Expert diving skills came in handy to preserve the memories of one man’s family.
Last week one of the operators of the Bleriot Ferry lost his phone in the river. It contained images of his mother and father who had passed away. Word quickly spread looking for someone who might be able to retrieve it.
Word spread and Former Drumheller Staff Sergeant Art Hopkins heard from his wife Bonnie about the operator’s plea. The operator had attempted to find the phone using a magnet. Hopkins felt he might be able to help as he is trained in underwater recovery.
“When he lost it his wife put on social media that his phone was lost and they found someone who believes they could extract the information off the phone and were looking for someone who could look for this phone,” he said.
Hopkins started with the RCMP in 1981 and joined the team in 1983, and served for about 25 years. He was in charge of the Saskatchewan Underwater Recovery Team and a senior instructor on the underwater training national recovery team.
“I was very active with the underwater recovery program when I came to this province I had to give it up because the police don’t maintain that program in this province,” said Hopkins.
“I met with the guy to get all the associated details to see if was a doable dive, and it was. “I pulled out all of my equipment to see if it was up to snuff and it was,” said Hopkins.
Hopkins headed out last week one evening after the ferry was closed, and determined that he would have to use his diving gear rather than a snorkel.
“The current is very strong there, I was quite amazed. Most rivers, as you get to the bottom the current virtually stops, but this had current from to bottom,” said Hopkins.
Hopkins explained he did a pendulum line search. This is where a diver is let out into the water with a line, and they search on a pendulum swing of line, pulling the rope in by increments each time the diver completes a search.
“When we got close to the Bleriot Ferry, that’s where the phone was. I would fair to say it went 3- feet downstream from where it went in,” said Hopkins.
Overall he said the search was simple and took about 15 minutes.
