AT THE END OF A HOSE
My book is about the divers not the diving
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Born in Bay St Louis Mississippi
In the Year of Our Lord
December 3 = 1934
HAMPTON LOUIS (DOC) TOCA
The Great Wind Walker
28,664 hours under the sea
Over my 60 year diving life to date
H L (DOC THE POWER MONKEY ) TOCA ==> his storey
I fell in love with Diving in 1947 after a hurricane hit the MS Gulf cost !
My Grandfather and three Uncles worked on MS State Fisheries boats , 4 of the boats went down my Grandfather tied a rope around my waist and tole me to find all the fishing boxes an rods and bring them up I reaches the boat but 15 foot of water detent give me much time to look I came up choking and spiting he sed look like you need a bucket boy
Gram sed let go to the store he purchased a heavy duty bucket a 3x3 shame 2 brass water spigot and two lock nuts and 50' heavy duty of water hose went to the county tool yard and picked up a big air compressor then he went over to the machine shop and well he made my first diving helmet he cut off the bottom of a gallon jug about 21/2 from the bottom curt a h*** in the bucket 2 " small and raped strips of the shame around the bottle then he made a brass clamp around bottle and the bucket wings with four brass flat bars go over the bottle and clamped it all to gather then he got sum cotton and caulked in-between the shame then lit a candle and drips wax on the seal he sed always check the wax and the seal be four going down I ask him wear did you learn to make that.
My father made me one to salvage the old sailing ship the USAREUR off Chandelier island in 1902.only it wasn't a bucket it was a copper pipe.
I keep that old bucket for 60 years Till IKE hit Galveston in September 2008 and left me homeless it wiped out my Old fishing camp along with my boat and that ( old helmet ? If it not in the storage shed)
As life who'd have it the Korean war broke out in 1950 and my Uncle Sargent Major of the well that another story.
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I haven't been on this site in a long time, Louis. Now working as Project Manager with Ranger Offshore in Houston. We lost some old TDS hands in the past year and a half = Joe Vidrine and others...
The old dogs are fading away.
yes i would like to read the book as well.
and hay!! shame what no internet in sat oh dear me what is the world coming to.
steve h
Will cDiver be publishing a pod cast interview with you in the near future?... hint hint Nathan & team
I just wanted to touch base and thank you again for taking the time to talk with Adam and Mike a while back. I am sorry we haven't launched the coverage yet, things have been hectic over here, but I am going to launch your interview as a podcast real soon and we will feature you as a legend of commercial diving in a new series we are rolling out on cDiver. I am am currently launching a bunch of stuff on Phil Nuytten, and will launch your podcast as well very soon.
Cheers,
Nathan J
cDiver Staff
As for your memory - don't worry, Doc - we never worked together. As small as our numbers have been , not all of us have met. The bond is still the same.
Hang in there...
John Joly