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HAZARDS

There have always been many dangers presented to pearl shell divers relating to the collection of pearl shell; even more so when pearling first began along the Kimberley coast in the 1860's. Aborigines were captured (both men and women) from the inland and coastal regions and forced into slavery, to dive for the pearl shell. They had often never been in the ocean, but if they showed reluctance to dive, were consequently thrown in. Luckily, the aboriginal divers had a natural gift for diving and were capable of going down to depths of five to eight metres in order to collect shells. They were better than the Malays and Koepangers whom had been seafarers for centuries. The early skin divers died of many things including scurvy, fever, blood poisoning from coral, tooth abscess, lung infections, sharks, and even from severe beatings due to lack of respect or disobedience to their owners. Life was considered cheap and expendable, however, as diving became an organized business, more care was taken of the men employed by the pearling masters. In 1887, the copper helmet was introduced and forced the aborigines out of diving because they could not tolerate the heavy claustrophobic helmet.

SHARKS:
It is uncommon for a shark to deliberately attack a diver, but if the diver is located in a visibly poor area where the shark is hunting for food, the diver may easily be mistaken for it's prey. In the early days when aboriginal divers were used, there were unfortunately high casualties and deaths due to shark attacks. This was because the naked aboriginal divers, when rising to the surface, had an awkward movement of a sick or wounded fish. Shark attacks can be quite brutal and some cases have even involved the loss of half the diver's body. more on sharks

CROCODILES
Crocodiles are another major hazard for skin divers. They are very tenacious, in such that when they attack, they hold on to their prey and do not release them until they have succeeded in killing them. In one instance, a man had both of his legs torn away, like match sticks, from just below his hips.

Photo's courtesy of Hugh Edwards

OTHER MAJOR HAZARDS
Jellyfish occasionally cause death amongst divers, especially during the early years of the industry, when divers wore very little protective clothing. The extremely dangerous box jellyfish has long, seemingly invisible, tentacles which, when make contact with humans, are capable of causing unconsciousness, shortness of breath. Sea snakes are often a pest around divers, especially during mating season, when they can confuse the diver's oxygen hoses with females. They pose a danger if you accidentally disturb them while collecting pearl shell, as they will aggressively bite the exposed hand and cause severe pain. They are venomous and are capable of causing death.
Divers were very prone to chest and ear infections and could die without proper medical attention. Whales and Stingrays could also pose a problem, as they occasionally become tangled in the divers life lines and consequently cut of their precious air supply.

THE 'BENDS'
The most common cause of death amongst divers during the old pearling days was the dreaded 'bends', which is caused from working for long periods in deep water and coming up to the surface too fast. The symptoms were clear, but the cause of death was not.

The diver would feel fine whilst on the bottom, but while surfacing, would begin to feel pains in his back and joints, causing him to double up, thus giving rise to the name, 'bends.' Unconsciousness, agonizing convulsions, or loss of feeling and use of limbs would often follow.

According to an old pearl diver, it was a pain like no other and constant aching agony was common. The problem was eventually solved from medical studies being done in Britain, and was discovered to be nitrogen. It was discovered that the pressure at great depths under water was very high which often results in the absorption of nitrogen into the bloodstream. As the diver ascends, the pressure decreases rapidly, causing the nitrogen to fizzle in the bloodstream. This produces pressure on the nerves causing excruciating pain. The arteries of the heart, and brain can become blocked by the nitrogen gas causing heart failure and swelling of the tissues. Paralysis of the muscular tissue used in respiration causes the lungs to stop functioning.

The main points influencing the 'bends' are:
(a) The depth that the diver went to.
(b) The time spent at this depth.
(c) The amount of nitrogen absorbed into the system.

Practical tests were carried out to prove that divers could go to extreme depths, provided they came up slowly and spent staging periods at various depths to allow the nitrogen to dissolve. The decompression depth tables were worked out by the British. However, despite all this research, the majority of pearl divers ignored these warnings and stage periods, and hence the number of casualties increased. Eventually, the decompression chamber was introduced and presented to the Broome community as a gift from the Heinke and CO diving firm. This greatly reduced the number of casualties due to the 'bends.' This chamber demonstrated the effects of pressure to divers in the most practical way. They could see it working and consequently those that had been unable to understand the diving tables, were now convinced of it's importance. By 1918, the death toll of the 'bends' was reduced dramatically to a single fatality.

The Diving Equipment