Jeanie and Jeanie Too.
Al Hanson had become pretty active in my day to day life. He and wife Norma had become a second set of parents to me and Lowell. Their daughter Jeanie was like a sister. She was at an age just between little brother and me. My mom sort of adopted Jeanie to fill in for the daughter she didn't have. All in all it worked out very well.
Al had promised to teach me about deep sea diving and such but so far his and Norma's business commitments just barely left time for the Abalone enterprise much less anything else. Al was doing a research project for UCLA. Norma was working on a movie called the "Creature from the Black Lagoon. She was the creature in all the underwater shots. Al's research wasn't quite so dramatic. It concerned a divers malady known as the "Bends". The "Bends" are a situation brought on by coming to the surface to fast from depths of about seventy five feet or more or by spending to much time submerged at those depths. In either case the blood gases of the diver get out of balance causing a great pain or danger to the diver. Usually just the simple act of controlling the speed of the assent to the surface will remedy the problem. More extreme cases have to be treated using a decompression chamber. Al had built his own decompression chamber and was considered an expert on the "Bends". As it would turn out, Al Hanson was a man of many talents. Because of our friendship I would become friends with people that would later become very well known.
During this time period I was subjected to a kind of apprenticeship. Much like the young guy in the "Karate Kid" movie, my master Al Hanson, made me "Hone" my skills by building boxes, pulling weeds and running errands. Al was true to his promise as it would turned out and I would profit from the time spent on the less exciting aspects of the learning curve.
Because Al and Norma were so much in demand, their daughter Jeanie became a resident at our house. Like I said earlier she was a sweet little girl and very close to my mom. Kinda like mom's shadow at times. Little brother was also kind of a mama's boy so that were a threesome of sorts. Lowell and Jeanie got along very well so there wasn't any problems in the situation. They both just tagged along with mom and peace prevailed.
Al decided to get a television set. It was a big "Round Screen" set that took up one whole corner of the room. It was a "Magnavox" brand designed to be a piece of furniture complete with a nice wood cabinet. Because he and Norma were away from home so much, Al had the set delivered to and set up in our house. Now our house was always full of the neighborhood kids. Even Dobe got to be a TV buff.
Finally Al decided it was time for me to go to sea. Once again I'd have to start at the bottom so to speak and work my way up. When I say work I mean real break a sweat work.
The main boat in Al's small fleet was the "Jeanie Too". A totally unimpressive and maybe ugly little diesel powered working boat. She about forty feet long with a beam of about fourteen feet at her widest point. The cabin/pilot house could accommodate four people but it was crowded. The "Jeanie Too" reminded me of the "Little Toot" tug boat cartoon. Alas, under her ugly Gray paint and popping diesel engine she was a thoroughbred. All business and not meant to be a pleasure craft. This little boat was the platform for about everything Al did as a deep sea diver.
My first task on the boat was to learn how to "man" the pumps. No I'm not talking about pumping out the bilge water. The little diesel took care of that for the most part.
Most real "Dyed in the wool" seamen are strange folks compared to the rest of us. They tend to be very superstitious and a little "Quirky". Al was no exception. The crazy part was that after a while you'd catch yourself acting the same way. One of Al's things was his distrust of engine powered air pumps. That's why the Jeanie was set up with an old fashion air system referred to as the "Armstrong" pump. Simply put, the pump was powered by arm power hence the name. Every newbie on the Jeanie Too's crew started by cranking the pump.
That old pump was pretty intimidating. Big and heavy all painted "John Deere" green with lots of brass fittings. It was mounted on the deck behind the pilot house. It used a single throw crankshaft with a forty inch spoked wheel on one end and a heavy twenty four inch cast iron flywheel on the other end of the crankshaft. The connecting rod for the pump piston hooked to the crankshaft. Turning the spoked wheel by an attached handle set everything in motion. Once the inertia was over come and the cast flywheel was moving the thing was really pretty easy to keep at a constant speed. The connecting rod pushed the pump piston back and forth in the horizontal cylinder bringing in fresh air as the piston moved back and then compressing the air and exhausting it as the piston moved forward. The exhausted air was fed into a holding tank which in turn was used by the diver. All this was accompanied by strange noises from the old pump as it inhaled and exhaled. I learned pretty quick that feeble gripe on the cranking handle would result in a pretty nasty "Whack" once everything was in motion. Once I learned the pump my next task was to learn the ropes.
The ropes in this case were the lines that fed air and intercom signals to the diver as well as the safety line that we used to hoist Al out of the water if he needed help.
I made one dive that summer. I'd love to tell you a great story about my adventure but to be honest it scared me half to death. I went down in forty feet of water and thought I would die before I got back to the surface. Al just smiled and hugged me. He told me I was pretty game for just trying. I kinda felt like I'd let him down.
Working on the "Jeanie Too" was fun but not real exciting. There was a lot to learn not the least being responsibility. The main focus was to support the diver and his welfare. Next came the up keep of the boat and equipment. All of these things were "Dead Serious" issues. Al stressed this everyday. All were lessons worth learning. Looking back I can see why we never had any exciting emergency events. Al planned it that way. Everyone that went out on his boat came back with it.
Al had promised to teach me about deep sea diving and such but so far his and Norma's business commitments just barely left time for the Abalone enterprise much less anything else. Al was doing a research project for UCLA. Norma was working on a movie called the "Creature from the Black Lagoon. She was the creature in all the underwater shots. Al's research wasn't quite so dramatic. It concerned a divers malady known as the "Bends". The "Bends" are a situation brought on by coming to the surface to fast from depths of about seventy five feet or more or by spending to much time submerged at those depths. In either case the blood gases of the diver get out of balance causing a great pain or danger to the diver. Usually just the simple act of controlling the speed of the assent to the surface will remedy the problem. More extreme cases have to be treated using a decompression chamber. Al had built his own decompression chamber and was considered an expert on the "Bends". As it would turn out, Al Hanson was a man of many talents. Because of our friendship I would become friends with people that would later become very well known.
During this time period I was subjected to a kind of apprenticeship. Much like the young guy in the "Karate Kid" movie, my master Al Hanson, made me "Hone" my skills by building boxes, pulling weeds and running errands. Al was true to his promise as it would turned out and I would profit from the time spent on the less exciting aspects of the learning curve.
Because Al and Norma were so much in demand, their daughter Jeanie became a resident at our house. Like I said earlier she was a sweet little girl and very close to my mom. Kinda like mom's shadow at times. Little brother was also kind of a mama's boy so that were a threesome of sorts. Lowell and Jeanie got along very well so there wasn't any problems in the situation. They both just tagged along with mom and peace prevailed.
Al decided to get a television set. It was a big "Round Screen" set that took up one whole corner of the room. It was a "Magnavox" brand designed to be a piece of furniture complete with a nice wood cabinet. Because he and Norma were away from home so much, Al had the set delivered to and set up in our house. Now our house was always full of the neighborhood kids. Even Dobe got to be a TV buff.
Finally Al decided it was time for me to go to sea. Once again I'd have to start at the bottom so to speak and work my way up. When I say work I mean real break a sweat work.
The main boat in Al's small fleet was the "Jeanie Too". A totally unimpressive and maybe ugly little diesel powered working boat. She about forty feet long with a beam of about fourteen feet at her widest point. The cabin/pilot house could accommodate four people but it was crowded. The "Jeanie Too" reminded me of the "Little Toot" tug boat cartoon. Alas, under her ugly Gray paint and popping diesel engine she was a thoroughbred. All business and not meant to be a pleasure craft. This little boat was the platform for about everything Al did as a deep sea diver.
My first task on the boat was to learn how to "man" the pumps. No I'm not talking about pumping out the bilge water. The little diesel took care of that for the most part.
Most real "Dyed in the wool" seamen are strange folks compared to the rest of us. They tend to be very superstitious and a little "Quirky". Al was no exception. The crazy part was that after a while you'd catch yourself acting the same way. One of Al's things was his distrust of engine powered air pumps. That's why the Jeanie was set up with an old fashion air system referred to as the "Armstrong" pump. Simply put, the pump was powered by arm power hence the name. Every newbie on the Jeanie Too's crew started by cranking the pump.
That old pump was pretty intimidating. Big and heavy all painted "John Deere" green with lots of brass fittings. It was mounted on the deck behind the pilot house. It used a single throw crankshaft with a forty inch spoked wheel on one end and a heavy twenty four inch cast iron flywheel on the other end of the crankshaft. The connecting rod for the pump piston hooked to the crankshaft. Turning the spoked wheel by an attached handle set everything in motion. Once the inertia was over come and the cast flywheel was moving the thing was really pretty easy to keep at a constant speed. The connecting rod pushed the pump piston back and forth in the horizontal cylinder bringing in fresh air as the piston moved back and then compressing the air and exhausting it as the piston moved forward. The exhausted air was fed into a holding tank which in turn was used by the diver. All this was accompanied by strange noises from the old pump as it inhaled and exhaled. I learned pretty quick that feeble gripe on the cranking handle would result in a pretty nasty "Whack" once everything was in motion. Once I learned the pump my next task was to learn the ropes.
The ropes in this case were the lines that fed air and intercom signals to the diver as well as the safety line that we used to hoist Al out of the water if he needed help.
I made one dive that summer. I'd love to tell you a great story about my adventure but to be honest it scared me half to death. I went down in forty feet of water and thought I would die before I got back to the surface. Al just smiled and hugged me. He told me I was pretty game for just trying. I kinda felt like I'd let him down.
Working on the "Jeanie Too" was fun but not real exciting. There was a lot to learn not the least being responsibility. The main focus was to support the diver and his welfare. Next came the up keep of the boat and equipment. All of these things were "Dead Serious" issues. Al stressed this everyday. All were lessons worth learning. Looking back I can see why we never had any exciting emergency events. Al planned it that way. Everyone that went out on his boat came back with it.
Very simple in words but in reality, many discrepancies, not so peachy!
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