Belfry Bulletin BRISTOL EXPLORATION CLUB Vol. 3 No. 22
April 1949
Fatal Accident at Wookey Hole. It is with the deepest regret that we have to report the death of Frogman Gordon Marriot during operations with the Cave Diving Group at Wookey Hole. Although not a member of the Bristol Exploration Club, he will be greatly missed by those members who comprise the Somerset Section of the C.D.G., and also those others who met him at the Belfry and listened to his tales of adventure underwater. It was Marriot's second trip to Wookey Hole, and his underwater time of 506 hours put the C.D.G. members to shame. He was returning from the recently discovered 9th Chamber when he was missed; Bob Davies who was following him to base immediately returned in search of him, although his own Oxygen was almost exhausted, and was immediately followed by Don Coase. Graham Balcombe followed shortly afterwards and Marriot was found lying on the bottom. He was taken to an emergency platform in the sixth Chamber and artificial respiration was applied for 1½ hours without avail. Marriot lost his life because his supplies of oxygen, due to a faulty low meter become exhausted. The equipment he used was his own property and not the property of the C.D.G. At the inquest held in Wells the jury returned a verdict that death was due to anoxaemia, accidentally sustained during diving operations when his oxygen became exhausted due to a fault in the test pressure gauge, and added a rider that all divers, including guest divers, should be subjected to the same equipment tests as members of the Diving Group’. The party was complimented by the police at the time and at the inquest in the way operations were conducted for the rescue of the lost diver. The Bristol Exploration Club extends its deepest sympathy to Marriot’s wife and family in their bereavement. ***************************** THE BELFRY. Work is going on apace at the new Belfry. Although there seems to have been little actual work done a considerable amount of planning and organising has been done with the result that, we hope to have made the hut really habitable in few more weeks. ***************************** Some French Caving Techniques by Pongo Wallis. I have recently been reading a French Caving Book –‘Underground Climbs’ by Pierre Chevalier, being an account of the exploration of the world’s deepest cave (2,458 ft.) – the Deau du Crolles system near Grenoble. It occurs to me that the majority of the technique worked out by Chevalier and his friends are not of great use to us in this country, they may none the less be of interest. Lightweight ladders consisting of steel rope sidelines and light alloy rungs were of course used. This is standard French practice, but it is essential under these conditions in any case, as fairly small parties would not otherwise have been able to carry the considerable lengths of ladder needed. In general, ladders were tethered to pitons hammered into suitable cracks, or grouted into holes drilled in the rock. This of course saves carrying tethering ropes considerable distances through small passages. A considerable part of the system had to be climbed from the bottom upwards. As rock-climbing was impossible, a 50ft. long pole was constructed, originally using 3ft. sections of iron piping, but latter using light alloy. This could be carried to the bottom of a pitch, erected, a ladder tied to the top, and propped against the vertical. As long as a series of suitably large ledges at not more than 50ft. intervals were available, a sort of staircase could be worked by one man climbing up the ladder then drawing the pole up after him and repeating the operation. This was naturally a slow and tedious business, but it did make otherwise impossible climbs possible. Once a pitch had been climbed in this manner, a piton and pulley were fixed at the top. A rope (generally steel) was then passed through the pulley and left double down the length of the pot. On subsequent visits a ladder need only be fixed to one end of the rope; by hauling on the other end and the pitch was laddered.