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‘Dive the deeps’ at Port Alberni’s Maritime Discovery Centre
Monday, July 2nd, 2007 by GetawayBC.com
The Maritime Discovery Centre opened for the season in June with a pair of exciting seafaring exhibits.
In the Ken Hutcheson gallery, the Port Alberni Maritime Heritage Society has teamed up with the Historical Diving Society and Nuytco Research Ltd. to present “Diving the Deeps”.
“It’s a rare and exclusive exhibit,” says Ken Hutcheson, president of the maritime society. Diving the Deeps covers deepsea diving techniques from the early 1900s to the 21st century.
The exhibit features some of the first diving suits, replete with heavy copper helmets and a unit that pumped air to the diver from the ship’s deck above. On the other end of the spectrum is the Exosuit, which is self-contained but allows the diver to swim, and a deep-worker submersible, which a person operates from inside a cockpit.
All the diving equipment is on loan from Nuytco Research of North Vancouver. Nuytco’s president and founder, Phil Nuytten, is recognized as one of the pioneers of the diving industry worldwide. He first invented and developed a patented rotary joint technology for use in a diving suit called the “Newtsuit”.
Nuytco designs, builds and operates atmospheric diving suits, submersibles, remotely operated vehicles and specialty equipment for commercial diving.
Maritime centre summer staff members Traci Nesbitt and Nicole MacMillan have been preparing the exhibit, mounting panels about each of the artifacts as well as colourful undersea photographs.
In the lighthouse gallery is “Light the Lights”, an exhibit on the life of a lighthouse keeper. The exhibit features many artifacts from the early 1900s, such as a piece of Fresnel lens (the lights now feature acrylic pieces), a hand-cranked foghorn, copper beacon and various written logs.
“People often come down here and see the lighthouse and think it’s a working lighthouse,” said Donna Gallagher, co-ordinator at the Maritime Discovery Centre. Their curiosity was the inspiration for this show.
“We’re really focusing on a few local lighthouses, Cape Beale in particular, which is close to Bamfield.”
One aspect of the display features present-day light-keepers Kathi and Norbie Brand, describing what their duties are at the lighthouse today.
There is a special part of the exhibit dedicated to Minnie Paterson, lighthouse keeper Thomas Paterson’s wife, who helped save the crew of the barkentine Coloma.
On Dec. 6, 1906, the Coloma was embattered by a southeast gale off the West Coast shore, her sails tattered in the unforgiving winds. She drifted within sight of the Cape Beale lighthouse, where Thomas Paterson was manning the foghorn and the light.
The telegraph cable connecting the lighthouse to Bamfield was broken, so Minnie Paterson walked four miles through the bush and pounding rain to alert the telegraph line-keeper of the impending maritime disaster. She and the line-keeper’s wife rowed out to the government steamer Quadra, which then reached the Coloma just in time to save its crew.
Gallagher has collected letters and copies of the front page of a Seattle newspaper heralding Paterson’s heroic actions. There is also a trunk from the Cape Beale lighthouse that held a collection of postcards addressed to Paterson.
The Maritime Discovery Centre galleries are open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is by donation. The centre will be open until Sept. 3.