While this was going on the standby diver, who is always dressed ready for such an emergency, was put into the water and sent down to see what he could do about attaching this all-important wire cable to the top of the bell. Clayton, the second diver, got onto the bell but also had the same problem of his lines tangling with the other lines. But he got clear very quickly and worked as madly as he could in an attempt to shackle the new wire onto the bell. But it was no use! He simply couldn't manage it. Before long we heard him mumbling and rambling in his talk and muttering, "If I only had some more light. Light. I need some light." With a despairing look around to the rest of the group Momsen had to say, "It's hopeless at this time of the night. We'll have to bring him up." But this time the situation was not so simple because by then Duncan had been whipped up into the pressure chamber and since there was only one chamber, there was nothing left to do but to decompress Clayton on the stage all the way to the surface. This was particularly trying for him because in that 35 degree water with the fatigue he already experienced, he had a difficult time even holding onto the stage. He tried exercising to get warm but it didn't help much. Momsen told him, "We'll get you up to the surface as quickly as we can, but we can't do a surface decompression on you because Duncan is already in the chamber.” Clayton replied, "Aye, aye, Sir. That's all right. I'm in good shape.” That group of divers were really men!
Now, what was to be done? Two divers had been unable to connect a new wire. We couldn't wait until daylight; this was too much of a chance to take; a storm might come up; anything might happen. The men could not be left down there that long. Already they had been in the bell for hours. We would have to take the chance of slowly blowing the ballast tanks and trying to get the buoyancy as near as possible just barely on the negative side and then try to haul them up with the frayed retrieving wire. Obviously, this couldn't be done by putting the wire around the capstan and doing it with machine power; we would more than likely break the remaining strands and then we would be in trouble. A hurried conference yielded the decision to try blowing the air little by little and to lift the bell by hand. It was calculated that six men would be able to exert enough pressure to lift the bell if it were barely negatively buoyant.
McDonald and Mihalowski, thoroughly understanding the plight they were in, still kept up a chatter about how glad they were that they had plenty of light and air, and how everything was going to be all right because the people topside have figured out how to do it. They knew what the order meant when McCann telephoned them "Blow main ballast for 30 seconds. I will give you the time on it." With firm but nervously moist hands, they turned on the air pressure as McCann called, "Mark" and turned it off as he called "Mark" for the second time.