Something made me think of this last night.
It is a gravestone portrait I spotted some years ago.

I thought it was an especially proud photo for a tombstone.

I should have known a dark story swam beneath.

De Gaetano’s Air Supply Cut Off at Bottom of the Harlem.

COMRADES DIVE TO RESCUE

Physician Works in Vain With Pulmotor After Victim Is Brought to Surface.

Entangled in the lines of his diving dress on the dark and oozy bottom of the Harlem River. Vincent de Gaetano, a diver, employed by the Merritt-Chapman Wrecking and Towing Company, lost his life yesterday evening while watchers on the surface, conscious of his plight because of his tugs on the “life line,” were trying to notify five fellow divers working nearby under the river.

The Merritt-Chapman Company had the divers at work laying a high-power submarine cable for the United Electric Light and Power Company of 130 East Fifteenth Street. The new cable was being placed in a reinforced concrete bed at the bottom of the Harlem at 134th Street, to connect Manhattan with the new plant of the United Electric Light and Power Company, at 134th Street and Park Avenue.

The divers had gone down for the last shift yesterday shortly before 5 o’clock. Above them were watchmen, each holding in one hand the “life line,” by which a diver makes signals to the surface, and in the other the air hose.

De Gaetano had been down about thirty minutes when Joseph Miceli of 2,414 Belmont Avenue, the Bronx, who on a barge in the middle of the river, held De Gaetano’s lines, felt a frantic tug. He quickly gave the order to have De Gaetano pulled to the surface, but the lines were caught.

To get word to the other divers, a row boat had to be sent to shore. In the meantime, Joseph Burroughs, the Superintendent, was notified, and an ambulance call was sent in. Arthur Mayfield and John Jackson, two of the other divers, were hauled to the surface and Burroughs told them that something had happened to De Gaetano and sent them down to his aid.

Mayfield and Jackson, when they reached the middle of the river, found De Gaetano lying in a heap with his feet and hands entangled in his life line and guide line, and the air hose shut off. His position indicated that he had made a desperate fight to free himself. Mayfield succeeded in opening De Gaetano’s headpiece far enough to see that his face was black from lack of air.

It took several minutes to get De Gaetano clear from the tangle of lines. To do this some of the lines had to be cut and to raise De Gaetano it was necessary to remove some of the weights from his body and feet.

By the time De Gaetano was pulled up to the surface, Dr. Shifrin of Lincoln Hospital was there and he made every effort possible to revive the diver. Several men from the Central Union Gas Company brought a pulmotor. They worked over De Gaetano for about forty-five minutes before the surgeon pronounced him dead.

De Gaetano was 27 years old and lived at 33 Crosby Street, the Bronx.

Published: August 30, 1921
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