The Com Line

A CaCED Rally was held Saturday, January 8^th at the College of Oceaneering in Wilmington. Because of the holidays, Y2K, etc., we thought this would be a slow day, but instead there was a great turnout. All the regulars, with the exception of Duke Drake, who had to work, and "Big" Al Pilkington, on vacation in New Zealand, were on hand as well as several new members.

We had Rick Eriksen's MkV, Charlie Orr's TOA and Morse 3-light Commercial. The first diver was in the water at 9:00 a.m., finishing at 4:00 p.m. with a total of 14 dives. Capt. Ed White, who acted as Dive Master, did an excellent job of getting everyone dressed, checked out and into the water quickly and efficiently.

We used some new equipment at this Rally - Charlie Orr's Morse hat, once belonging to Lou Lentz, an early L.A. Harbor diver, and chafing pants loaned for the event by Torrance Parker. The chafing pants were a welcome change from the old "jocking strap."

The day ended at Ante's restaurant in San Pedro, where we discussed the days diving, had a great dinner, and the added treat of being entertained by some of Capt. Ed's sea stories.

Capt. Ed White, Dive Master, and Rocky, College of Oceaneering, who won the raffle to dive in a MkV.

Arrangements have been made with Dr. Lee at the L.A. Maritime Museum for use of a room to meet and discuss our rally's, safety procedures, possible dive sites, etc. The meetings will me held on the 3rd Friday of each odd-numbered month (i.e. January 21, March 17, May 19, etc.) beginning January 21, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Please mark your calenders. All members are encouraged to attend and participate in the decisions being made.

If you live out of the L.A. Harbor area, but have something you would like to bring up, send a message either in writing, e-mail or even by phone to Charlie Orr or any of the other members who might be attending. Reminders will be posted in the Com Line whenever possible &/or postcards will be sent to local members (approx. 100 mile radius).

January 21, 2000 Meeting

Members attending were: Charlie Orr, Torrance Parker, Rick Eriksen, Al Pilkington, Dale Eriksen, and Leslie Jacobs. Dr. Pete Lee, Director, L.A. Maritime Museum, also participated.

Items discussed were: safety practices, dive release forms, roles and responsibilities of CaCED members at events, upcoming rallies, dive clinics, new chafing pants and schedule for meetings.

Leslie Jacobs took notes and has written a complete report of the first meeting, what was discussed and decisions made by the group. A copy of her report is included with this issue of the Com Line.

A recent news article in the L.A. Harbor newspaper, The Daily Breeze, gives an account of CaCED members Al Perez and Mark Howell. Both men are L.A.City Firefighters. Their help in a rescue effort after a car went over an embankment and into the water resulted in survival of both victims.

Below is a shortened version of the story as written in The Daily Breeze - Harbor Fire Facts by Chief Louis Roupoli

On Oct. 1, a call requested fire boats, fire engines, rescue ambulances, a heavy rescue tow truck and a battalion chief. A vehicle was reported over the side of an embankment and into the water.

While en route, fireboat crews were suiting up into scuba gear, as fire engines on land were also arriving at the scene. Fireboat crews spotted two people on the rocks, one victim unconscious and not breathing while the other was yelling for help, indicating "she's still inside the car under water."

Engineer Mark Howell, and firefighter Dan Schultz, removed their boots and jumped into the water before the fireboat stopped and swam to the victims on the jagged rocks and began administering CPR to the pulse-less victim. Scuba divers, Bob Gonzales and Al Perez, also dove in and within minutes the victim was breathing on his own and was quickly transported to the hospital.

Firefighter scuba diver, Gerald Durant, jumped in and made an aggressive effort to locate the woman still trapped inside the vehicle. Durant found the vehicle, submerged upside down and on a slight angle. The back window was broken out, but because the victim was seat-belted in place, he could not pull her free.

Backing out, he managed to reach her through a side window, and unfasten her seat belt. Durant then swam back to the rear window area and pulled her through.

Bringing her to the surface and to Fire Boat No. 3, Capt. Gary Clark and Al Perez helped get her aboard. Durant, still in the water with his scuba gear on, realized he would not be able to help immediately with CPR so called across to a nearby commercial dive boat. One of the commercial divers knew CPR and came to the fire boat to help. With CPR in progress, the boat eased to an empty dock where land crews took the victim to a local hospital.

Capt. Ed was born in Texas and raised near Tulsa, OK. At 15, deciding farming was not for him, he ran away from home going to San Francisco where he worked on a salmon boat until he was caught and sent back home. At 16, he took off again, this time going to Florida and working on a shrimp boat. At 17, Ed joined the Navy and became a Navy diver (1956 - 1959).

Ed spent the next 40 years as a professional diver. He has worked in so many countries, that we don't have space to list them. He worked for companies such as Aquatic, International, Murphy Pacific Marine (Master Diver, Manager of Underwater Systems Division & Salvage Master), Merit, Chapman and Scott, and many others. During his career as a commercial diver he also owned and operated two dive companies.

Ed was a 40-year member of Pile Drivers Local, #34 in San Francisco, serving as business agent for three years. He also belonged to Local 2520 in Alaska in the early '70's.

Ed retired in 1996 and now lives in San Pedro, California. He volunteers many hours to the L.A. Maritime Museum and actively participates at the CaCED Rally's lending his expertise and advise.

Tracy Howard & The S.S. Eastland

Tracy Howard, CaCED member from Chicago, has sent us several news articles of the efforts to recover artifacts from the S.S. Eastland disaster of 1915. Divers were brought together by the Underwater Archaeological Society of Chicago in hopes of finding articles lost by the victims and survivors. But, whatever was lost, is still there under 84 years of silt and trash.

After diving, Tracy stated in one of the news articles, "It's dark and murky and as soon as you touch something on the bottom, it stirs up everything and your visibility is gone."

Only a small hand full of items were found, but none associated with the ill fated S.S. Eastland. A few old bottles, a broken mug . . .

July 24, 1915 - The S.S. Eastland

At 6:30 a.m. on July 24, 1915, preparation began for loading more than 2,500 people to travel to Michigan City, Indiana for a Western Electric Company employee picnic. However, the Eastland never left its dock near the Clark St. Bridge on the Chicago River.

The Great Lakes cruiser was a poorly designed ship, overloaded with passengers and made top-heavy by lifeboats required after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. However, it was never determined exactly what caused the ship to roll over onto it's port side with a loss of over 800 lives.

The ship had been listing first to starboard (dock side) and then to port (open water) as passengers loaded. Several corrections had been made by filling the ballast tanks on first one side and then the other to straighten the ship. By the time loading was completed and the gangplank raised many of the passengers had migrated to the port side to view the happenings on the river, many of them on the upper decks. At this point the list was so severe, the crew began directing passengers to move to the starboard (dock) side of the ship, but water was already pouring into the port side ship openings.

By 7:30 a.m. the ship rolled onto her side into the river. Some passengers had managed to pull themselves to safety as the ship rolled and were fortunate to find themselves standing on the starboard hull. Others, not so lucky, were in the water trying to stay afloat or were trapped within or under the Eastland. Unlike the Titanic, many of the casualties were women. The day was cool and misting rain, so many of the women and children had gone below to be out of the inclimate weather.

Other boats in the area and people nearby, began immediately to help passengers as best they could. Onlookers dove into the river or jumped into the boats to rescue those in the water. Others threw wooden planks or crates into the water to use as floats. Crews of other ships pulled people from the water, both dead and alive, while nearby welders rushed to cut holes in the ship's hull to pull out those trapped inside.

By 8:00 a.m., all survivors were supposedly pulled out of the water. Less then one hour and 30 minutes had lapsed since the boarding began at 6:40 a.m.

The disaster claimed over 800 lives. The largest death toll of any single event occurring in the continental U.S. in the 20^th Century, yet very few people have ever heard the story. It was a tragedy overshadowed by the Titanic and the start of WWI.

For more information on the S.S. Eastland disaster, including many pictures of the ship and passengers, visit the Eastland Disaster Historical Society website at: www.eastlanddisaster.org

CaCED T-Shirts can be ordered at anytime. The shirts are designed for members (& family) only. The shirts are grey with the "diver" graphic and the group name on the back - a small "diver" and your name printed on the front with CCED under it. Printing is all in black.

Cost for the shirts mailed will be $15 for a large or x-large, $16 for xx-large, $1.00 additional for each x after that. If you are interested in having a shirt made to wear to our events, send your name, address, size and the name you want printed on the front. Send with check to Dorothy Barstad, 13119 47^th Ln., Yuma, AZ 85367.

Display at Yuma Crossing State Historic Park: A display of old diving equipment similar to what would have been used by Al Christie in the early 1900's while working on the siphon under the Colorado River, was set up at the Yuma Crossing Park the first week of December. It is planned to set up a permanent display at the Park on this engineering fete and to honor the men, such as Al Christie, who made it possible.

Pile Drivers Union: Rick Eriksen, Duke Drake, Charlie Orr and Dr. Pete Lee, were initiated into the Pile Drivers Union, Local 2375 in Wilmington as honorary members.

E-Mail: More and more of us now have e-mail addresses. If you have an e-mail address, let Dorothy know (dorbarstad@aol.com). With e-mail we can often notify you of a change of plans, a reminder for meetings or rallies in a few minutes rather then days with snail-mail. We will continue to mail the Com Line.

New E-Mail addresses for:

• Charlie Orr (neverbent@aol.com)
  
• Duke Drake (duck1@thegrid.net)


• Dorothy Barstad (dorbarstad@aol.com)

Recently Capt. Ed White, Torrance Parker and Charlie Orr were invited by Rick Erickson to take a cruise to Catalina on Rick's boat. On the return trip, a sudden storm came up while they were still about midway between Catalina Island and San Pedro.

As the storm worsened, Rick called out, "Anyone here know how to pray?"

Mr. P stepped forward, "After being a commercial diver all my life, you bet I know how to pray."

"Good," said Rick, "You pray while the rest of us put on the life jackets - we're one short.

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