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Read an old report that said a diver in the 80s did a 300 foot bounce dive with just a hose and a bucket for comms | Commercial Divers - Topic Shares

lucas551•5mo ago

Read an old report that said a diver in the 80s did a 300 foot bounce dive with just a hose and a bucket for comms

Honestly, I was going through some old project files from a bridge inspection job in Mobile, Alabama. I found a typed report from 1984 stuffed in the back of a folder. It mentioned a diver who had to do an emergency repair on a piling at 300 feet. The wild part was the comms system failed completely. The report said the topside crew rigged a weighted bucket on a rope and lowered it down. They'd put notes in the bucket and pull it up to talk. The diver would write back. They did the whole job like that, including decompression stops. Tbh, it blew my mind. I can't imagine doing a bounce dive that deep with zero voice contact, just passing notes in a bucket. Has anyone else ever heard of or seen a crazy makeshift comms setup like that actually being used?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_jennifer5mo ago

Yeah, we had to use a bucket once when the comms went out on a salvage job. Just keep the notes short and clear, and always send a blank one down first to confirm they got the last message.

umab355mo ago

That blank note step is a total waste of time. If they didn't get the last message, they'll just ask for a repeat. Adding extra trips for a bucket system just slows everything down when you're already behind.

knight.xena3mo ago

Right, the blank note step - my buddy who does harbor work told me about a similar setup they used once in the Gulf. They were welding a patch on a barge keel at like 80 feet when the speaker blew, so they wrote "all good" on a piece of plastic and tied it to a fishing line. Spent the whole rest of the shift passing scribbled notes back and forth with the tender, and honestly it worked fine once they got the rhythm down.