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DIVING MASKS 9 1 down tn an old and warn-out SUtt. In the Httle South Sea Islands, howevcr, therc is never any investigation as to r esponsibility, particularly as in the tropics it is necessary to bury a dead man within twenty-four ho urs. This man was DIVING MASKS buried thc same day in his helmet: and breastplate. He was so smashed inside thc suit that he could nevcr have been dctachcd from it. I had of course heard of "the squcezc" befaTe this and kE first time I saw a diver succumb to the "squeeze" knew what happened to a man, but now I saw it with my was on one of the Tuamotu Islands. When Amcrieans use own eyes I was very distresscd. The result remindcd me of thc phrase "to squceze" thcy are thinking of plcasantcr a buteher making sausages, for all that remained of the occasions. For them it conjures up euddling and necking brown-skinned Polynesian, who had been alivc a few with their best girls. But for us divers it has a more sinister seconds before, was an unrecognizable bloody pulp. meaning. No question of friendly lovc-making but a situa­ I said to myself: "I must try and do something to prevent tion in which dcath strikes as quiekly as if one were near such accidcnts happening to my comrades. There must be the explosion of an atom bomb. something better in this modern age than these clumsy On that occasion a trader from Tahiti had trained a few out-of-date suits, in which thc diver runs the risk of a Polyncsians as divers with equipmcnt he had bought as a ghastly dcath. Next time I go to Europe or to the States I hargain and which he had never inspected. This was not shalllook into thc question." an unusual thing in thc South Seas. He had come across a It was in this way that I began my tedious and long lot of old diving suits which had lain for many years unused research to try and create a better equipment for divers. Thc in a shed and would enable hirn to start without a lot of old suit comprising a helmet, breastplate of copper alloy heavy initial cxpenses. He hirnself had never dived at dcpth and sundry lead weights was invented by a German eopper­ and so he prohably neither undcrstood nor cared about the smith in London in 1806. No improvements of any impor­ danger his divers ran. tanee had been made sinee then. I was not an cngmeer, One of the boys was 150 feet down when the accident meehanic or inventor, but I thought that thc technical happened. Probably thc man had hanged thc helmet's scicnces had made such advances during thc past 150 years outIet valve against a coral formation. In any case some­ that it could not be very ditlicult to produce something thing was wrong with thc ancient valve. The air suddenly better. At first it was harder than I had thought. Doubtless rushcd out of thc heimet, and at thc same time thc divcr's it was more by luck than judgment that I am still alive head and shouldcrs werc crush-ed to pulp inside the coppel" after thc risks I took with my various machines and diving helmet by thc heavy water pressure at that depth. masks in different seas and the attempts I made to test them In a civilizcd region either a doctor or thc police would in deep water. have investigatcd the accident so that an irrcsponsible and I myself was always particular in furnishing my divers negligcnt trader would be punished for having sent a man with ncw equipmcnt. Whcn thc season endcd I sold thc old 9° 92 DAN GER I S MY LI FE suits and bought new ones the following year. An old suit may function perfectly for a weck, a month, p erllaps three months; but the season lasts six, und if one is careless about ch ecking equipment an accident can happen in th e twinkling of an eye. What I wanted was a suit without thc old type of dangerous helmet a nd valve, and also to get away [rom the clumsiness of the old models. Why should a divcr have to dangle, like an ungainly ape, in a noose instcad of h aving compiete freedorn of movcm ent? I busicd mysclf for four years" in between scasons, during trips to Europe and thc States. Gas masks, such as firemen and others use to prcvcnt being choked by fumes, b egan to intcrest me more and more. A similar light, uncumbersomc mask would be just the thing for a diver . Thcn one could swim along the bottorn like a fi sh instead of stumbling a bout likc a sloth in a heavy copper These s~ ilin g era ft. from the Macassa r Sound with thcir helmet and breastplate. f<.IIlta stie sails a n,; ver)' si ll'lilar to Bcrgc's own pcadcl's AB a n eighteen-year-old boy I had lea rned from the n atives how to bring up oysters from 50 to 60 feet. W e went out in a eanoe a nd plunged to thc bottem with th e help of a coil of rope wcighted with lead. This rope and the weights acted as a sort of lift for uso We slippcd over the side until only our hcads were out of the water und our feet on the weights. T h en all we h ad to do was to fill our lungs with as much air as possible. When they were at bursting-point we let go the gunwale and slipped feet first to th e hottom, with the weights to hdp, the latter varying according to the depth we required to reach . A fully grown diver like myself used a weight of about twelve kilos and a sm all er man between five and ten. On the bottom we swam around and gathered as many oysters as we ceuld get into a basket. Then we took the rope again to help us up, a nd to speed our ascent slipped a little air out of thc corners of our mouths, to b low out our lungs as soon as our heads were above water. T his naked diving gavc me a lot of expericncc whieh proved O ne of thc strects in M acassar in the Southern Celebes. Allhough they wcre like a rabbit warren, Berge could find his way a bout them blindfo lcl ed DIVINC MASKS 93 very useful to me in later years in my designing of a m ask for d eep diving. During a trip to New York I made my first scrious attempt at producing a n easily handled yet thoroughly efficient mask for dcpth diving. It was to b e n o more dumsy than a mask onc could wcar at a maskcd ball. My idea was to cquate the air pressure inside with the water pressure so accuratcly that an air out let vaive would bc superfiuous. The air should seep out from the indiarubber down thc checks whilc the air pressurc inside the mask had to be strong enough to prevent thc water getting in. I had steel ones made by hand in five parts. It was a costly business and I could n ot reckon h ow many thousand dollars these experiments cost me over thc years. I took my first mask out to Macassar to test it out. I thought at first that it would b e aU right and that I should be able to swim about on thc sea hottorn like a fish. Instead of a heavy heimet a nd breastplate I now h ad a light mask for thc face a nd a belt round the waist in whieh the inlet valve was plaeed. The whole equipment fitted eomfortably into an ordinary briefease. It was a thrilling expcriencc thc moment I coupled the air-line to the inlet valve in the belt, caught hold of the life-line and slipped overboard for my first dive. I h ad tried my invention out b eforehand in shallow muddy water in America. At 40 feet I was ncarly drowned. Thc water leaked into the m ask a lld it was all I could da to surface in time. It was a complete fiasco! But I did not lose faith in my idea. Next year I had anoth er steel type made, but the result was the same. The lhird year's efforl was even less successful. As soon as I got into dccp water the mask let me down. In shallow water many apparatuses will suffiee, and at Ja feet one can get by with m~rely a bowl over one's head and The terrib le ill-treatment Berge n:ceived at the hands ofthe J ap anese enough air pressure to see that no water can get in. But as causcd him to undergo a seriolls operati on after his release 94 DANGER IS MY LIFE DIVING MASKS 95 500n as YOll comc to 60 feet it is a very different matter on greater per square inch th an higher up in the m ask. As soon account of thc water pressurc. In order to withstand thc as there was thc slightest lag on thc part of thc valve the water pressure at 1 50 feet anc's lungs need almost double pressure failed in thc mask so that it eould possibly burst or thc a ir p ressure you usually find in a mOlor-tyre.

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