100 Years Ago: Captain Fluent Dives Deep

ALTON - On August 12, 1925, Capt. William D. Fluent, 71 years old, dove 22 feet to the bottom of the Mississippi River to retrieve a piece of boat machinery. The dive was witnessed by a reporter and several others who were on the docks at the time. “Most, if not all, young Alton men who consider themselves good swimmers and divers would not go so far under water as Capt. Fluent did…Very few men in the world, except for those who make their living from pearl diving, would venture to such depth as did this man who is so old in years and yet so young in mind and body,” stated an Alton Evening Telegraph article the next day.

Earlier in the week, Capt. Fluent had been on his way down the river when the engine in his boat failed. A mechanic, who was working on the engine, slipped on the dock while he was carrying a large flange wheel from the motor and dropped the wheel into a foot-wide gap between two sections of the dock.

Fluent joined a six-foot rod to a 16-foot pike pole and poked around on the river bottom until he thought he felt the wheel. He tried several times to pull it up, but could not retrieve the wheel with the pike pole or with a net. The gap between the docks was made larger by lengthening the chains that held the two sections together so that Fluent could dive down and try to get the wheel himself. Fluent put on his swimming suit, tied a rope around his body, and while one assistant held the rope and another held the pole in place marking the correct spot, Fluent climbed down the pole until he reached the bottom of the river. His first attempt failed, but on his second trip to the bottom, Fluent found the wheel and brought it to the surface. Fluent said that the pressure of the water on his head and eardrums at the bottom was tremendous. He was forced to stuff his ears with cotton for his second underwater attempt. Even then, he said the pressure gave him a headache for some time after he surfaced.

Capt. Fluent was no stranger to the water. He was the proprietor of the Alton Boat Service Co., worked as a packet captain and towboat pilot, saved hundreds of people from drowning, and recovered hundreds of drowned bodies during his lifetime. “A call to him for help never went unanswered, whatever the effort or inconvenience.” His gravestone at the Alton Cemetery states, “In his 53 yrs. on the river made 350 rescues and recovered 451 bodies from the water.” In August 1933, he died as he had lived, on the Mississippi River, in his houseboat, the Tiger, a boat he built himself.

Sources

“Capt. Fluent, Veteran of the River, Dies.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), August 21, 1933.

“Capt. William D. Fluent of Alton, Ill. Has Lived Most of His 76 Years on Riverboats.” St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, Missouri), January 4, 1931.

“Captain Fluent.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), August 21, 1933.

“River Veteran Dives 22 Feet to River Bottom.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), August 13, 1925.

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