Commercial Diving - Still not an exact science

[OICUR12]

The US Navy has led the way in technological advancements in diving over the years. The decompression tables used in the commercial industry are all US Navy. A regular joe can get out of the navy as a 2nd class diver and still have to go through a civilian school to get a civilian "air card" recognized by civilian insurace underwriters. First I almost starved, then i almost got crushed, then i changed my line of work. I was very disappointed. I went to work as an AB on a Cal Dive boat in the GOM. They treated the tenders terribly. This was back when tender was minimum wage. 12 hr strait time. no ot. 7 days a week. 12hrs on / 12 off until the job is done. A good deal of the dive supervisors i ran into over the years on my boats were injured in some way or another. They got bent or hurt by company negligance in some form or another but did not sue. They moved up. Very high turnover rate back then. Last time I had divers and tenders on my boat was after Katrina and Rita. The tenders were starting out at $22/hr. they hired a cook for them and treated them well. things change. supply and demand. and i think i can say as a former commercial diver that divers are pigs and premadonnas. pick up after yourselves and let up on the hazing. break the cycle. It's stupid. you can strap an air hose to a monkey. hang a banana in front of what you want him to do. not brain surgery. Still killing and injuring far too many commercial divers in the private sector as opposed to the DOD sector. Does anyone have dive injury stats to compare the two? You will see many more in injuries and deaths in the private sector would be my guess.

[NAUTICART]

Well not to many posts about commercial diving here, but I did have the pleasure of spending several evenings with one of the diving pioneers, Hugh "Dan" Wilson, while he had one of his sail boats docked a few slips away from where i worked several years ago.

When the boat I worked on, was in town, I would drive down and do daily maintenance to it like a 7-4 job.

So Hugh was this cantankerous older fella, who arrived over a weekend, I hadn't worked. I usually got down to the dock around 0600-0630 so I could throw a line in the water. I caught him scowling in my direction, and I said "'mornin!". "What are you doin?". I had my pole in hand......"playing canasta". I was giggling. Geeze he didn't even smile, He said "What do you know about canasta?". I said "more than you do about fishin". I was still giggling. He said "You don't know anything!".

Wow, I thought, he was gonna be tough. Anyway, I walked over there to see what all the junk he had on the boat, dock and all over the place. I asked what he was doing and he told me he dove the spot before he tied his boat up there. He explained all the junk that was in the water in and around there, which I knew about, the clean up crew that were supposed to remove all the debris from a boat that sank and sat there for years, didn't do a very good job.

So after quite of few days of working around each other, and him always finishing with "you don't know anything"... I just decided to say when I was leaving for the day " I know, I don't know anything", and he started to say good morning, and good bye, on a regular basis.

So he asked me If I did any "side work", which was impressive question for such a perfect experienced round the world solo sailor (to ask me). I told him "Not really" I'm spent enough after working all day, But asked him what he had in mind. He told me he was going to sell the boat and It could use my touch. I was a cool sailboat, about +/- 60' or so, custom Teak interior...etc..

I said I could help out with that. So I said I would start the next day (Friday) on it when I got through with the boat I worked on. He said "Ok good, don't bring anything, I have everything,...... " and I gave him the look of BEER? he continued "i have all you need, don't bring anything.

Ok Friday, well I go over there after workin and step aboard and he and his dog are waiting in the cockpit. He showed me the boat and told me what he wanted done, and I started to ask about supplies (that he had everything of). I said "Do you have ___" he said "No". I said "Well do you have blah blah blah" ..."No" and that went on for a few more items. I finally said " well do you have a cold beer?" He took off to get me a down payment and seal the deal. So we sat in the cockpit and I told him "I will start early tomorrow, with what I need to do the job" "Fine!".

He had beers from all over, I drank from quite of few countries, that was fun, He told a story behind every kind of beer. He was drinking the same kind while I rotated. I think he was drinking a Busch NA. I didn't say anything, and just figured he didn't want the alcohol and stay on his toes. Nope, he started with a story about a beer with the NA on it from another country ( I can't remember which one ) was a really good beer! (and the NA meant something..) then he was pointing at the NA on the American beer telling me all about it... wtf? I didn't know anything anyway. I was getting a good buzz by now, and we were actually laughing about stuff, but he wasn't getting a buzz. Then I seen that scowl again,..he looked at me and I said, that that NA meant "non-alcoholic" and burst out laughing.... he admitted he didn't know why nothing was hitting him.

I mean this boat was custom,... he had a custom teak rack built to hold 8 rechargeable battery packs for a cordless screw gun. He also had custom bits to fit the sail winch so he didn't have to hand crank in case he needed to be furled quickly. We constantly talked about all kind of ideas and little inventions of things, and knew without saying, which ones were more complimentary.

The second day after working around on his boat, we both enjoyed beers, yeah good 'ole alcoholanated PBR's. (I had to bring those if you already didn't figure).

He talked more in depth about diving and salvage. What a fricken cool book I was talking to! He talked about every kind of wreck you could think of, and gave me a copy of one of his lectures he did on Scapa Flow. We also talked about the bombing of the USS Cole, and how he thought the bomber knew the schematics of the ship, and the relevance of water depth, and on and on and so on........

Trying not to bore you, I was away for a couple of years and tried to look him up when I came back, I found out he died. I still get tears thinking about him.

What an honor to know him and get complimented by him. "They broke the mold on you..." ( never heard that till then ).

I used the word cantankerous earlier, but I knew that wasn't him, it was all just screen out element. and I never would have taking the job. But I also knew that it's not work when you like what your doing.

Thanks Hugh.



On Friday, November 18, 2011, the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) will host a reception to unveil its newest permanent exhibit, Purisima..............celebrate the opening of this new exhibit and help to honor diving pioneer, Hugh “Dan” Wilson...........read more here.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Diesel]

OICUR12 I don't know how long ago you were a commercial diver, there is a lot of truth in what you said, but some things are not accurate as well. The SurD02 tables used commercially are not U.S. Navy Dive Tables. They are adapted from, but are more conservative, than the U.S Navy Tables. I have no statistics for you, but in four years I only saw one DCS incident that left someone permanently injured, and that was because the person running the rack did not tell the tenders to stop coming up on the diver and he missed a deco stop. Then to compound it, instead of running him back down and starting procedures for omitted decompression, they brought him on deck and ran a Table 6A on him thinking that would solve it...wrong! That is the treatment for A.G.E., not omitted Decompression. Basically it was caused by someone being a dumbass, and you can't fix stupid.

[OICUR12]

I may have been kind of tough on the industry of today. I was referring to 80's and 90's era commercial diving.

Really, I was just trying to get some talk going on here because, although I didn't make it very long as a commercial diver, I still have freinds that are and have an intrest in it.
I have been out of it for awhile and I never really ran the rack on the chamber except in schools so I take your word for it.

I have a great deal of respect for any commercial diver past or present.

Well, the ones that still have all their fingers and other body parts.

Be kinda leary of the fellas missing body parts. They seem to be the "Outlaws". LOL

[OICUR12]

well not to many posts about commercial diving here, but i did have the pleasure of spending several evenings with one of the diving pioneers, hugh "dan" wilson, while he had one of his sail boats docked a few slips away from where i worked several years ago.

When the boat i worked on, was in town, i would drive down and do daily maintenance to it like a 7-4 job.

So hugh was this cantankerous older fella, who arrived over a weekend, i hadn't worked. I usually got down to the dock around 0600-0630 so i could throw a line in the water. I caught him scowling in my direction, and i said "'mornin!". "what are you doin?". i had my pole in hand......"playing canasta". I was giggling. Geeze he didn't even smile, he said "what do you know about canasta?". i said "more than you do about fishin". I was still giggling. He said "you don't know anything!".

wow, i thought, he was gonna be tough. anyway, i walked over there to see what all the junk he had on the boat, dock and all over the place. I asked what he was doing and he told me he dove the spot before he tied his boat up there. He explained all the junk that was in the water in and around there, which i knew about, the clean up crew that were supposed to remove all the debris from a boat that sank and sat there for years, didn't do a very good job.

So after quite of few days of working around each other, and him always finishing with "you don't know anything"... I just decided to say when i was leaving for the day " i know, i don't know anything", and he started to say good morning, and good bye, on a regular basis.

So he asked me if i did any "side work", which was impressive question for such a perfect experienced round the world solo sailor (to ask me). I told him "not really" i'm spent enough after working all day, but asked him what he had in mind. He told me he was going to sell the boat and it could use my touch. I was a cool sailboat, about +/- 60' or so, custom teak interior...etc..

I said i could help out with that. So i said i would start the next day (friday) on it when i got through with the boat i worked on. He said "ok good, don't bring anything, i have everything,...... " and i gave him the look of beer? he continued "i have all you need, don't bring anything.

ok friday, well i go over there after workin and step aboard and he and his dog are waiting in the cockpit. He showed me the boat and told me what he wanted done, and i started to ask about supplies (that he had everything of). I said "do you have ___" he said "no". I said "well do you have blah blah blah" ..."no" and that went on for a few more items. I finally said " well do you have a cold beer?" he took off to get me a down payment and seal the deal. So we sat in the cockpit and i told him "i will start early tomorrow, with what i need to do the job" "fine!".

He had beers from all over, i drank from quite of few countries, that was fun, he told a story behind every kind of beer. He was drinking the same kind while i rotated. I think he was drinking a busch na. I didn't say anything, and just figured he didn't want the alcohol and stay on his toes. Nope, he started with a story about a beer with the na on it from another country ( i can't remember which one ) was a really good beer! (and the na meant something..) then he was pointing at the na on the american beer telling me all about it... Wtf? I didn't know anything anyway. I was getting a good buzz by now, and we were actually laughing about stuff, but he wasn't getting a buzz. Then i seen that scowl again,..he looked at me and i said, that that na meant "non-alcoholic" and burst out laughing.... He admitted he didn't know why nothing was hitting him.

I mean this boat was custom,... He had a custom teak rack built to hold 8 rechargeable battery packs for a cordless screw gun. He also had custom bits to fit the sail winch so he didn't have to hand crank in case he needed to be furled quickly. We constantly talked about all kind of ideas and little inventions of things, and knew without saying, which ones were more complimentary.

The second day after working around on his boat, we both enjoyed beers, yeah good 'ole alcoholanated pbr's. (i had to bring those if you already didn't figure).

He talked more in depth about diving and salvage. What a fricken cool book i was talking to! He talked about every kind of wreck you could think of, and gave me a copy of one of his lectures he did on scapa flow. We also talked about the bombing of the uss cole, and how he thought the bomber knew the schematics of the ship, and the relevance of water depth, and on and on and so on........

Trying not to bore you, i was away for a couple of years and tried to look him up when i came back, i found out he died. I still get tears thinking about him.

What an honor to know him and get complimented by him. "they broke the mold on you..." ( never heard that till then ).

I used the word cantankerous earlier, but i knew that wasn't him, it was all just screen out element. and i never would have taking the job. but i also knew that it's not work when you like what your doing.

Thanks hugh.



on friday, november 18, 2011, the santa barbara maritime museum (sbmm) will host a reception to unveil its newest permanent exhibit, purisima..............celebrate the opening of this new exhibit and help to honor diving pioneer, hugh “dan” wilson...........read more here.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

great story. Big thx, bro. I would thank you on here but for some reason it wont let me. So i will reply with a personal thank you for a great story and encourage anyone else that has some stories, good or bad, to chime in. As a former commercial diver i would really like to see this thread get kickin.

"may your head stay dry and your feet stay wet" as dan used to say.

I had the honor of being one of his students at the college of oceaneering in '94.

[OICUR12]

Anybody know the status of al derrantany? (not sure on spelling of his last name)

he was one of my instuctors at coo.

He gave me a very usefull piece of advice one day after class.

He told me to get my captain's ticket so that if things slowed down on the diving end of things i could still make money on the driving end of things.

Were it not for that piece of advice i don't think i would be where i am at today.

His health was failing when he was teaching at coo so i would be surprised if he is still kickin.

Hope you're still out there sailing your boat, al.

And thanks again

captain mike bolinger

[capemiker]

Al joined CDC when I was teaching there, on leave from oceans wring Aberdeen.
Great guy , as was Reno Haines, al Nesbit and of course our fearless leader Jim joiner.
Have no idea where they all are now.
Think Jim was running best publishing last I heard of him.
Rit