Watch Team Works Under the Water
AZURE GARRISON - When Chief Jaeran West tells people he's a diver in the City Watch, the response is usually one of surprise: "'I didn't know the Watch had divers.' That's our most common response," he said.
West, 30, of Churl Street, AD, is one of about 12 divers with the Azure Divers. As the only team of its kind, the divers are often called for missions such as body and ship recovery.
"Anything that can be done on the surface we can do in the water," said Captain Dirian Ruseau, 25, the Team commander, from Wall Street, AD.
In their 10 months of active service, the divers have removed a pier as well as destroyed old bridge sections. They have done maintenance on wharfs and docking platforms in Sasserine harbor and inspected bridges spanning the Thunder and Emerald Rivers to ensure they're safe for travellers. They salvaged a wreckage after it sank into a shoal off Freeman's Point.
"We're limited to shallow water," West said, "but that's also where the majority of the work is."
Three times the divers have searched for missing merchantmen and whalers.
"This is the most honorable mission we can conduct as well as the grimmest," Ruseau said.
The team's most challenging mission has been recovering the crews of two merchant vessels from a remote lake in the Amedio, Ruseau said. The seamen were trapped in the frame after their ship crashed and sank during a research expedition in Flocktime. The dive team searched for 72 hours before finding them and needed five more days to salvage the craft, Ruseau said.
"One of the seaman's wives was on the shore of the lake when the divers were searching for her husband," Ruseau said. "It was very meaningful for the divers to see how their efforts impacted the seaman's loved ones."
Recovering the ship was difficult, Ruseau said. The team had to put a rig on bridge sections and float it to the middle of the lake in order to lift the ship out of the water.
"The water was a cloudy clear about 30 feet deep," Ruseau said, "and the team was using air incantations to bring the craft off the bottom. The biggest danger is the ship suddenly getting too buoyant and accelerating to the surface with the diver attached, which could possibly kill the diver."
The Azure Divers also searched for a marine and sailor who went missing after their skiff flipped in a river on Planting 2 after a flash flood near Whitethorn Plantation; six marines drowned and were found the next day.
Divers searched for the missing for eight days, covering more than 12 miles of river. The bodies were found more than 75 miles upstream by local tribesmen and returned to local authorities, Ruseau said.
Ruseau said the Azure Divers are a proud, tight-knit group, with only a dozen members in the service.
(c) Saints & Sinners, Sasserine's source for news!
I'm loving these, EP Healy. Keep 'em coming.
Really good! I just read through your other articles. These news flashes will surely color up our game. i will present it to them as a weekly newspaper and they will love it for sure!!! I hope i could get each one of them (got 5 of them). If not please send them in a mail to gabor(at)elderbrain.com.
Thanks a lot and great job there, keep it flowing!
gaborg, I usually put (S&S) in the subject. I missed one.. ( linky )
i will present it to them as a weekly newspaper and they will love it for sure!!! ... please send them in a mail to gabor(at)elderbrain.com.
I wanted to appologize for not keeping the faith with S&S articles. Since my deployment, I haven't been as plugged in to the Savage Tide as I once was.
However, I do have copies of the eight articles I did post. If you still need them, let me know. ephealy(at)ephealy(dot)com
I'll try to get back on top, but no promises.