en who do big things
would speak of them as simply as he did.

"It's like this," said he: "in diving, the same as in other things, every
man has his limit; but he can't tell what it is until the trial comes.
At this time I'm talking about (some ten years ago) I thought a hundred
feet about as deep as I wanted to go. If there are two hundred divers in
the country, you can bet on it not ten of them can go down over a
hundred feet. Well, along comes this job in the middle of winter--a
head-on collision up the Hudson off Fort Montgomery, and a fine tug-boat
gone to the bottom. We came up with pontoons to raise her, and Captain
Timmans (he's the father of Timmans the diver) ordered Hansen down to
fix a chain under her shaft--there's the man now."

A big Scandinavian in the listening circle looked pleased at this
mention. He was Hansen.

"We knew by the sounding that she lay in a hundred and fifty feet of
water on a shelf of bottom over a deeper place, and Hansen was a little
anxious. He got me to tend him, and I remember he asked me, when I was
putting the suit on him, if I thought he could do it. Remember that,
Hansen?"

Hansen nodded.

"I told him I thought I could do the job myself, so why shouldn't he?
but that was partly to encourage him.

"Anyhow, Hansen went down, and I got a signal 'All right' from him when
he struck the bottom. Then the line kept very still, and pretty soon I
jerked it again. No answer. So I knew something was wrong, and began to
haul him up quick, telling the boys to turn faster. He was unconscious
when we got him on deck, but he soon came round, and said he felt like
he'd been dreaming. He'll tell you if that ain't right."

"It's right," said Hansen.

"We couldn't work any more that day, on account of the tide, but Captain
Timmans said the thing had to be done the next morning, and wanted
Hansen to try it again; but Hansen wouldn't."

"Wasn't no use of trying again," put in Hansen.

"That's it; he'd passed his limit. But it seems I had a longer one.
Anyhow, when the captain called on me, I got into the suit and went
down, and I stayed down until that chain was under the shaft. It took me
twenty minutes, and I don't believe I could have stood it much longer.
The pressure was terrible, and those twenty minutes took more out of me
than four hours would, say, at fifty feet. But we got the tug-boat up,
and she's running yet."

After this Hansen told a story showing what power the suction-