I dove this river several times back in the '80s. The Colburn, the Tremble, the Smith's boom, the crane. The vis in this video was incredible compared to then. We usually had less than 10', and once I ran into the bottom before I saw it. I mean that the water was so silted that my mask hit the mud before i saw it coming up. We called the dive - why bother if you can't see anything? There used to be a guy who often dove the boardwalk area, scavenging bottles and other goodies. He had a gas-powered water pump that he fastened to the boardwalk. He dropped the intake hose into the water, and had a long hose he carried with him. He used that to jet holes in the bottom, looking for stuff. He claimed to come out with at least $100 worth of antique bottles almost every time - and this was 35 years ago. There used to be a metal cable tied to the Smith's boom. We'd enter at a certain landmark and descend 10 feet to find it, and go hand over hand to the boom. There was an eddy current in that area, and often you'd see a diver with fins pointing downstream from the cable, while 10 feet away yours were pointing upstream. There were a bunch of broken grindstones on the bottom around the boom as well. Wonder if they're still there?
It must be one he'll of a current that boat is well in tact. What was on that boat take that bell up. Would of Liked to know what you were go in for, doing!
I've been watching the ship cam in Marine City, and looked to find some videos on diving in the river. I was rewarded and would like to thank you guys for this video. I would absolutely like to see more! Excellent!
