets to the bottom and if you toss a penny off one side of the ship they’ll dive off the other, swim under the keel and get the coin before it reaches bottom. ”

“ It is good practise to get a friend to time your lengths, and get used to diving at the word "go." The best position for a racing dive is with the hands in front of the body, the knees bent, and the mouth open, so that you get all the air possible before striking the water. Always spring out as far as you can. ”

“ It was rising tide the next afternoon, an hour before slack water (slack water is the diver's harvest-time) , when the crew of the steam-pump Dunderberg gathered on deck to witness my descent and assist in dressing me; for no diver can dress himself. The putting on a diving-suit is like squeezing into an enormous pair of rubber boots reaching up to the chin, and provided with sleeves that clutch the wrists tightly with clinging bands, to keep out the water. ”

“ In springing, jump out parallel to the water. The running dive is very similar.
Back Dive.—The diver turns with back to the water, heels over the edge of board into space; the arms are over head, body is curved backward; as the balance point is reached, spring out, turning body as it enters the water.
The position of the head is important. Ducking the head or throwing it too far back, added to stiffness of the body, makes the dive awkward. The legs should never be apart, but together; toes pointed, so that feet are not flat; the fingers should be together. ”

“ Regulations for Diving Competitions
Instruction to Judges. In making awards for points for each dive the judges shall have regard to the character of the respective dive to be performed, and shall take into consideration: The manner of the dive (proper carriage, confidence and form) , the force and speed of the dive, the entrance into the water and how the run or take-off is performed. When judging the carriage the individuality of the diver should be taken into consideration. The bearing in the air should be natural, easy, supple and graceful. ”

“ A diver’s hands are the sole portion of his body outside the diving suit, the dress ending at the wrists, where thick india-rubber bands prevent the admission of water and expulsion of air. Should a diver meet a large groper, the only thing to be done is to either ascend twenty or thirty feet and drift out of the short-sighted fish’s range of vision or, if there is no tide or current, rise to the surface. ”

“ It is amusing to note the scorn of practical divers for the nice electric-lighting and telephone contrivances of divers who never dive, but sell their inventions to the Government for its Newport diving school, which same inventions remain, for the most part, in their spick-span boxes. It seems simple enough to have submarine lights; yet divers who dive prefer to grope in the almost darkness of our ordinary waters. It seems a distinct advantage that diver and tender be able to talk over a wire ”

“ The man of the atolls is in a world of his own where none but his kind can follow, and they still squat on their outriggers, chatting and laughing like a crowd of boys at a swimming pool.
One alone seems interested in the diver's movements: his mate, a fair-skinned woman, with streaming blue-black hair, leans over the gunwale of the canoe, looking down through a kerosene tin water-glass.
The diver's dark figure against the pale-green coral becomes more blurred; a stream of silver air bubbles floats upward. ”

“ The relief is sometimes so soothing that in long waits the droning of the air-valve will lull the diver into a sleep, from which he is suddenly awakened by a quick jerk on his wrist. Many divers, while waiting for the movements of those above, play with the fish, watch the crabs, or rake over the gravel in search of the thousand and one things that are lost overboard and that everybody hopes to find on the bottom of the sea. ”

“ An hour afterward the raft and all the instruments necessary for the enterprise had drifted down to the bank where the boats were waiting.
The diving-dress is well known. By its means men can descend beneath the waters and remain there a certain time without the action of the lungs being in any way injured. The diver is clothed in a waterproof suit of India rubber, and his feet are attached to leaden shoes, which allow him to retain his upright position beneath the surface. ”

“ There is another department of the art now under consideration, in which our friend greatly excelled, namely, that of diving. There are few divers who do not feel a kind of exultation in their power over the element, and in their ability to move under the surface of the water with ease and pleasure. Half a century ago, diving was a difficult and dangerous art, demanding great skill and endurance; but modern science has given the professional diver an almost perfect accoutrement, by means of which he can literally walk down to the bottom of the sea, and telegraph for as much air as he requires. ”

“ Regular divers could never make it. They would be crushed to death by the mere pressure of the water."
"I have thought the matter over, Dave, and I think it will be best for both you and your father to go down only a half-mile the first day. Then, if that is successful, you can go a little deeper each day, until the bottom is reached. And you will have to use the diving bell at all times."
"I know that. And if we leave the diving bell at all it will have to be in those new steel-ribbed diving suits we had made in Washington especially for this trip," concluded the young diver. ”

“ This resort was a hundred feet long by forty wide, well floored, and given over to drinking, dancing, and gambling. The sumptuous bar provided refreshment much desired in a dry alkali country; all the games known to the professional gambler were in full blast; women, often fair and well-dressed, were there to gather in what the bartender and faro-dealer missed. ”

“ When the deep-water boats reach the fishing grounds, half the crew is selected for diving. The diver uses a small braided mat basket as a receptacle for the shells and has a long line attached to him by which he can signal to the man in the boat who manages it. There is a man to each diver's line. Except for the short intervals at the surface necessary for air and rest, the divers remain in the water for hours. The oyster-beds vary in depth from six to eighteen feet in the shallows, to forty feet at the banks. ”

“ The fact is, a diver has quite as much as he can attend to with the burden of his suit (about a hundred and seventy-five pounds) , and his two lines to watch and keep from kinks and entanglements. Touch one of these lines, and you touch his life. Fasten a new line to him, or two new lines, and you enormously increase his peril. Imagine yourself stumbling about in a dark forest, with a man strapped on your back, and several ropes dragging behind you among trees and rocks, each separate rope being to you as breath and blood! That is precisely the diver's case. ”

“ On a platform of loose planks, the assistants turned their air-mills; a stone might be swinging between wind and water; underneath the swell ran gaily; and from time to time, a mailed dragon with a window-glass snout came dripping up the ladder. . . . To go down in the diving-dress, that was my absorbing fancy; and with the countenance of a certain handsome scamp of a diver, Bob Bain by name, I gratified the whim. ”

“ He who would search for them systematically must dive, and if he does not possess the proper costume and accessories his trips below are but brief, and not always profitable. When a diver boasts that he can remain under water two or three minutes—and the boast is very common—he has gauged his endurance by his sensations, not by the clock. ”

“ The nude diver, already in the sea, places the basket on the stone and inserts one foot in a loop attached to the stone. He draws a long breath, closes his nostrils with the fingers of one hand, raises his body as high as possible above water, to give force to his descent, and, loosening the rope supporting the weight, is carried quickly to the bottom. An Arab diver closes the nostrils with a tortoise-shell clip, and occasionally a diver is seen whose ears are stopped with oil-saturated cotton. ”

“ My instincts, as well as what I have noticed, tell me that a diver must be in the best of health, must be rather thin, have excellent eyesight, sound lungs, steady nerves, and a strong heart. The work is not easy. I wonder if work that pays well is often easy? I do not believe it is.
There used to be a strange machine in use called the "diving-bell." A great cast-iron cage, shaped something like a bell, let down by ropes, and so heavy that its own weight would sink it. Divers could sit inside, and fresh air was supplied by a force-pump. ”

“ You see how much safer the diver is under these conditions. Most of the danger used to lie in accidents to the air tube. It might get entangled, or cut or bitten by a shark and then it was all up with the diver. Now he’s independent of that. He can work longer at a time and with much greater peace of mind.
“Then too he can see under water much better than he did in the old days. The head piece of this suit I’m talking of has four openings which are fitted with heavy glass, so that he can look out in front or on either side without shifting his position. ”