Pearl diver

“ At the proper signal, those who remain in the boat draw up the net, while the diver, kicking off the stone from his feet, comes to the surface with the speed of an arrow. In addition to the pearl oysters, all sorts of curious marine animals, sea-slugs, black, greasy, and hideous polypi, together with beautiful variegated shells, come up in the diver's net. He works too rapidly while at the bottom of the sea to discriminate as to the substances which he gathers. ”

“ In some seas there are swift currents and as the dress-diver remains under water for some time, instead of returning at once like his naked brother, he must keep moving with it, and as he moves, the boat must move in unison and his tender must keep the lines free. Both diver and tender must be skilful and alert to do this. Nor is it always easy in deep-sea diving to find the oysters. They lie in scattered bunches, often hidden by sponges, coral or other sea growths, their gray or moss-grown exteriors scarcely to be distinguished from the surroundings ”

“ Our young heroes were permitted to keep all the pearls they found, and many were very valuable.{169}
But diving was not unattended with danger, for in the lagoon were not only sharks—huge and awful monsters—but great, ungainly, horrid alligators.
Somehow they never dared attack the boys or Antonio in the diver’s dress.
The savages used to dive together in parties of six to ten, and they were then unmolested by the tigers of the sea.
One day a young brave, probably to give himself éclat with the pretty, dark-skinned maidens who stood watching on the beach, took his spear and dived alone. ”

“ The native descends naked, carrying only a girdle for the support of the basket in which he places the pearl oysters. In his submarine work the diver makes skilful use of his toes. To arm himself against the attacks of the sharks and other fishes which infest the Indian waters he carries spikes of ironwood; and the genuine Indian diver never descends without the incantations of shark-charmers, one of whom accompanies the boat while others remain on shore. As a rule the diver is a short-lived man.
The diving continues from sunrise to about noon, when a gun is fired. ”

“ No man in all these islands has ever seen its like! I would still dive if there were fifty sharks instead of the one Seroni killed yesterday. But watch carefully, and if a shark comes, move the basket up and down a little so that I may be warned. Now pass me the weight, for I am ready to go down again."
At the end of three hours the diver clambered stiffly into the canoe; even in this water, only a few degrees below the temperature of one's blood, a man grows chilled and must come out to rest and warm himself in the sun. ”

“ Durnford, "there are too seasons for pearl fishing. The first is in March and April, and the last in August and September, and the more rain there falls in the year, the more plentiful are the fisheries. The method of procuring the pearls is rather singular. The diver binds a stone six inches thick, and a foot long under his body; which serves him as ballast, prevents his being driven away by the motion of the water, and enables him to walk steadily under the waves. ”

“ It is indeed an 'extensive Volume,' of boundless, almost formless contents, a very Sea of Thought; neither calm nor clear, if you will; yet wherein the toughest pearl-diver may dive to his utmost depth, and return not only with sea-wreck but with true orients. ”

“ The saw-fish is another of the diver’s foes, more dangerous, because more difficult to attack than the shark.
The merchants have to keep a very strict look-out on the divers on their return to the shore, as frequently when the oyster is in the boat, and left alive undisturbed for some time, it opens its shell. A pearl may then easily be discovered, and, by means of a piece of wood, the shell be prevented from again closing till the diver has an opportunity of picking out the prize. Sometimes they will even swallow the pearls to conceal them. ”

“ And there are dangers also in nude diving, even to those who have spent a lifetime about the water. Sharks and sting-rays and devil-fish there are in abundance, and many of them know the taste of diver’s flesh; on the other hand many a daring South Sea Islander could tell of a fierce combat more thrilling than even those pictured by Victor Hugo. One of the chief advantages of the diving-suit is that in case a shark comes along, the diver can bide his time until the fish is ready to leave, or he can frighten it away by ejecting air bubbles from the sleeve of his suit or by other demonstrations ”

“ 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. ”

“ In a depth of over fifteen fathoms the attendant usually has instructions not to let him remain longer than fifteen minutes at a time; yet a diver’s eagerness in working where good shell is plentiful sometimes impels him to order the attendant to disregard this rule. The very great pressure of the water—amounting to thirty-nine pounds or more to the square inch—is liable to cause paralysis, and death occasionally results. In working at a depth of twenty to twenty-five fathoms, a diver is rarely under water longer than half an hour altogether during the day. ”

“ The nude divers in the Australian pearl fisheries are mostly Malays and Australian aborigines. They work from dinghys operated from a vessel, each dinghy carrying six or eight divers, usually with a white man as overseer. The man in charge sculls against the tide to keep the boat stationary over the ground, and all the fishermen of a particular dinghy descend together for greater safety from sharks, and to cover the ground systematically. On rising, each diver swims to the boat, throws his catch over the gunwale, and climbs in to rest for a few minutes. ”

“ Then we'll need twenty-five or thirty pairs of diving-goggles, with the glass set in wood or horn. Some of the men will have their own, but they're always losing them, and once his goggles are lost, a diver is no more use. I'll leave you the glass and the diamond to cut it with; Marama will find you men who understand this work. I have a store at Faatemu; you can take the keys and advance a certain amount of goods to the canoe-builders, but don't let them get too far ahead of you! Old Taura, the chief, is as good a native as I know, and he'll see that you enjoy your stay on the island. ”

“ As the boat is impelled by the tide, the diver may have to walk rapidly in a swinging gait; and if he should stumble or fall while stooping to pick up the shell, recovery of balance may be difficult. He must be constantly on the alert and has many dangers to avoid. Sharks are numerous in these clear tropical waters; but although disaster sometimes results, they are timid, a stream of air bubbles from the sleeve of the dress sending them away in fright. More fruitful sources of danger are fouled air-pipes, broken pumps, falling into holes, and especially paralysis from recklessly deep diving. ”

“ At the moment of diving he fills his lungs with air and grasps the cord, and as he does so the stone is thrown from the side of the boat by his assistant. The weight of the stone carries him down; he gathers as many oysters as he can while the air in his lungs holds out, and then he shakes the cord as a signal to be drawn up. Sharks abound in the regions where the pearl is found, and not infrequently they seize the poor diver as he rises to the surface. ”

“ The divers fish with the dress. The usual method of fishing is for a schooner of eighty to one hundred tons to put out with a number of luggers of from eight to ten tons. Each lugger [250] is manned by a captain, a cook, one man at the life-line, two men at the air-pumps and one diver. Each lugger will average half a ton of shells per month ranging from 1600 to 2000 to the ton. The pearls like the shells run white.
The Australians are not only pushing this industry along their own coast, but are extending operations along the islands north toward the equator, wherever it is possible. ”

“ Instantly he would begin to sink gently downwards, and only quick action could save this diver who had miscalculated his time. However, as it was not infrequent for divers to go down and never come up at all, one may conclude that, where the time to be allowed is comprised in so few seconds, even the most experienced make fatal errors. [251]
The difficulties in securing labor at length resulted in experiments with the scaphander or diving dress, and gradually its adoption by 204most of the pearling fleet. ”

“ The divers are mostly old men, vigorous and healthy in appearance, thus dispelling the general notion that deep-sea diving weakens the body and shortens life. We were told of one diver, employed during the year 1856, in the pearl fishery, who was so stout and fat, that in addition to the ordinary diver's stone, he had to make fast a considerable weight to his body, in order to sink himself in the water. ”

“ He had averaged a minute and a half to two minutes under water, and five minutes' rest at the surface between dives, and I noticed that he sent up five or six oysters each time he went down. We had brought along a bottle of water and a package of cold food done up in leaves. When lunch was over and the diver lay basking in the sun, I asked him how he could stay under water so long, and how a man could stand the pressure of the depths. At home in California I had excelled my friends by bringing up sand from the bottom at thirty feet, and my ears had ached for an hour afterward. ”

“ When the fishing ground is reached a staging, built of the oars, is rigged to project from the boat over the water, and to the edge of this the diving-stones are hung, weighing from fifty to sixty pounds. The diver stands in a stirrup upon this, or if this is wanting upon the stone itself, holding the cord attached to it between his toes, with his left foot he holds the net for the reception of the pearl-oysters. Then, pressing his nostrils firmly with his left hand, and with his right grasping the signal cord, he is let rapidly down to the bottom. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The diver comes up howling and incapable of motion and unless companions at once seize and rub him vigorously with salt water until circulation is restored, a process lasting sometimes many hours, he dives no more. ”

“ When the diver wishes to come up, he closes the escape valve in his helmet; his dress fills and distends with air, causing a speedy return to the surface, and the tender hauls him alongside by means of the life-line. ”

“ Thus, diving alternately at intervals of five or six minutes, each fisherman descends thirty or forty times in an ordinary day’s work. The number of oysters gathered at each descent depends on such conditions as their abundance, the depth and clearness of the water, etc. It ranges from none to fifty or more, but ordinarily ten or twelve is a good average. As the men commonly work on shares, the shells brought up by each diver or by each pair of divers are kept separate. ”

“ Then went aboard and reported, "No makee dive in three mile!
"Dress no have got and no helmet -- diver go shore on the spree;
Plenty wind come and break rudder -- lugger get blown out to sea:
Take me to Japanee Consul, he help a poor Japanee!"
* * * * * *
So the Dutch let him go; but they watched him, as off from the Islands he ran,
Doubting him much -- but what would you? You have to be sure of your man
Ere you wake up that nest-ful of hornets -- the little brown men of Japan. ”

“ The progress of the vessel must be adapted to that of the diver, and when a good clump of oysters is found it may even be desirable to anchor. If the current and wind are just right, the vessel may repeatedly drift over a bed, the diver ascending and remaining on board while the vessel is retracing its course to the windward side of the reef. ”

“ So long as a diver can hold his breath the pressure forces him to the surface at a speed which seldom requires accelerating by strokes with the hands or feet; but the moment he lets go his breath—if under water—his upward course is arrested and his body commences to sink. Now, when the white man sees this, either he must plunge in to the rescue himself, or direct such divers who may be on the top to do the needful. ”

“ Then the diver came up for the last time, and the pearl that he brought with him was fairer than all the pearls of Ormuz, for it was shaped like the full moon, and whiter than the morning star. ”