Diver Down
Samuel Allen
I’m in the welding program and this was for my English 101
class with Wes Mantooth. The assignment was a narrative
essay and I chose to write about a near-death experience I had
while diving.
Note: In this essay, all names have been changed to protect the
privacy of the individuals involved (editor).
I awoke to the thrumming of the engines vibrating
throughout the deck, the muted shouts of work crews moving
equipment, and the dull roar of the a/c units working overtime
again. I sluggishly crawled out of my bunk, donned a pair of
flip flops and shuffled my way out of the cabin towards the
deck hatch. Overwhelming light, heat, humidity, and sound
assaulted me the second I made my way through the hatch and
out onto the deck of the Heracles, a beast of a derrick barge at
420 feet long and 98 feet wide and with a 500 ton main crane
located out in the Gulf of Mexico.
I quickened my pace as I made my way towards the locker
entrance and re-entered the relative comfort of the airconditioned interior of the ship. As I met up with my dive crew
at our lockers, the usual bullshitting began, talking about the
dives we had that day, our girls back home, football, and