Cannery Divers Memorial

Monterey, California

Deep sea diving can be fatal. Like Hollywood stunt people, even with safety measures in place, underwater jobs can go bad. Monterey Bay's Cannery Row lost two divers who toiled on its system of sardine pipes connecting to the town's 17 canneries in the 1930s and '40s. Tom Pierce was killed by a propeller that tangled with his line. Henry Porter drowned when his helmet unsealed while he was cutting a net free under a boat.

The two men and other brave Cannery Row divers are remembered with a small memorial sculpture placed in San Carlos Beach Park in 2008. Monterey artist Jesse Corsaut cast a bronze of an old Morse mark V diving helmet that sits on a pedestal. The plaque lists divers and tenders who performed the often dangerous work in the "Sardine Capital of the World."