Historic Shipwreck
survived without injury after seven hours of decompression. The weather worsened before the
Early Bird was secured to the hull. And the forecast was worse yet. The ambitious expedition evaporated literally overnight.
The Mother Habitat Next came a pair of ex-Navy divers, in 1973: Don Rodocker and Chris DeLucchi. Both had impressive experience in saturation diving. This was more efficient than making short dives on scuba, or making surface jumps on umbilical hoses, both of which required decompression after every dive. Rodocker and DeLucchi
designed and built a submersible chamber that was made of steel instead of wood. They called their habitat Mother. Breathing gas was piped through an umbilical hose from the support vessel to the habitat on the hull of the Doria. A telecommunication cable enabled topside personnel to not only to talk with divers in the chamber, but also see them through closed- circuit television. Helping to back the expedition were Bob Hollis (engineer, diver, and founder of Oceanic Products) and his partner
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Breathing gas was piped through an umbilical hose from the support vessel to the habitat on the hull of the Doria
John Clark (diver and machine shop owner). Both men were primary divers as well. Rodocker and DeLucchi made
excursions from the habitat to their work area, while breathing a helium mix that was pumped to their helmets through a hose from the chamber. They were kept warm underwater by means of hot water that was pumped into their suits from a hose that was connected to a topside heating system. Another hose piped oxyhydrogen to their cutting torches.
Elusive Goal Their goal was also the purser’s safe. To reach it they had to cut through the doors on the Foyer Deck. But things didn’t go smoothly. Delays mounted. While loading equipment onto the boat, the crane tipped over and crashed onto the control van. Fix-up cost a day. Then, on site, the grapnel broke loose from the wreck while support divers
Left: Tom Packer shackling the
anchor line chain after feeding it through a
hawse pipe on the bow of the Doria. Right: This porcelain toilet is located
in a stateroom on the Foyer Deck. Because the seat
is up, a man must have been the
last one to use it.
were descending the downline. Later, after support divers secured the downline to the bridge wing, DeLucchi discovered that it was the wrong bridge wing; this was the one at the stern instead of the one at the wheelhouse. Two days were lost in relocating the downline. Another day was lost when the
mooring line chafed through and cast the support vessel adrift. The electrical cable parted after the habitat was lowered to the hull. Permanent repairs required a return to port. This episode cost a week. Back on site, a container ship ran
over the mooring buoys and sank one of them, causing more delay. Finally, Mother landed on the deck
again and was secured by running cables through portholes. Then the torch cable broke and two more days were lost. Even after repairs were made and work proceeded smoothly, it took five days to cut through the steel plate that comprised the Foyer doors…into a spider web of loose electrical wires, dangling telephone lines, distorted drop-ceiling frames, disjointed plumbing pipes and scattered partitions. They could not even get close to the purser’s safe, which lay on the low side of the wreck
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