Having studied commercial diving, Neal graduated in 1985 from the College of Oceaneering, Los Angeles. He returned home to seek employment in South Africa's budding oil industry.
Because of the laws of apartheid at that time, employers saw no room for him in the oil industry, despite his excellent qualifications. The only area, in which he could gain employment, was the diamond mining industry, off the western coast of South Africa.
Where to Find Them!
The diamond coast of Southern Africa extends from the mouth of the Orange River, south to Lambert's Bay, approximately 180 miles north of Cape Town.
Map: Gwen Wilkinson
On Location
Divers and deck hands departed each morning from Port Nolloth for the government allocated mining sites. Six-inch diameter suction hoses were lowered to the divers, who dragged it to the mine face - the area of alluvial gravel where mining is in progress. The alluvial gravel containing the diamonds was vacuumed to the surface, where it was "jigged". The diamonds were separated from the gravel using a vibrating pan system.
It was Neal's job to make the dives and manipulate the equipment on the sea floor. Underwater it was hard work, dangerous but lucrative. Each diver made two dives per day, moving more than a half ton of gravel and using crowbars to shift the larger boulders to get to the bedrock. The divers can not actually see the diamonds on the seabed. They worked in almost zero visibility as the suction hose agitated the fine sediment. 98% of the diamonds mined were of gem quality.
Tours of duty for the divers were, 28 days at sea and 14 days shore leave. The diving setup was the latest in technology. Superlite 17 diving helmets with oral communication to topside; hot water suits to fend off the cold were used.
Average depth for a dive was around 140 feet and the dive would last for up to ninety minutes on the seabed. Some of the decompression was done in the water and the remainder was executed on deck, breathing pure oxygen in the comfort of a decompression chamber.
In four years Neal completed four, six-month contracts in the diamond mining industry. Although the work was lucrative, it was not what he had been trained for in Los Angeles. Neal's skills were in inspection and non-destructive testing, of which the oil industry in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico had a need for.
Photos by Neal Petersen (copyright 1990, 2006)
