Okay...some of you may have read this story before. However, for those of you who have not....
The story begins on a sunny Sunday, in the small town of New Denver. This community was a way point... It is on the Slocan Lake and just a few miles from Sandon. This whole area has been called, and indeed still is called, the Silvery Slocan for the reason that it was the centre of British Columbias' silver production at the turn of the 19th and early 20th century. There are numerous small towns [Slocan, Silverton, New Denver, etc] whose fortunes relied on the tons upon tons of silver pulled from the surrounding hills. All of this ore, at first was trans-shipped to the lakes to be taken to the smelters by paddlewheelers. As the silver supply became exhausted, the miners and hangers-on left. But a small, hard core citizenry, hung on and refused to let those communities die.
New Denver was one of these communities and it now boasts a population of 350-400 people. In its' heyday, the town had well over 1200 people. To service that population, a large [very large] wharf system was built on the lake. The whole pier and wharf extended well over a mile along the lakeshore. Ore was shipped out, good brought in, parties were held on the paddlewheelers. It was a thriving community.
On this particular Sunday, in October, I had been contracted to do a dive job over in New Denver. Luckily, the job only took a few minutes and since I had practically a full tank, my partner and I decided to do a dive along the wharf system. You never Know what can be found at these old sites..CPR china and silver ware, old mining carts, horse buggies...the list is limited only by your imagination. We decided to go over to Bigelow Bay for the dive. We did this for two reasons...One was that the wharves extended all the way over there and two was that it was a popular swimming site today. So there was that possibility of goodies as well.
We arrived at the Bay and dropped down into the water. The bottom very rapidly levels out at 12 feet and goes ot for 50 or 60 feet. Then it drops fairly rapidy and keeps going. So, we settled on the 45 - 50 foot mark and started to work the old pilings. As I was swimming along, a rusty old box showed up. This was nothing to be concerned about since the old mariners tossed everything overboard. However, upon swimming by it, a decided to take a closer look. Be darned if it wasn't a safe, and a pretty good sized one too. Two, of the four, wheels were missing......an important point since the old ships removed 2 wheels so that there was less chance of the safe rolling around. Signalled to my partner and we both went ballistic. By Gawd, we were going to be wealthy. It was face down in the mud but that would not deter us.
We came home and plotted out just exactly what we would need to raise this puppy..... sled, scotchmen [those big, orange floats that you see boats tied up to], cable, winch, several air tanks, and tons of rope. Plans were made and we had decided to go back the following weekend. Well, wouldn't you know it but we had a cold snap that week... I mean a REAL cold snap [Got down to 12 or so degrees]. That still would not stop us.. We have dry suits and when there is a safe down there, who feels the cold anyway? So, next Saturday rolls around and over we go. We drive down the road to the bay and it was totally frozen over!!!!!!
No dive this week. Perhaps it will warm up and next week would improve.. Nope not that week either, nor the next, nor the next... It stayed frozen until April. Man we were just getting antsy. I had built, then re-built and then improved on that, a sled that could be put under the safe when we got it off the bottom. We could then strap it down and pull it up to the truck where we would load it into the truck with a cherry picker. And our research led us to believe that it was the safe from an old paddlewheeler that had turn turtle in the Bay. Things were looking up. We had a history, we had a proven cargo, no doubt about it, we were going to be rich.
On that day in April, We arrived with a pretty well loaded truck. After suiting up, we took 3 extra tanks down to the safe, 4 scotchmen with bottoms cut out to use as lift bags, the new, markIII sled,etc. Down we go and hook up the cables to the safe and attach the scotchman. We filled that one up, no go. We attached a second one and inflated that,; still no go. The third and still nothing and finally, the fourth [and last] scotchman and started to fill it. Finally, we start to get some movement. We has to be careful because we did not want it rising to the surface uncontrollably. As we got it out of the mud and about 3 feet from the bottom, we looked at the door.....or at least where the door should be. The wretched thing was filled with concrete. All those plans, all that preparation, for nothing.
So we released the scotchmen, one by one, and they headed for the surface like Polaris missiles. The safe dropped back into the bottom and we had a pretty good laugh about it. The old story 'don't count your chicken before they are hatched' is a particularly apt moral. However, for a while, we were very wealthy, even if it was only in our minds.
All the best
M
The story begins on a sunny Sunday, in the small town of New Denver. This community was a way point... It is on the Slocan Lake and just a few miles from Sandon. This whole area has been called, and indeed still is called, the Silvery Slocan for the reason that it was the centre of British Columbias' silver production at the turn of the 19th and early 20th century. There are numerous small towns [Slocan, Silverton, New Denver, etc] whose fortunes relied on the tons upon tons of silver pulled from the surrounding hills. All of this ore, at first was trans-shipped to the lakes to be taken to the smelters by paddlewheelers. As the silver supply became exhausted, the miners and hangers-on left. But a small, hard core citizenry, hung on and refused to let those communities die.
New Denver was one of these communities and it now boasts a population of 350-400 people. In its' heyday, the town had well over 1200 people. To service that population, a large [very large] wharf system was built on the lake. The whole pier and wharf extended well over a mile along the lakeshore. Ore was shipped out, good brought in, parties were held on the paddlewheelers. It was a thriving community.
On this particular Sunday, in October, I had been contracted to do a dive job over in New Denver. Luckily, the job only took a few minutes and since I had practically a full tank, my partner and I decided to do a dive along the wharf system. You never Know what can be found at these old sites..CPR china and silver ware, old mining carts, horse buggies...the list is limited only by your imagination. We decided to go over to Bigelow Bay for the dive. We did this for two reasons...One was that the wharves extended all the way over there and two was that it was a popular swimming site today. So there was that possibility of goodies as well.
We arrived at the Bay and dropped down into the water. The bottom very rapidly levels out at 12 feet and goes ot for 50 or 60 feet. Then it drops fairly rapidy and keeps going. So, we settled on the 45 - 50 foot mark and started to work the old pilings. As I was swimming along, a rusty old box showed up. This was nothing to be concerned about since the old mariners tossed everything overboard. However, upon swimming by it, a decided to take a closer look. Be darned if it wasn't a safe, and a pretty good sized one too. Two, of the four, wheels were missing......an important point since the old ships removed 2 wheels so that there was less chance of the safe rolling around. Signalled to my partner and we both went ballistic. By Gawd, we were going to be wealthy. It was face down in the mud but that would not deter us.
We came home and plotted out just exactly what we would need to raise this puppy..... sled, scotchmen [those big, orange floats that you see boats tied up to], cable, winch, several air tanks, and tons of rope. Plans were made and we had decided to go back the following weekend. Well, wouldn't you know it but we had a cold snap that week... I mean a REAL cold snap [Got down to 12 or so degrees]. That still would not stop us.. We have dry suits and when there is a safe down there, who feels the cold anyway? So, next Saturday rolls around and over we go. We drive down the road to the bay and it was totally frozen over!!!!!!
No dive this week. Perhaps it will warm up and next week would improve.. Nope not that week either, nor the next, nor the next... It stayed frozen until April. Man we were just getting antsy. I had built, then re-built and then improved on that, a sled that could be put under the safe when we got it off the bottom. We could then strap it down and pull it up to the truck where we would load it into the truck with a cherry picker. And our research led us to believe that it was the safe from an old paddlewheeler that had turn turtle in the Bay. Things were looking up. We had a history, we had a proven cargo, no doubt about it, we were going to be rich.
On that day in April, We arrived with a pretty well loaded truck. After suiting up, we took 3 extra tanks down to the safe, 4 scotchmen with bottoms cut out to use as lift bags, the new, markIII sled,etc. Down we go and hook up the cables to the safe and attach the scotchman. We filled that one up, no go. We attached a second one and inflated that,; still no go. The third and still nothing and finally, the fourth [and last] scotchman and started to fill it. Finally, we start to get some movement. We has to be careful because we did not want it rising to the surface uncontrollably. As we got it out of the mud and about 3 feet from the bottom, we looked at the door.....or at least where the door should be. The wretched thing was filled with concrete. All those plans, all that preparation, for nothing.
So we released the scotchmen, one by one, and they headed for the surface like Polaris missiles. The safe dropped back into the bottom and we had a pretty good laugh about it. The old story 'don't count your chicken before they are hatched' is a particularly apt moral. However, for a while, we were very wealthy, even if it was only in our minds.
All the best
M
