US Divers map submerged train wrecks in Delaware River

Two train wrecks submerged in the Delaware River are being mapped during a training exercise this week with the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area’s dive team.

In May 1948 and September 1975, train cars went off the track and into the river near Kittatinny Point. One was carrying a load of Miller beer, and old beer bottles can still be seen in one of the wrecks, said Michael Croll, park dive officer.

But don’t bother diving for beer, said Croll. The bottle caps rusted off long ago and many bottles are now filled with silt.

Every three years, the National Park Service requires divers to have 40 hours of refresher training. This week, the dive team’s six members are undergoing that training. The team will be expanded to 10 over the next few years as training continues, and four members are now certified in under-ice diving.

Joining the training session are two park service employees from Isle Royale National Park in Michigan. Isle Royale, in Lake Superior, is home to more than 10 shipwrecks and other submerged vessels.

In addition to search-and-rescue and recovery operations, park service scuba divers are also involved in natural and cultural resource inventory, such as mapping submerged cultural resources and monitoring aquatic invasive species. Divers also help public safety by installing navigational aids like buoys and channel markers, and perform maintenance like dam and pier inspections.

There are 27 park dive programs and about 225 park service divers in the US said Steve Sellers, the National Dive Safety Officer for the park service. Sellers works with the National Dive Control Board and oversees all safety aspects of diving in the NPS.

Most team members dive as a collateral duty and do other tasks for the NPS, said Sellers, who travels around the country training divers. The training team also includes Bert Ho, an archeologist with the NPS Submerged Resources Center.

Much of the training will take place in the classroom, where the science of scuba diving is covered, including physiology, physics, mathematics and medical treatment of diving illnesses and injuries.

The team will map the trains this week and learn how to use a portable decompression chamber to treat pressure-related injuries.

Paul Brown of Isle Royale said the river, at 57°F on Tuesday, seemed warm to him, compared to the chilly Great Lake where he usually dives. He also noted that visibility in Lake Superior is better than in the Delaware River.

Seller likened it to diving in iced tea or cola, with visibility up to 15 feet on good days. But at its deepest, about 60 feet, Delaware River divers will experience black-out conditions and must work by touch.

Source: www.poconorecord.com

Photos: Sue Beyer