Old Diver Called Witchdoctor

Scar

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Back in 1970 and 1971 I worked for Jay Ray McDermott in the Gulf of Mexico. I worked on a jet barge (Jet 2) burying pipelines. There were a good many divers on the barge. Many of the divers were pretty interesting folks. Some would talk about a diver named Tex, most called him "Witchdoctor". They said that at the age of 70, he was the oldest working deep water diver in the Gulf, that they knew of. Everyone said that he was a vegetarian, and they thought that to be the reason for his long career. Witchdoctor was known to sell a concoction that would make a headache go away. It was something he invented, thus the name "Witchdoctor". All that used it said that all you needed to do was take a little cotton ball out of a small glass bottle and rub it across your forehead and the headache would go way within minutes. One of the engineers, Woody, on Jet 2 told me that Witchdoctor could hypnotize people. Woody said that Witchdoctor liked to hypnotize him and he had brought him back through 3 previous lifetimes. He said that in his next to last life that he was a cabin boy on a sailing ship that went down in a storm in the Gulf of Mexico. He said that in his last life he was a soldier in the Civil War that was killed in battle.
The job of Jet 2 was to jet the pipeline down into the sea floor to whatever depth the job required. Most of the time putting the pipe down 6 to 8 feet, if I remember correctly. One of the divers jobs was to walk the ditch we were cutting and make sure the pipe is falling in the hole correctly.
One would only have to imagine what a diver may find walking that ditch.
I am doing some research on a deep water diver that was looking for something on land that I am familiar with. This diver was eccentric and only ate vegetables. He was said to have been bitten by a water moccasin, took something out of his bag and smeared it over the wound, then pulled off all his clothes and swam out into a nearby lake and just floated for about 2 hours, then came out of the lake like nothing ever happened. I am not a treasure hunter, I am a story teller and there is much more to this story. The area the diver was searching many years ago contains a cemetery where civil war soldiers are buried. The cemetery is located close to a small town that bears the same name of where Woody said his civil war life was buried. There is an old man that lives not far from this cemetery that has the same name as Woody's Confederate Soldier. I haven't had time to go to the cemetery to search for the grave. The diver came to this area when he had time off and came for many years. One year he just stopped showing up at the folks house where he always stayed. This story all happened many years before Woody's hypnotism.
I can see where someone searching for something for years and not finding it, could turn them to look for another way to find what they are looking for.

What do you Treasure Netters think?
 

lookindown

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I think the guys that told you these tales were smoking some good stuff. :icon_pirat: :laughing7: :icon_pirat:
 

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Scar

Scar

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Woody didn't even drink and freaked out when he found out that our car-pool driver took LSD before we left Venice, LA, we got out of Plaquemines Parish without getting arrested.
 

mad4wrecks

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???

I think this posting should be under "general discussion" or "treasure legends," but not here.
 

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Scar

Scar

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I think this discussion should stay where it is. This discussion may start in the Gulf of Mexico.
 

Nov 8, 2004
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good morning scar: it sounds as if he used a natural form of dmso, or possibly hyper suggestion on the headaches, especially since he was adept at hypnotism..

Divers should investigate it's possible benefits for diving. It, or it's variation, could be very useful.

Don Jose de La Mancha
 

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Scar

Scar

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Mad4wrecks, I am trying to get information on a deep water diver. I think this diver found something in the Gulf of Mexico that led him to search for something inland. The area he was searching inland took in parts of El Camino Reale within no mans land in Louisiana.
 

CanadianTrout

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This is the most cryptic thread in "Shipwrecks" I've ever read. Not sure where this is going but will be back for an update as the saga continues tomorrow. 8)
 

fladiverdown

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Okay Scar. Let's say your post belongs here - with all due respect what the heck is "No man's land in Louisiana"? Lot's of swampy Cajun turf to be sure. Just wonderin? :icon_scratch: :dontknow:As long as you've got an intriguing story line going please flesh it out a bit more for us.
HH
 

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Scar

Scar

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Fladiverdown, "No Mans Land" is an area of the Louisiana Purchase that was involved in a dispute between Spain and the USA. Spain claimed the area and so did the US. The dispute lasted for about 30 years. During this time there was no lawmen in the area. El Camino Reale (The Kings Highway) ran through parts of No Mans Land. Parts of this trail was used as a main road from places West to New Orleans. It is my understanding that a lot of gold was transported on this route. My area of interest is like no other place in Louisiana. You do have swamp but you also have large hills with sandstone outcrops and caves.

Canadian Trout, I have kept this story a bit tame for fear of being booted from the Shipwrecks posting to the loony ben. I do have some research that is pointing me in a certain direction. One of the documented names I have is for a deep sea diver out of Beaumont, Texas, his name was Doc Harris, this would have been, I think, in the 1940's.

Don Jose I think we need to look outside the box on this one. Everything ain't always politically correct.
 

RELICDUDE07

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There is an old man that lives not far from this cemetery that has the same name as Woody's Confederate Soldier..Whats the name?
 

fladiverdown

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Thanks Scar. Sounds like an intriguing hunt. I have done a brief study on El Camino Reale and it is definitely one historical path most likely strewn with misplaced, lost treasure.

HH

PS Don't worry to much about the politically correct stuff.
 

bronzecannons

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Scar,
Interesting story. I'm interested to know what kind of diving gear those guys were using to 'walk the pipe' with? Was it the old hard hat gear or can you remember what the divers were using those days in the early 70's?
Thanks,
TW
 

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Scar

Scar

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They used modern looking helmets. I guess they were made out of fiberglass or some sort of plastic. They were wired and were able to communicate with the dive tender on the surface. If I remember correctly they were paid $75 per day plus $1.00 per foot for anything over 100 feet. That seemed like a hell of a lot of money to me back then. I was 21 years old and wanted to be a diver. Most of the companies wanted you to have diving school for you to become a tender. I did find one company, Santa Fe Marine, that their head diver, that did the hiring and firing, told me that he wanted to train new divers himself. He liked me and told me that he would give me a try. He then said that he needed to know one thing and for me to be truthful with him about it. He asked if I had ever had a broken bone in my body and I told him that I had broken my right leg when I was in the fifth grade. He thanked me for being truthful, then told me that he couldn't hire me because I would be more likely to get the bends. He told he that nitrogen could built up around the area of the break. He thanked me again and said that he would have found the old broken bone because he would have sent me for a full body xray and physical examine that cost $900.
 

bronzecannons

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OK. Sounds like they were using the Superlite 17's then. Well its good that you were honest to that guy. You saved both of you some money and time.

When I graduated commercial diving school in 1980 I never wanted to go and work in the Gulf of Mexico for exactly what you had written in your first post. When any new diver wanted to go work in the GOM they had to always work as 'dive tenders' for the first several months or so before you could get your feet wet. Basically, the dive tenders just tend the diver's hose, dress them in, get them coffee and wait on them 'hand and foot'. Screw that crap. I wanted to get wet right away and that's why many of us went straight overseas to work (usually Singapore was our base that time). When they hire you you're hired as a 'diver', not as a 'dive tender'. My first job was 'oil rig support' on a rig out in the ARCO Field in Indonesia and I dove on the second day out on the job and never looked back.
TW
 

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Scar

Scar

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For the year or so that I worked out there I never once saw the tenders get into the water.
 

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