The Quick and the Dead

Paul Mark, and several other Pacific Northwest professional divers, were called upon by Fred Devine Diving and Salvage Company, of Portland, Oregon, to work on a municipal corporation, sewage treatment outfall pipeline installation project, on the Snake River, at Clarkston, Washington, in 1968. This was before the construction of the last hydroelectric dam on the Snake River system, the Lower Granite Dam. The Snake River, at this location, was less than a football field wide, about 10 to 12 feet deep, and with a current flow rate approaching 10 feet per second!

The City of Clarkston council members were in a great hurry to complete the pipeline project, before the construction of the dam, thinking that the cost and construction would be much lower, and easier, in the shallow waters of the Snake River, before the reservoir was filled. Engineers know nothing of working in fast flowing rivers, with current flow rates approaching 10 feet per second.

The project was started in the middle of November, before the heavy rains and snow. A flat barge, sectional assembly, was anchored in position on the river, next to the Washington shoreline. It was equipped with an excavator, to dig out the pipeline trench, in the hard pack, river rock bottom. The trench had to be four feet deep, and three feet wide, to lay the 24-inch diameter pipeline into it, and back fill material over the top, for complete coverage. Projects like this had been accomplished on the forks of the upper Willamette River system, at Halsey, Oregon, and in Eugene, for paper mill outfall pipelines, where the water was shallow and fast. It was presumed that this project would be no different.

Surface-supplied diving equipment was required gear for all diving, to be used for communication purposes, allowing the diver to direct the excavator operator, in proper placement of the clam bucket, digging inside the pipeline trench. Each section of pipe would be attached and connected, as the trench was dug, and eventually the pipeline would be at the prescribed length, then backfilled over and completed.

Paul Mark, Dick Long, and Ken Dye, travelled up to the job site, and looked at the river water conditions. They all agreed that the Snake River current was too fast for this construction project, as the extreme fast water flow rate would make it impossible for a surface-supplied diver to work.

The project was started, and a few sections of pipeline had been laid at the shoreline. The problem started when the construction project reached the fast water, away from the beach, outside the shelter of the natural back eddy.

The municipal corporation engineers were convinced, in their college educated minds, that the fast current of the Snake River was inconsequential, and that the pipeline project would proceed on schedule, no matter what a small group of professional underwater construction divers had to say.

They sought out and hired a Mark V equipped, Deep-Sea Hard Hat Diver, from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was reputed to be the finest hard hat diver in the entire Gulf of Mexico. He wasn’t afraid to tackle the little Snake River at Clarkston, Washington, no sir!

The top-notch, hard hat diver, and his personal diving tender, along with all his diving equipment, were flown up to Portland, Oregon. Then, they were transported upriver to the job site, at Clarkston, Washington. Clarkston lies directly across the Snake River from Lewiston, Idaho.  

The diver tender dressed the diver with his heavy diving equipment and helmet. The diver descended down the ladder and onto the descending line to the shallow river bottom. The dive tender immediately began paying out the diver’s umbilical hose, with the lifeline, air hose and communication cable assembly. Even though the water was less than twelve feet deep, the tender knew that the diver wanted more hose, because the diver was pulling so hard on the hose assembly. However, it was not the hard hat diver that was pulling on the hose for more slack. The tremendous current pressure, from the fast-flowing Snake River, was literally carrying the diver’s hose assembly downstream, with brutal hydrodynamic power.

Paul Mark, and several other divers, had decided to watch this top-notch, super diver in action, on this fast water diving job, just to see how it was done.  When Paul saw the young diving tender letting out more hose for the hard hat diver to work with, he knew that the hard hat diver was in very serious trouble.

The hard hat diver had already been swept underneath the barge and he was hanging up underneath it at the downstream end, flapping around in the swift river current. In the infinite wisdom of the project engineers, they had set up the diving operation for the diver to descend off the upstream end of the barge, thus depriving him of any potential back eddy effect from the river current, that might actually assist the diver, on the downstream side of the barge.

As is the case with hard hat diving, under extreme water conditions, the communication box revealed that he was in dire straits. His message was like all surface-supplied divers, when they get into trouble, “Get me outta here!” The surface-supplied diver is at the mercy of his topside tenders, which makes his job that much more dangerous. Most diver tenders are clueless, when it comes to understanding the extreme difficulties the surface-supplied hard hat diver faces, in his underwater working environment.

Thanks to Paul Mark, the topside barge crew was able to get some lines around the diver, and lift him out of the water, at the downstream end of the barge. Paul Mark literally saved the diver’s life. Once he was safely out of the water and undressed from his 200-pound, hard hat diving outfit, he packed up all his gear and hoses, and quickly departed, with his dive tender in tow, back to New Orleans, never to be heard from or seen again.

Paul Mark was a very tough man, and one of the hardest working divers ever to walk on planet Earth. When it came to underwater construction work, quit was not in his vocabulary, and failure was not an option. He began to reason in his mind that maybe he would at least give it a try, to dive under the extreme conditions, and possibly make the impossible project work.

Paul used a Kirby-Morgan, Full-Face Band Mask, surface-supplied, diving hat, and his wet suit for the dive. He descended on the upstream side of the barge, down to the river bottom, via the descending line. He immediately started calling spots transmitted through his mask mouthpiece to the communication box topside, directing the excavator operator, digging the pipeline trench.

Paul observed that every time the excavator operator would lower his digging bucket into the river bottom and clam out a small section it, the upstream side of the trench would immediately collapse and fall right into the place where the clam bucket had just removed the bottom material. It was horrifically fast water, and virtually impossible to dig a pipeline trench into the river bottom, that would maintain itself, without continuously collapsing.

Paul got into trouble very quickly. His Kirby-Morgan Band Mask shifted sideways on his head, because of the extreme river current water pressure. Paul was unable to see anything and his arms were stuck at his sides, because of the force of the river current flowing against them. Miraculously, he was still able to get enough air to breathe through the Full-Face Mask, which had shifted, and pushed sideways on his head. The river current was so fast, that he could not even lift his arms up against the tremendous water current flow pressure, to get a hold of the descending line. Not a pretty picture for a diver to be in underwater. Paul was extremely close to a fatal diving disaster, and the final mistake of his life, in less than twelve feet of water.

Fortunately for Paul, there was a SCUBA-equipped, standby diver, strategically positioned several hundred yards upstream from the construction site. The SCUBA diver entered the river and drifted rapidly down to Paul’s position at the barge. He dunked underwater very quickly, just upstream of Paul’s position at the construction barge. The SCUBA diver grabbed Paul’s hands and pulled them back onto the descending line. The SCUBA diver was free from the restrictive, surface-supplied, umbilical hose assembly, and the associated heavy drag of ferocious river current, water flow velocity on same. He was able to maneuver quickly, perform the required task, and then let go and get out of harm’s way in a hurry.

As soon as the SCUBA diver let go of Paul, he was immediately swept away underwater, underneath the barge and rapidly downstream. He quickly ascended up to the river surface and flowed directly into the waiting digging bucket of the huge excavator front loader, which was positioned out in the shallow water to retrieve him. He floated right into the massive bucket of the huge front loader and was lifted out of the river and driven back to the shoreline, where he was slowly lowered out of the bucket and back onto the beach.  

Paul was fastened to the descending line to help hold him there against the current. With his hands back on the line, Paul untied himself, and the topside crew began to pull upward using the surface supplied hose assembly attached to his body harness and other lines. They didn’t want to pull Paul’s diving mask off his head. Voice communication was impossible, because the mask had shifted sideways.

With great difficulty, they finally got Paul out of the water. He had nearly lost his life trying to do the impossible, for a bunch of “wet behind the ears” greedy engineers, and city councilmen, working for a tax-receipt supported, government municipal corporation. The project was indefinitely postponed, until the Lower Granite Dam hydroelectric production project was completed, and the reservoir was filled.

The project was eventually completed in the calm and deeper waters of the lake reservoir that formed behind the dam. The water was deeper, but the extreme current factor was no longer a part of the equation.

So, you might be thinking, why did an experienced, veteran, working diver like Paul Mark even chance making such a dive, under the extremely adverse conditions, in the super-fast flowing water of the Snake River? Maybe he allowed himself to be talked into it. Maybe he thought that the Kirby-Morgan Band Mask system would work better, because it was lighter weight, and easier to use, under such rough conditions.

The Mark V Deep-Sea Diving outfit diver, the very best from New Orleans, had failed so miserably. He still thought that he could perform in the rapid Snake River currents, while he was standing topside, and surveying the situation. However, things changed quickly, when he got into the water.

Paul had enough guts to try it, and to prove to those engineers, pushing for the completion of the project, that the conditions were too adverse for safe underwater diving operations. The old saying that men use, when working in dangerous occupations, under impossible conditions, doesn’t change: “Don’t let too much, “Can do!” do you in.” Don’t let overzealous and greedy college puke engineers, override your commonsense logic, judgment, and savvy, gained from years of hard-fought experience, and graduation, from the school of hard knocks.

Paul suited up, and got in there, to give it his best shot. He learned firsthand, that when extreme conditions prevail at the job site, it may be prudent to wait for a time more opportunistic to realize success. The quick and the dead both have experienced the essence of life in the physical body. The quick merely tend to live a little longer, from the keen insight they have gleaned, through the exhilarating experience of being so close to death, and still coming out alive and well, after the fact. We are all just one breath away from the grave, and yet, we still survive and thrive on this amazing planet we call Earth! Be smart, and learn to rely on the hard-won experiences that you have acquired in your life, so that you may remain alive, with the quick, and not yet be counted among the dead.

If you have ever done any white-water river rafting, then you may appreciate extreme current flow rates in the Snake River, that existed at the time of this impossible diving job. It is one thing to go with the flow. It is quite another to hold your ground and face the continuous onslaught of insurmountable, fast-flowing, river water pressure. The ten-feet-per-second river water flow rate represents the irresistible force to the physical human body. Stay with the quick, and not with the dead! Thankfully, Paul Mark survived, to dive another day. GUTS, GRIT, GUMPTION, GRACE, and GRATITUDE: the five “G’s” that make up the essence of life. Matthew 28:20b, “I am with you always, even until the end of the age.”

QUOTES:

“Knowledge is an accumulation of Truth.” – Red Beckman

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” – Helen Keller

“The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but in the end, there it is.”  — Winston Churchill

“Physical pain is the best memory builder, because you will remember your times spent in the hurt locker. It is the key to preventing mistake repetitions, and making you savvier.” -- reddiver