Diving bell boat: Walking down to the Rhine's riverbed

The diving bell boat "Carl Straat" patrols the stretch between Alsace and the Netherlands. Captain Thomas Bach keeps the riverbed clean. His ship features a steel diving bell that can be lowered, using overpressure to displace the water at the bottom of the Rhine. He can then stay dry while working below the water; retrieving lost anchors, for example.
For the crew, it is a seven-meter descent via the shaft pipe to the bottom of the Rhine. There they have to work in very harsh conditions, from compressed air to extreme heat in summer and cold in winter.
Excerpt from the documentary series "The Rhine From Above". Click here to watch all episodes: bit.ly/RhineFro...
© 2014, Licensed by vidicom

[@resetpassword]

This thing is 50 years old and I had no idea of its existence. Incredible technology.

[@absmaali8314]

Makes you wonder how much technology the government is hiding

[@B-rads]

I'm 49 never heard of it,would lv to go down walk around

[@cv990a4]

I had no idea this kind of thing existed, but it makes sense. It's essentially a mobile caisson. A great book to read is David McCullough's "The Great Bridge" about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. The foundations for the Brooklyn Bridge towers were made in a similar way, with caissons sunk to the bottom of the East River, pumped out with compressed air and men within them directly digging out the bottom of the river. Many died of compression sickness, which was not understood at the time.

[@IHateYoutubeHandles615]

@@cv990a4I wonder if they have to decompress coming up from this?

[@judsonkr]

Is really no technology at all. Turn a glass upside down and sink it into the water.

[@verschepard]

The fact to put your feets on a piece of Earth where no one before was, must be amazing every time.

[@Laura-wg7mg]

Not necessarily, maps show that the romans settled there in 800 BC and between then and 1000 AD drained a lot of the peatlands. Its moved under human influence. Both the beginning and the tail.

[@imacryptid5254]

@@Laura-wg7mgLook everyone it’s A FUCKIN NEEERD!

[@stump182]

I do that in my backyard in Texas every day

[@oddities-whatnot]

@@Laura-wg7mgalways one. Any need ? You know what they were meaning but you couldn’t leave it at that. Wow. Its not a competition.

[@Pow3llMorgan]

The path of rivers aren't constant. Of course, well-managed waterways like present Rhine changes very little, but before large permanent settlements, the river went where it wanted.

[@ProToolsApproved]

This needs to be a tv show. This i'd watch

[@MojaveDan]

At least a KZbin channel documenting the stuff they find

[@livenfree]

Totally agree!

[@johnny1173]

Absolute

[@tinybootykia4411]

Same ❤

[@JohnCompton1]

Ditto here...underwater footage from within the diving bell would be a welcome addition to said show! 😂

[@johnwright291]

If someone had told me that such a craft existed I wouldn't have believed it.

[@okiedoke6373]

You ought to see how they weld pipe underwater a different type of diving bell but pretty much the same principle

[@TheBogdanator]

Right? there's a ship that lowers a tunnel in the water and pushes air in and the water is pushed out and you can go down the stairs in the tunnel at the bottom of the lake . Yeah right... sure...

[@HarryDonbs]

Innit

[@harryl9yearsago788]

John Wright- Washington

[@zgrif]

What’s impressive is that this isn’t a new process either. They’ve been doing this since the 70s

[@oddities-whatnot]

Thats why we like to watch KZbin, for genuinely interesting videos such as this. Fascinating.

[@ThomasBarone]

EXACTLY! 💯

[@robinwells8879]

I can see how that job would never get old! Remarkable how the pressure changes cause fogs to suddenly develop. This could easily be a whole documentary following them for a year. ❤

[@halberderdier8073]

This Thomas Bach is doing something useful - not like the other one....

[@craigd1275]

It would be more interesting than all the other reality show garbage on TV, and therefore not very popular. .

[@neilfoster814]

What a brilliant concept. I would have never believed the river bed would be so dry for walking on.

[@adityawalimbe4800]

Am i the only one imagining how this would be if @tomscott did one of his legendary single take about things we might not have know.

[@xploration1437]

Oh no, you don’t know do you?

[@enemyspotted2467]

I’m surprised he hasn’t actually, this boat is right up his alley. Too late now I suppose

[@adityawalimbe4800]

@@xploration1437 I'm just lamenting... hope he is enjoying the long overdue Vacation!

[@dukeshaver199]

Come back to us Tom!!!!

[@TheCatLady65]

He's a racist. Why would you support a racist?

[@1220b]

As a archaeologists this is a dream. Dam you could fill a museum with that tec.. Roman helmets, mp38s, Iron age coins the list is endless..

[@blackburd]

Mp3 players, old beer cans, lost keys, a ring...

[@davidchristensen2970]

They mentioned the abrasive effect of the tumbling rocks, it probably results in any ancient items being ground to dust.

[@MrButtonpresser]

Table and chairs, sandwiches and beer. A picnic on the bed of the Rhine! A tourism opportunity. 😊

[@TheNefastor]

Except for the part where it makes you tired very fast.

[@halberderdier8073]

If it was a glass bell, that would take off....

[@teeanahera8949]

@@halberderdier8073the Rhine has zero visibility so there would be nothing to see.

[@seanseoltoir]

@@teeanahera8949 -- Agreed... It would be like having a picnic in a round brown room...

[@MrButtonpresser]

@@TheNefastor Indeed, but so does having lunch up on top of Mt Titlis. 😀

[@ElementofKindness]

I never imagined that the diving bell would so effectively displace the water. I figured there would be at least knee high water to contend with.

[@speziell1575]

I think it has like a rubber seal and any of the water trapped inside the bell as it sets down simply flows away through the gravel

[@RobKaiser_SQuest]

Compressed air is pretty strong. I think if the bell weren't pressurized some water would force its way in until the atmosphere was compressed enough to resist it, so by making that pressure beforehand no water gets in.

[@shakilamodak8390]

Use a hollow bottle with a big open wide mouth. You will be able to demonstrate this ability. Trust me as long as you maintain pressure inside without moving the bottle too much the water won't get in not even an ounce. Not a drop. The moment you lose pressure it goes in.

[@OneEyedJack01]

Tell us you didn't do well in science class without telling us.

[@gaius_enceladus]

I'm a bit of a "rock-hound" so I'd be over the moon at having the chance to find interesting rocks on the bottom of the Rhine! Nice pieces of quartz and so on.

[@__tasp__]

Lived on the Rhine as a kid and had no idea this existed, so cool. What an interesting job to have!

[@rand49er]

The Rhine has had humans crossing it for thousands of years so it would be fascinating to find ancient objects like swords and such. Incredible boat!

[@la.woman.]

Never seen anything like this. Amazing piece of machinery, genius engineering!

[@craigsudman4556]

Wow I would have imagined the bottom to be mud. Great video thumbs up.

[@MrJimheeren]

Well the closer to the Netherlands you come the more mud will be on the bottom

[@freespirit1975]

That is fascinating-I've only seen it in rock strata and of course small shallow streams. In the study of Sedimentology (Geology) that part of the sediment in a stream is called the Traction Load, which bounces (through the process of "saltation"), and also rolls along the bottom along with the current. If the current is swift enough, smaller sized particles will remain in suspension as the Suspended Load until dropping out in slack water forming sand bars. Very fine (mud) particles are called the Wash Load and they don't settle out in the stream at all and will stay suspended until finally dropping out, well out into the sea.

[@doubleT84]

Fast flow = no mud. All the sediments are being carried by the water. Even the stones on the ground are rolling. Slow flow = sediments sink down and we get mud.

[@doubleT84]

The interesting part is: Where's bed rock? Where are the edges that collect the big nuggets?

[@Ollie2846]

A mudlarkers dream job. The history you find while salvaging has to be one of a kind.

[@hugoagogo4324]

And the treasures

[@seanseoltoir]

@@hugoagogo4324 -- Old corroded beer cans... Some of us can remember when beer cans were made from steel...

[@josephstolar-nz8vu]

Mel fisher should have bought a ship like this ,for the treasure coast of Florida, to recover the 1715 treasure fleet ,beyond impressive, simply incredible, wow genius.

[@norbertgabler8267]

Diving bell boat "Carl Straat" was retired Sep/2021 and replaced by its successor "ARCHIMEDES". You're welcome.

[@paulrandig]

I hope, the "ARCHIMEDES" has some kind of air condition for the air in the bell. We could use a ship like that on the Danube river.

[@rjs1138]

That's crazy, i never considered it would be possible to use a driving bell in this way...genius!

[@TechGorilla1987]

I would watch a full 8 hour shift of this boat quite frankly. Please make it so.

[@FrankBenlin]

A rare video that is exactly what I hoped it would be from the title.

[@gremo188]

Als direkter Rheinanwohner für mich ein absoluter Traumjob. Für andere vielleicht nicht nachvollziehbar aber immer wenn ich am Rhein bin frage ich mich was wohl gerade alles im Flussbett treibt. Selbst am Ufer finde ich immer wieder Dinge aus aller Welt. Faszinierend! Toller Beitrag Respekt an die SchiffsCrew❤

[@briansmith2616]

That is so interesting. I could watch this type of programming all the time. No garbage reality stuff, just things that educate you.

[@livenfree]

Wow! Do they have their own KZbin channel? I would love to watch every adventure. I bet they find such cool things. I want to know what they did with the bomb!

[@dad_jokes_4ever226]

Wow ! What an amazing machine ... Its so cool that you can go and have a walk around on a river bed !

[@tomservo5347]

So neat. My mother is a Rheinlander and I've walked in it's waters on shore. My GI Dad put a pontoon bridge across it on an exercise during the 60's. My mom said when she was a kid during the 40's/50's the Rhein was terribly dirty and polluted. She's amazed at how clean it is today versus her childhood. (Patton crossed the Rhein into her hometown when she was 2.)

[@milolouis]

This is one of the best jobs I could possibly imagine.

[@thomasdykstra100]

What a fabulous invention! What a unique occupation! Setting foot where no one has before...indeed!

[@teeanahera8949]

Not a new invention, diving bells with air pumped down were used in the 1800s.

[@Subguy686]

That is absolutely incredible. I would give almost anything to work on a boat like that.

[@bbarten]

Wow...that's incredible! Truly surreal.

[@dogdooish]

I guess these guys are the original "Rhine Stone Cowboys" ---- not my quote but I had to pass it on!

[@MojaveDan]

😅😂😂

[@Alex_qwertz]

wow.. i live near the rhine and never knew this existed. That's amazing 😊

[@gavinjohn]

Very clever Germany, awesome solution, well done.

[@shopdog831]

This is such a great design how have i not seen more of these around the world.

[@teeanahera8949]

It only works in relatively shallow water 7 m in this case so it’s not suitable for anything much deeper. The workers would need decompression if it were deeper and therefore much higher air pressure.

[@bonjovi1612]

Now at last a decent yt recommendation. Thanks amazing

[@wideyxyz2271]

That is such a cool piece of engineering. Imagine the artefacts they must find, too !

[@bertblue9683]

This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

[@tristanpatterson3843]

I want one so bad. I thought maybe they'd be sloshing around ankle deep but no, as dry as the shore line, incredible.

[@RonDAvilar]

This is like pure science fiction 😮

[@robertstorey7476]

This is amazing. Imagine going to work and walking on the river bed of the Rhine in ordinary clothes .

[@stevedoe1630]

I have worked with hard hat divers and saturation divers… but never even imagined such an operation as this. This is like a floating, mobile caisson. ¡Humans are awesome!

[@john1sang]

Extremely interesting. Thanks

[@-xirx-]

Ok, hands down. That is the coolest job i have ever heard of.

[@tonyfeuerhelm]

Thank you for posting. I can cross that off my bucket list without having to go down there.☑

[@atlanticcoastexpress]

A truly fascinating video! I’ve always been interested in the Rhine as an International Waterway and have travelled along several sections ….but I hadn’t heard about this special vessel! Are there others like it on the Rhine? Thanks for a truly informative programme. Rob in Bournemouth, England.

[@BartBe]

What amazes me is that the floor is so solid... not mucky or soft at all...

[@Seafariireland]

Spectacular technology, wonderful ability and truly amazing!

[@benrodir2]

probably the coolest thing I have ever seen.

[@paulstone9667]

Fantastic! I never knew that vessel existed.

[@ThomasBarone]

Absolutely fascinating!

[@yepiratesworkshop7997]

That is freaking amazing to see "dry" rocks at the bottom of the river like the Rhine. I'd be treasure hunting my @ss off if I owned that thing!

[@barryrahn5957]

I'm surprised at how undirtu the Rhein is here. I expected a mud bed down there, but you could almost have a picnic!

[@Herman6507]

Super interesting! Never too old to learn 😊

[@tflnorthamerica4585]

How incredible is this.

[@georgeharrison2795]

Amazing, never dreamed of such a boat

[@iansalgado9709]

I can’t believe they don’t use these for archeology.

[@onemoredeadman]

Wonder how old that plate he picked up was

[@doobybrother21]

it said Ikea on the bottom. Late Viking I guess. @@onemoredeadman

[@pieterveenders9793]

They use a somewhat similar thing for archeology, where they drive a huge steel tube vertically into the water and several meters into the river/lake/sea bed, then pump all the water out. A couple years back the Dutch Navy did it in the middle of the IJsselmeer, during WWII a British bomber had gone down there and they wanted to recover as much of it as possible and give the airmen a proper burial. It's pretty crazy seeing the pictures of that bomber laying there in the mud, it's engines and propellers still clearly recognisable.

[@Gecko....]

Probably not economically viable. This thing will cost thousands of euros per day to run.

[@patginni5229]

Imagine what you could find around the world with this kind of boat.

[@claudevieaul1465]

Sehr beeindruckend!! Hab nie gewusst das es so etwas gab... Und ich leb schon fast mein ganzes Leben nah am (Niederländischen) Rhein! 😎👍

[@johnpartridge7623]

Brilliant piece of Engineering.

[@McGeraet]

im german and even i didnt know there is a vessel like this.. that is actually mindblowing.. tbh i thought there would be at least a bit of water.. just wow :D

[@henriks5008]

This must be the perfect Discovery series; Recovery at the Rhine.

[@liveloud9894]

Amazing piece of engineering 👍

[@fuzzybutkus8970]

Gotta mess with your metabolism after year after year of that high pressure on heart and lungs.

[@BillW-NJ]

Sehr interresant! Very interesting,I would like to see more of their work!

[@paulbuckberry7683]

Very interesting, I wasn’t expecting a stoney bed!

[@TheBradbo1140]

That was an awesome video, thanks.

[@BasedBidoof]

What a cool craft. Would love to experience that

[@karenlamacraft362]

Great work lads

[@kurtdnelson9653]

So cool didn't know you could walk down to the bottom of the river

[@peteeborall5841]

I’d love to do this!!! Imagine the things they see and find.

[@johnmay6090]

Amazing video!

[@GickelsGaming]

this seems like it quite literally is the most dangerous job in the world

[@diedampfbrasse98]

the ship was 60+ years in service without a single life lost on the job ... very far from the most dangerous job. statisticly its the safest job so far, lets see how well the replacement will do.

[@teeanahera8949]

You are, quite literally, wrong. You also don’t know what the word ‘literally’ means. The divers at the bottom of an off shore oil well that got sucked through a 5cm hole would have disagreed with you too.

[@JK-wn3cc]

If you marketed this to the super-rich as an exclusive experience of having a lunch on the bottom of a river or shallow sea, I bet it would catch on

[@delboy1727]

It would have to be a very shallow sea, as spending enough time on the bottom to have lunch would require decompression stops on the way back up if it was too deep.

[@Andy-fd5fg]

Don't give then ideas..... you know they will just suck more money out of everyone else to do this

[@YuckFoutube-e1z]

@@delboy1727 Not unless they get wet! If the pressure is kept at around 15 psi they would be fine.

[@delboy1727]

They seal that bell by keeping the air pressure inside slightly higher than the pressure of the water outside. Therefore the deeper they go, the higher the pressure inside the bell needs to be to keep the water out. 15psi is the pressure at 1atm, i.e. at the surface. If the bell went down to 20m, the pressure inside would need to be at about 45psi, otherwise the water pressure outside would be enough to flood the bell. I believe that bell only goes to a maximum of 10m so the pressure inside will only be about 30psi to keep the water out, but even so their work time is not infinite, as even breathing air at that relatively low pressure will still lead to a build up of nitrogen in the blood stream.

[@namibjDerEchte]

​@@delboy1727 But decompressing with a high oxygen atmosphere works fairly fast for the pressures even from equilibrium: you can pretty much just give them 1 normal atmosphere of oxygen to let them breathe off the nitrogen, slowly dropping total pressure down to ambient, and give them a bit more of the high oxygen to deplete their nitrogen further. The oxygen bound to your red blood cells increases the maximum O2 partial pressure you can have without getting oxygen bubbles, so mild oxygen-only decompressing is actually totally safe.

[@AreHan1991]

Such cool tech, like things we dreamt about as children!

[@nofa987]

It almost feels like going to a different planet, I wish i could experience this!

[@blueocean2510]

It is a Ocean Planet, however the comments suggest, not everyone is aware.

[@Torqu3d]

That is such an amazing piece of technology.

[@RomoloGessi31]

I didn't know a pneumatic bell boat still existed. They were once widespread throughout the world. They were mainly used to do work in the ports. Once upon a time they went deeper than 10 meters but the men who worked there died of decompression sickness

[@akula9713]

Fascinating. Thank you!

[@josh_m]

This is so cool. I didn't even know it existed!

[@Piedrapartidad]

They should take that to the Nile River in Africa but by Egypt a lot of tresure out there

[@timallen6025]

Extra ordinary perspective on the river bed.

[@Moose2498]

Here from Facebook! 😃

[@maheshtima1]

This is science fiction kind of tech 😮

[@davebeat]

Incredible machine.

[@royksk]

Quite amazing. It would be good to see how they recover something larger than can fit in the bell. Presumably cables are attached whilst the bell is just above but how would they be passed under the object.

[@Graham_Langley]

I remember seeing this or something very similar in a TV programme here in the UK many years ago. I say similar because if I can trust my memory that boat split down the middle to drop the diving bell, converting itself to a catamaran.

[@bunnyshredderrl8689]

The writers of the next Final Destination movie must be salivating thinking about the possibilities here.

[@johnevans1969]

This is so badass! I love it

[@jmash7751]

Who knew? Fascinating!

[@rob6255-j4t]

Incredible, we learn something new every day. ! R

[@Tuberuser187]

Seems more of a mobile/self propelled cason than a "diving bell". Diving bells are pressurised, open staging platforms for diving while casons are pressurised chambers on the the bottom of bodies of water for work/construction without diving gear.

[@mxcollin95]

This is awesome!

[@LordQueezle]

This feels like something out of steam punk sci-fi. It blows my mind that it's a reality.

[@marcofurlan417]

An important question remains unanswered: did they find Das Rheingold? Is it true that cam be forged into a powerful ring?

[@Misophist]

The Rheingold remains elusive. But you can see it twinkling in the sunlight at the Lorelei.

[@SloopADoopy]

Incredible technology!

[@Wright1331]

wow this was really cool to see

[@amtrakharry]

That was very interesting. Thank for sharing this with us :):):)

[@k5elevencinc0]

Der Shiff ist absolut interessant! Ich hatte keine Ahnung dass it existed. Learn something new everyday. 💯💯

[@chuckcts-v3460]

Note to self, "Self, do not throw the murder weapon in the Rhine!"