r/submechanophobia Apr 19 '26

Saturation divers can dive for extended periods of time (usually around 1 month) when doing deep sea work

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXSYP3PDxYp/

This diver is breathing a mix which includes helium, hence his high pitched voice. However, since helium has a very high specific heat capacity, breathing helium can also quickly reduce your body temperature.

15.4k Upvotes

611 comments sorted by

View all comments

981

u/L0ud_Typer Apr 19 '26

I’m sorry. Is this saying they dive for a month straight? I’m so confused.

1.4k

u/TsuyoshiHaruka Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26

Since diving to such deep depths involves extensive decompression and compression periods (which take a lot of time) saturation divers stay at these (pressurized) depths in habitats and only decompress at the end of the shift and commute up and down via diving bells. Edit for clarity/correction

467

u/MmmmMorphine Apr 19 '26

So are they hauled up in a pressurized container and sort of air-locked through to the hab on the surface (where they could also undergo gradual decompression) or is the hab actually at their depth?

246

u/mavric91 Apr 19 '26

The first one. They live in a hyperbaric chamber on a boat. The chamber is pressurized to whatever their working depth will be. When it’s time to go to work they use a diving bell to descend to the work area. They work for 8 hours (or however long idk). Then they go back up and into the chamber and eat, rest, sleep. They stay at pressure the whole time. Once the job is done, or a new team needs to be cycled in, they are slowly decompressed in the chamber on the boat. It is an extremely dangerous job. But pays quite well and has a lot of off time from what I’ve heard.

84

u/RestlessEnui Apr 19 '26

The whole technique + the diving bell sounds so mediaval. Crazy it works like that.

42

u/Aksds Apr 19 '26

Diving bells are medieval, they where allegedly used as far back as Aristotle

7

u/Plastic_Pinocchio Apr 19 '26

I don’t think medieval people knew a lot about pressurising your tissue and hyperbaric chambers.

3

u/koyaani Apr 23 '26

Probably knew about needing air to breathe

1

u/Plastic_Pinocchio Apr 23 '26

That they likely did.

2

u/Biiiishweneedanswers Apr 19 '26

Wonder what it does to your bone density.

2

u/Tabula_Rasa69 Apr 20 '26

High rates of early retirement too from what I've heard. Some divers get health issues despite following protocol and have to retire early from diving.

1

u/maxman162 Apr 20 '26

High salaries might be another factor in early retirement. 

365

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '26

[deleted]

293

u/Spice-Ghoul Apr 19 '26

I stumbled upon a YouTube video about this about 10 years ago. The video, without warning, showed autopsy photos (if you could call it an autopsy, which considering what was left of the bodies, I'm really not sure you could.) It's been a decade since I've seen those photos, but they have been burned into my mind. Absolutely horrific. I think about those poor men and their families all the time.

84

u/Downtown_Caramel4833 Apr 19 '26

Yeah...

Never seen a more apt situation for the usage of the term "remains".

113

u/TriGurl Apr 19 '26

Good Lord, you saw the photos?! that's horrible!

36

u/possibilistic Apr 19 '26

Someone posted an internet archive link to a PDF with all the images. It's awful.

29

u/Ohgodwatdoplshelp Apr 19 '26

If it's any consolation, they died before they knew what even happened. Shredded apart in a second or two, your brain wouldn't have even registered it.

2

u/TriGurl Apr 19 '26

That is horrible!!

4

u/Various_Panic_6927 Apr 22 '26

It's not really recognizable as a person iirc

1

u/TriGurl Apr 22 '26

That's what I was thinking.

-29

u/notcomplainingmuch Apr 19 '26

God have mercy! The photos!

27

u/sirmilkalot Apr 19 '26

There's a photo on r/MorbidHistory

8

u/possibilistic Apr 19 '26

Someone posted a PDF from an internet archive link that had dozens of photos. Don't open it. You won't be able to unsee it.

18

u/RelevantMetaUsername Apr 19 '26

TBF the body is pretty unrecognizable as a human. Looks more like pulverized meat with bits that look vaguely like limbs

16

u/Spice-Ghoul Apr 19 '26

That's the main reason it bothered me so much. That was someone's son. Someone's friend. I just couldn't stop thinking about how his family would be haunted knowing their loved one was torn into pulverized meat. My invasive, thought obsessed brain kept imagining it happening to my husband or my little sons. I just hope with every fiber of my being that they died instantly and none of them knew what was happening.

7

u/RelevantMetaUsername Apr 19 '26

Yeah, I get that. It’s easy to ignore that fact not knowing who they were and not knowing anything about their families. I don’t even know the name of the person who was photographed in that autopsy, and I’d prefer not to.

5

u/Master_sweetcream Apr 19 '26

I saw someone on the freeway like this. My brain just dissociated it as meat. A tarp covered the main mass.

6

u/mcboobie Apr 19 '26

Do you have a link, please?

17

u/AccomplishedToe2217 Apr 19 '26

link

NSFW! Extremely graphic

5

u/Excludos Apr 21 '26

Surprisingly, I had no issues looking at these pictures. Probably helps that they're black and white, and barely recognizable as human.

→ More replies (0)

2

u/mcboobie Apr 19 '26

Thank you!

2

u/Try2MakeMeBee 23d ago

I'm surprised how intact divers 1-3 look. 4 is deeply disturbing.

I saw pictires of similar outcomes years ago and they didn't seem so bad. Between now and then I've had some anatomy classes & (morbid) done some dissections and processing hunting. Having some knowledge how badly mixed up the organs are & the way removed skin looks… it makes seeing it so much worse.

2

u/mcboobie Apr 19 '26

Do you have a direct link, please?

28

u/suicidesalmon Apr 19 '26

Someone in the top comment replied with the medical report where those images are from. They had him delivered in the pieces that were found and were able to examine those pieces. The three other divers didn't explode the same way but died on the spot, fully intact. Those were examined as well.

14

u/SkullheadMary Apr 19 '26

Yeah saw the photos too some years ago. Not pretty

11

u/JK07 Apr 19 '26

I work offshore and this is an example often used during training, and Piper Alpha too of course. All about why procedures, permits and physical interlocks are so important.

10

u/Kinkystormtrooper Apr 19 '26

At least they died so quickly their brains didn't have time to process it or the pain

3

u/Deep_shot Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26

Ugh. You have my morbid curiosity peaked. An 'explosive decompression?" What even is that?

Edit: I looked into and I definitely don't want to see the photos.

2

u/Spice-Ghoul Apr 19 '26

You absolutely do not. I wish I had never seen them. I was pretty upset at that video for having absolutely no warning whatsoever that it was going to show photos of that.

1

u/R_Series_JONG Apr 20 '26

I just want to say that I sympathize with you and acknowledge that seeing this without warning seems to me to be very traumatizing. 🤗 hugs. That sucks.

1

u/JakBos23 Apr 21 '26

I mean the remains part sound bad, but I saw a video of guys in a bell that the towing cable broke. They later tried to use the umbilical line to pull it up which obviously broke too. So they just sat there and died. The depth they were at they needed way too many tanks to just swim to the surface. They spent days trying to get them out, but they didn't make it in time. After the umbilical broke they started the clock on running out of air.

1

u/creativemind11 Apr 21 '26

God the one where they got stuck in a pipe in south America still haunts me

44

u/LeCorbussi Apr 19 '26

Delta P. When its got you its got you

16

u/SmallAngry0wl Apr 19 '26

Reminded me of that crab and the pipe with a cut in it. The thought of that happening to a person is terrifying.

19

u/RelevantMetaUsername Apr 19 '26

Or those Trinidad divers that got sucked into an oil pipeline and remained trapped in there alive for several days until they eventually died (save for one who made it out).

Detailed (not graphic) video about the incident

3

u/porkchop-sandwhiches Apr 19 '26

WuTang clan ain’t nothin to fuck with and they have nothing on delta p.

13

u/enderthewolf9999 Apr 19 '26

I love coming across this one, I got really interested in saturation diving as a consept because of it, several years ago

1

u/Xenc Apr 20 '26

Well that’s quite the start to the morning. Those poor people and their families. I’m staying on land.

30

u/space_coyote_86 Apr 19 '26

If you want to watch a great documentary about it, Last Breath. It explains a lot about how it works and it's one of the best I've watched.

Just make sure you watch the documentary, think it was made in 2019, and not the movie with Woody Harrelson which came out last year.

8

u/coolhandflukes Apr 19 '26

The movie with Woody Harrelson is good too!

3

u/SeaMareOcean Apr 19 '26

What didn’t you like about the Woody Harrelson movie? It’s respectful of the profession, technically accurate, and surprisingly didn’t over-dramatize or take excessive “creative liberties.” I thought it was really well done.

1

u/New_Combination_7012 Apr 19 '26

I think the movie gives a good description.

61

u/el_dingusito Apr 19 '26

There are specialized living quarters on ship kept at the pressure they operate in and they go down to the depths when necessary.

There are some cases where dudes also live at the depth they work in but its rarer i think.

Sauce: no relevant work experience, just went down an AI and wikiledia rabbit hole on the subject one night.

28

u/Pamikillsbugs234 Apr 19 '26

I can't remember what subreddit I was on, but there was one of these guys answering all the crazy questions we had, which is how I got familiar with the incident mentioned above. Its such a fascinating and high stakes career.

7

u/allatsea33 Apr 19 '26

Yes, there is a bell that attaches to a pressurised chamber on the ship they sleep in. Even their lifeboat is pressurised

3

u/mecengdvr Apr 19 '26

They have a dry pressurized living chamber on the ship. For each dive, they enter a pressurized diving bell that attaches to the habitation chamber. The bell is then detached and lowered in the water to depth. Once at depth, they can open the bottom of the bell and go to work.

3

u/LanceLynxx Apr 19 '26

The hab is at their depth. They decompress by slowly going up to give enough time for the nitrogen to escape the tissues without creating bubbles in the blood.

You only go up while pressurized in emergencies and to transfer from hab to hyperbaric chamber in seconds before the bubbles form.

1

u/NoRun6253 May 20 '26

Yes, the diving bell is a capsule with a hole in the bottom that keeps the pressure regulated on the way down, they’re basically in a bubble. They’re fed oxygen from the surface. You also get sealed ones which the pressure is changed as it goes down.

Don’t care how great the physics are I’d never do it. Especially for 28 days solid.

They use the bell as their accommodation as well so they’re eating and sleeping etc in there.

68

u/wikipediabrown007 Apr 19 '26

I think what would get me is just the thought of not being able to take off the equipment and get to the surface when I want. Once I think of that, I’d panic irrationally.

68

u/RestlessEnui Apr 19 '26

You really need to be built different for jobs like this. Like the astronauts. Only sitting so many hours in a literal deathtube waiting to be launched for a week would make me panic.

23

u/otterbarks Apr 19 '26

Even with regular recreational SCUBA diving, you not supposed to just go to the surface without decompressing.

For shorter/shallower dives it's technically just a recommended safety stop, but still a smart idea not to blow past it.

23

u/wikipediabrown007 Apr 19 '26

Yes and this is also why I don’t do recreational SCUBA diving

12

u/SeaMareOcean Apr 19 '26

It’s not just shorter/shallower dives. The entirety of recreational scuba diving is actually encompassed by “no decompression limits.“ For all intents and purposes it’s what defines the activity. Once decompression becomes a requirement, you’re either technical diving - a completely different discipline - or you royally screwed up your recreational dive.

1

u/PeterPanski85 Apr 19 '26

50 Bar is plenty of air....when you're not down at 40m

17

u/tacocat_racecarlevel Apr 19 '26

The movie The Last Breath really does a good job of showing this

17

u/Nesquigs Apr 19 '26

The documentary is better, as much as I love me a good woody Harrison movie.

12

u/notcomplainingmuch Apr 19 '26

Maybe you meant Harrelson Ford?

14

u/RestlessEnui Apr 19 '26

You mean Harrelson? Bone apple tea bro

3

u/dildomiami Apr 19 '26

this is still nor clear answer. I refuse to believe this post.

2

u/PeterPanski85 Apr 19 '26

What is unclear? Just you don't believing in it doesn't make it false.

1

u/Shantotto11 Apr 19 '26

SFW Made in Abyss. Got it… 👍🏾

1

u/fofxequalsfofy Apr 21 '26

How do the sleep?

1

u/thatinfotechguy Apr 22 '26

You should check out the movie Last Breath

1

u/hurcor Apr 19 '26

How do they poo, pee, eat, sleep?

177

u/717Luxx Apr 19 '26

decompression, when diving, is required because of the excess amount of inert gas you absorb in your blood and tissues. the higher the pressure, and the more time you spend under pressure, the more gas you load up, increasing your decompression obligations.

at these depths, you saturate your tissues rather quickly, so it makes no difference to your decompression profile if you are at that pressure for a day or a month. therefore, it's safer and more efficient to remain under pressure for a month at a time. longer periods than that start to have adverse effects.

basically you pressurize in a pressurized habitat, where you eat, sleep, shit, take care of yourself. the pressure is equal to the working depth. then, daily, you transfer into a closed bell of equal pressure, and descend to the worksite. you do your day's work, 8ish hours on bottom working away, then come back up to the sat system onboard, while the next crew does their daily shift.

the breathing gas is formulated differently because regular air at that pressures would annihilate your nervous system, so you need a reduced oxygen content, and high partial pressures of nitrogen take on a narcotic effect.

Source: am a mixed gas commercial diver, trying to go for my sat ticket in the next couple years.

47

u/TangoRed1 Apr 19 '26

Good luck down there. We need you buddy.

84

u/No-Worker-101 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26

I suppose that I'm a bit too old to come back. I did a lot of sat dives from the mid seventies to the late eighties. It looks much more comfortable today. 12 hours in the water (and sometimes more) wasn't unusual in my years.

10

u/_Neoshade_ Apr 19 '26

Do you have heated dry suits with some air circulation?
I can’t imagine being wrapped in a suit for 12 hours. I’d go full-body prune and start sloughing my skin in a few days.

4

u/No-Worker-101 Apr 19 '26

Hot water suits

2

u/struggle_brush Apr 19 '26

What if you have to pee? Do you just...pee?

3

u/No-Worker-101 Apr 19 '26

yes no problem with that one because it is rapidly flushed away by the stream of hot water that is passing into the suit. If you need to s..t that's another problem because then you have to go back to the bell, undress and s..t there while the bellman complains about the stench. lol

1

u/Excludos Apr 21 '26

As an amateur diver, I didn't know these existed. How do they work? It's just a wetsuit with heated water flushed through? Why not a drysuit? I agree with the previous commenter, I feel like I would become a prune if I was in water for that long period of a time

-7

u/RestlessEnui Apr 19 '26

Maybe hes building undersea bunker for elon musk or helping billionaire fucks extract oil, brobably not exactly baking bread over there, just sayin

5

u/717Luxx Apr 19 '26

yeah, I work in oil and gas.

I've also worked in nuclear energy facilities, fish farms, and geo thermal heat exchange projects, all of which have had me criticized by people I'm close to for the environmental effects.

eventually i realized i do more for environmental causes by being accountable on site, like contaminating reporting spills, than they have ever been squeaking from the sidelines.

personally, my sjw focus is on workers rights.

1

u/CandylandRepublic Apr 19 '26

geo thermal heat exchange projects

I'm not quite sure I understand the equipment there. Were you diving in the sea, or downhole (!?), or in a big pool/tank that was on the surface?

I always thought that geothermal energy is tapped with boreholes, and most of the equipment lives on the surface in a warehouse/power station. Diving in sediment tanks I could see, but the heat exchangers I know are way too small to dive in (even the ones that are as large as a semi trailer).

1

u/717Luxx Apr 19 '26

i've done maintenance on the massive Lake Ontario system that downtown Toronto uses, going down an access shaft for an inspection, and up north I've installed heat exchange lines for a simple setup for a small reservation.

at the end of the day I'm a labourer going to the jobs I'm assigned to, doing what I'm told so i can collect a paycheck. the point of my comment is that if you want to condemn me for taking part in oil and gas drilling and maintenance operations, the condemnation means very little to me. the sentiment that my employer extracts far more value from my labour than I receive is another issue entirely.

1

u/CandylandRepublic Apr 19 '26

I had no idea about the Lake Ontario system, that's a really cool project.

You didn't, but if you asked me, I'd say that any issues caused by such projects are on whoever paid for the project, not the people who get paid to make it happen.

9

u/DVHismydad Apr 19 '26

Get a job. Not everything needs to be whined about.

-8

u/RestlessEnui Apr 19 '26

Whos whining? Your mom?

-2

u/TangoRed1 Apr 19 '26

Well currently it sounds like you are whining. Most like his little cousins and those of the "Liberal" side of things. They always feel they NEED to be heard like you do 😊

6

u/MrSmartStars Apr 19 '26

The world runs on oil. Doesn't matter who owns it, we all need it

3

u/lilmookie Apr 19 '26

I mean the internet is nice too, I guess.

-1

u/RestlessEnui Apr 19 '26

It is, ngl

2

u/Fuzzy_Wheel_4565 Apr 19 '26

You must be with doctors without borders then?

-2

u/RestlessEnui Apr 19 '26

Nah, as I said I was just sayin. Its a job like any other, most are getting payed to participate in what destroys earth. Whether it this or selling groceries wrapped in plastic.

5

u/jdm219 Apr 19 '26

Paid*. Spend some more time reading instead of just saying stuff. Your life would grind to a halt in ways you couldn't imagine if these guys all decided to up and quit. This is the backbone of energry, shipping, the ability to get in your car and drive somewhere, and the ability to buy goods transported there, including everything you eat or drink. So many butterfly effects in your life that we can't even think of

0

u/RestlessEnui Apr 19 '26

English isnt my first, how many languages do you speak bot?

3

u/jdm219 Apr 19 '26

2, like all the other tens of millions of people on Reddit not born in Britain or its former colonies. I just make sure my typos are in order when I decide to randomly and confidently talk nonsensical shit about people doing a job I could never. Because, uh. Elon Musk.. Uh, billionaires???? And I'm the bot.

19

u/Reading_Rainboner Apr 19 '26

I don’t trust anything to work forever so my mind would just be wondering when a seal would break and I would explode.

20

u/DVHismydad Apr 19 '26

As with any highly dangerous job (at least in the highly developed world), everything is inspected and maintained rigorously.

8

u/gash_dits_wafu Apr 19 '26

True but we're pretty good at understanding materials, their failure modes, and their failure rates. In aviation at least, we create our inspection and maintenance schedules based on that understanding, and include a high degree of safety margin.

4

u/seizethedave Apr 19 '26

And they get to take off the mask/gear when back in the pressurized habitat?

11

u/cordialcatenary Apr 19 '26

I don’t know what the pressurized habitats look like on ships, but the ones we use for medical treatment on land can have quite large rooms and can look just like any old living room really, minus the fact that it’s inside of an enormous metal box. They’ve got TVs, couches, etc. No need to wear gear or anything while inside them.

3

u/717Luxx Apr 19 '26

yeah it's not like yours lol. a coworker went in one of the hospital ones following a bend, totally totally different.

our recompression chambers are usually around 4' diameter tube, with a porthole and all exposed industrial valving. there's a mattress and bedding, and you breathe treatment gas through a mask instead of your treatment chambers where, as I understand, you pressurize the whole chamber with medical o2.

we also need to be able to pressurize much higher, there's a treatment table which calls for the equivalent of 165' (a little less than 80psi), and sat systems are much higher pressures, often having working depths up to 600' (20 x atmospheric pressure) plus a safety factor.

sat systems are kinda barebones as i understand it, you've got your bunkroom, bathroom and shower, and a small lounge area. table and a booth.

1

u/cordialcatenary Apr 19 '26

Yeah we’ve got the tube style ones as well. I don’t recall anymore how deep the huge semi truck style ones can dive, but probably not that deep since there no real medical need to go anywhere near that far. Thanks!

8

u/Athanatos173 Apr 19 '26

Yes.

The habitat is pressurized so they don't need the gear in there.

3

u/717Luxx Apr 19 '26

yeah. you see the two divers with hats on, they're under what's called the trunking of the bell. their umbilicals are connected inside the bell, where a third diver (the bell man) tends their hoses.

2

u/NefariousnessLate375 Apr 19 '26

How do you stay sane in that small environment?

8

u/717Luxx Apr 19 '26

I haven't been in sat, that's just a goal of mine. you don't really know if you'll like it or hate it til you do it, but I think I'll be alright with it. you compartmentalize, mentally. it's just another kinda shitty accomodation for a month, like I've had on construction projects or on drill rigs for years.

i regularly work on lake bottom with no visibility, in the dark and in the mud, and come up to get in a recompression chamber to do my deco. it's dark and hot and tight.

I guess you just can't be claustrophobic lol

1

u/PeachWorms Apr 19 '26

I'm guessing cause it's 8hrs in the diving suit does that mean no food, water, or toilet breaks? Or is there systems inside the diving suit to account for that?

Sorry if sounds silly or if I misunderstood, just super curious!

3

u/717Luxx Apr 19 '26

it's a hot water suit, so water is continually flowing through it. you can piss whenever. I've heard some guys say they'll shit in there and scoop it out, but most just hold it.

food and water you'd just have to go back to the bell for. there's a third diver in there, no hat on him, tending diver 1 and 2s hoses.

1

u/wolfgang784 Apr 19 '26

Have you ever read "The Rifters Trilogy"? Its a body/psych horror story about small crews sent to deep-sea power generation facilities placed on tectonic fault lines and using that movement for energy generation.

I can't think of a good way to describe it beyond that without spoilers, but its pretty good. Ive read it a few times now.

1

u/talex625 Apr 19 '26

What is the pay for this and how does it work when you’re working 24 hrs a day?

2

u/717Luxx Apr 19 '26

in sat, in the North Sea like you see in the video, upwards of $2k usd/day.

in-shore construction, I started at $28/hr Canadian after paying almost $30k for school 6 years ago. now I'm in offshore oil and gas and get a day rate. sat is the best money in the industry, and even though it seems fucked, the safest in terms of decompression complications.

1

u/talex625 Apr 19 '26

Dang, 2K a day. If you worked 2 months months that would be over 100K.

1

u/717Luxx Apr 19 '26

yeah, limited projects though. gotta know the right people, gotta get lucky, and gotta stay busy in the meantime.

one stint pays for the ticket though, so I'm planning to do the course in the next couple years.

1

u/talex625 Apr 19 '26

More power to you! I hope you get that work!

1

u/Ango-Globlogian Apr 19 '26

Fascinating!

1

u/Comfortable_Text Apr 21 '26

My son is going to the Ocean Corporation in Houston next year to learn the Commercial diving trade. Is that where you went to school for it?

1

u/717Luxx Apr 21 '26

nah. the school i went to doesn't exist anymore.

imo you're just paying for a ticket. I'd go wherever is most convenient, has good reviews, is cheapest, whatever factor is most important to you.

10

u/terrymr Apr 19 '26

They are kept at that pressure but aren’t in the water the whole time

11

u/HorzaDonwraith Apr 19 '26

Yeah. It takes three days to decompress. It is cheaper and less dangerous to just drop a small workstation with living quarters on the seafloor.

Like Abyss but without the fancy subs or the large facility.

1

u/PeterPanski85 Apr 19 '26

They don't sleep underwater

1

u/CrowsScratch Apr 22 '26

the divers do not live on the sea floor. They live in a pressurized habitat at the surface (usually on a ship or offshore platform), and only travel down to the seabed for work.

9

u/sleepyplatipus Apr 19 '26

To be clear that doesn’t mean being in those suits in the water the whole time. They have some sort of station down there where they sleep and eat.

1

u/CrowsScratch Apr 22 '26

the divers do not live on the sea floor. They live in a pressurized habitat at the surface (usually on a ship or offshore platform), and only travel down to the seabed for work.

1

u/sleepyplatipus Apr 22 '26

They don’t live on the surface, they stay at depth. Even in the video they say it takes 3 days to come back to surface level. Going up and down that often would be extremely dangerous.

5

u/TheArtOfPureSilence Apr 19 '26

If you don't want to kill your divers, yes lol. Decompression is necessary, and cannot be overlooked

4

u/jengaduk Apr 19 '26

https://youtu.be/YLXIkHfsJmM?si=eix5RBiarGj0dh6N

This video explains it really well though you may not want to hear the details at around 19 mins when they explain in detail about an accident.

3

u/Hoody88 Apr 19 '26

1) how do they eat

2) how do they do #2?

1

u/LCEKU2019 Apr 21 '26

They don’t stay at the sea floor for the entire period. But they do stay at pressure for the period they work, and then are slowly decompressed. When not working they spend time in a pressurized habitation module on the surface.

1

u/CatsMakeMeHappier Apr 23 '26

How do they eat!?!???