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Mr.
Portokalis, character in “My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding”
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| Sponge diver with sponge in hand Photo: Wikipedia |
There are
submersibles that operate at depths of 6,500 feet for scientific reasons,
research and discovery. A previously
unknown life form, the sinking of famous ships, submarines, airplanes, ocean acidification
from underwater volcanoes, marine life behavior, sharks, whales, and other
creatures are explored and studied extensively at depths formerly off-limits to
humans.
Pices V is
such a submersible that can safely carry three people to depths that man cannot
withstand. Even sperm whales’ lungs must collapse at such pressure in order to
allow them to survive at 7,000 feet and lower, in their hunt for squid. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/pressure.html
At sea level,
we are comfortable at air pressure of 14.5 pounds per square inch. Our bodies
do not react in any way because fluids push outwardly with the same force. But,
when diving even a few feet, the pressure starts to be felt by our eardrums.
The hydrostatic pressure, the force per unit area exerted by a liquid on a
solid mass, grows with every 33 feet by 14.5 psi.
According to
NOAA, deep down, the pressure is as much as “the weight of an elephant balanced
on a postage stamp, or the equivalent of one person trying to support 50 jumbo
jets.”
How do animals
survive at such depths? They have more flexible bodies; ribs are connected with
“loose, bendable cartilage, which allows the rib cage to collapse at pressures that
would easily snap our bones.”
How then can pearl
divers learn to cope with the underwater pressure, often without a suit? Some
people need ear tubes to be able to withstand even a few feet of water
pressure.
Long time ago,
in 1932, a movie was made about the “sponge fisherman of the Aegean,” operating
in Tarpon Springs, Florida, “a quaint colony” of Greek fishermen who had dived
for generations to find the sponges that were used for “washing cars and little
Johnny’s back.”
The divers
were descendants of the Greeks who used to dive naked with a stone under their
arms to fight buoyancy. Their group had established in Tarpon Springs eighty
years prior to the making of this film. Flying both the American and the Greek
flags, the fishermen showed their pride in America and in their own heritage.
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| Sponge diving boat Photo: Wikipedia |
The Rock
Island sponge bars were the realm of these “fantastic living things we call
sponges.” The creatures thrived on graveled ocean floors.
Diving in an
air-compressed suit, the master diver required several men to help him suit up
properly for the dangerous dive. It was such a treacherous profession; the
young did not seek employment in this field. There was such a shortage of
divers that old and skilled men were brought from Greece.
By current
standards, diving was an infant technology in 1932. The diver controlled the air pressure in his
suit with his head by touching an air valve. He was tethered to the boat by an
air hose and a life line and depended on his mates on board to pull him up if
he started going down head first and could not right himself up.
At the depth
of 100 ft., suited in his 570 lbs. behemoth that kept him alive and conscious,
the diver had to walk against the current that was sure to bowl him over
otherwise. Dragging his cast iron shoes, the diver filled his basket with live
sponges of the sea. When the basket was full, he attached it to the life line,
signaled to the surface, and they pull it up.
Photo: Wikipedia
The diver was
not protected in any way from encounters with giant marine life on the floor of
the Gulf of Mexico. Barracudas and sharks were a primary danger but giant
turtles, in excess of 2,000 lbs., could “bite off a man’s arm.”
After one hour
of work, the scuba diver signaled to be pulled up to the surface. While
floating helplessly on the surface, bobbing up and down, waiting to be pulled
inside the boat, the diver was in danger of being attacked by barracudas.
Pulling his
air hose in, the boaters towed the diver into the boat. The diver took his time
surfacing, in order to adjust the pressure on his body. If he failed to do so,
he suffered from the dreaded “bends.” Many divers became crippled and
prematurely old from the “bends.”
Even though
hyperbaric oxygenation treatment was tested and developed by the U.S. military after
WWI and has been used safely since the 1930s to treat deep sea divers with
decompression sickness, these sponge divers did not have such chambers to bring
them back slowly and safely to atmospheric pressure.
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| Tarpon Springs, Florida Photo: Wikipedia |
The marine
sponges were “cleared” off the live creature, leaving just its skeleton, the sought-after
sponge people used. After a three-month journey, the sponge cargo was auctioned
off at the Sponge Exchange after they were dried off on dock. A catch could be worth
$90,000, with yearly revenue of one million dollars.
Little
creatures that had burrowed themselves inside the sponges were hammered out. The
larger sponges were cut into smaller ones while the workers sang the “Song of
the Sponge Divers.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR68ZqgLKzc&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop
And that is
how real sponges arrived in fancy bath stores and were sold in beautiful
packaging.
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