By David Fleet
Editor
Rising about 50 feet from the surface of Lake Huron, Martin Reef Lighthouse marks a dangerous shoal east of the Straits of Mackinac.
For young Cheboygan native Bill Duman, the solitary Great Lake lighthouse about 4 miles from the Upper Peninsula shore holds rather unique memories from the summer of 1936.
Bill, along with his father Lawrence, a submarine diver in the Straits area, were leaving the eastern Upper Peninsula town of De Tour Village heading to Cheboygan when the engine failed on his 50-foot tug boat somewhere near Martin Reef.
‘The seas were very rough that day,? recalls Duman. ‘The wind was out of the northwest and the farther we went out from shore the higher the waves got. But dad was a hell of a sailor.?
In the hold of the ship Lawrence had kept a small canvas sail used to power his ice boats, often raced on frozen lakes near their home in Cheboygan.
‘Dad opened that sail up and fixed it to the boat, and we sailed near the lighthouse at Martin Reef,? said Duman. ‘He told me, ‘When the ship goes up in the waves get ready. I’m going to throw you over to the lighthouse keepers.?
In the teeth of a Lake Huron storm, Lawrence tossed his son over to the lighthouse keepers.
‘He sailed off toward Cheboygan and home. I stayed at Martin Reef with the keepers named Miller and Proctor. They were good to me, I ate all the candy they had in the place,? laughed Duman. ‘But I had to stay a week until the next shift of keepers sailed over to lighthouse. I was also kind of homesick.?
Duman later learned that the Coast Guard had assisted Lawrence in his safe return to Cheboygan.
While his experience on Martin Reef was rather traumatic, Duman continued to demonstrate an interest in maritime work.
His father Lawrence, as well as his great uncle, John Dodd, were submarine divers in the Straits area. According to accounts recorded in the book titled ‘Shipwrecks of the Straits of Mackinac,? Dodd began diving in the Straits area by 1882. Lawrence purchased Dodd’s hard-hat diving equipment at an estate sale in the early 1900s, according to documents mentioned in the book.
A third generation hard-hat diver, Bill Duman born in Cheboygan in 1924, had learned diving from working with his father. At 14, Duman was a capable diver, honing his skills in the Cheboygan River near his father tug boats.
As a teen Duman recalls exploring the bottom of the river using a shallow water diving helmet.
‘They had dredged the river the year before to about 21 feet of water,? said Duman. ‘I would arrange for my friends to crank the air compressor while another held the rope which was tied to me when I was diving. One time the water started rising in my helmet due to a bad air hose’the water got up to about my chin. Although it’s not recommended I had to take my helmet off and went to the surface. It seems like a long way up, I was scared and rather angered.?
Duman quit school in November 1941 and at the age of 17, joined the Navy. During WWII, he served as a machinist’s mate in the U.S. Navy while in the Battle of the Atlantic.
‘My father refused to sign off on me going to war, but my mom did (sign),? said Duman. ‘Dad had been in the service during WWI in the Army transport service. He really didn’t want me to go in the service.?
For a short time after the war Duman was employed as a fireman on the ferry boat Algomah II near his home in Cheboygan. In 1946, he took a full-time job at Pontiac Motors and moved to Ortonville with his wife Nathalie.
Although Duman lived downstate, his father would still arrange diving jobs and marine projects in the Straits area. The jobs ranged from replacing and repairing props on ships, to plugging leaks on waterways on hydroelectric plants to construction of lighthouses in Lake Huron. Many times the dive would include some rather precarious and dangerous obstacles.
‘My dad use to tell me, ‘When you’re in the suit you’re the boss, you just can’t listen to anyone else,?? he said.
While many area hard-hat divers would use gasoline-powered air compressors to pump air to the diver, Duman says his father opted for the older hand-cranked air compressor.
‘His fear, like other divers, was carbon monoxide poisoning from the gasoline engines’he had reasons to be leery of that danger.?
Duman recalled working on the construction of a new lighthouse in the St. Mary’s River about 1947. A long time Straights diver, Bill McCoy was apparently overcome by the toxic gas.
‘My father told me that after an autopsy on McCoy there was enough carbon monoxide in his body to kill five men.?
‘They called me in to finish the job in the St. Mary’s (river) for the lighthouse when they pulled Bill up,? said Duman. ‘He was trying to install a big tube in the river to mount the lighthouse on’Bill’s tools were still under the water when I got down there. I worked on the project for a day then quit. They wanted me to go over six hours during a day’that’s too much for a diver.?
Other challenging dives included the water chute at the Michigan Public Service Company hydroelectric plant on the Cheboygan River. The long chutes carried the water from the river past the propellers to produce power.
After climbing down a 20-foot steel ladder underwater, Duman would walk about 80 feet underwater through a flooded 10-by-10 foot chute.
‘It was pitch black in the cement chute filled with water. I’d have to fill leaks in the timbers along the sides with oakum.?
In the late 1950s Duman started using more modern scuba diving equipment’mothballing the hard-hat equipment used by his family for more than 80 years.
He continued to dive in several areas of the Straights including under Mackinac Bridge following its construction in 1957.
‘I found a lot of steel-working tools but nothing real great. I was looking for hydraulic tools,? he said. ‘There were several barrels of bolts and rivets in about 50 feet of water just off from Mackinaw City.?
Duman made his last dive in 1975 and retired in 1987 from the Lake Orion Assembly Plant. In 2005 Bill and Nathalie Duman celebrated 60 years of marriage.