Story Notes: The Trek to Ice Cream Rock · 7:19pm Apr 26th, 2015
Pre-read over a month ago by metallusionismagic, AShadowOfCygnus, and MSPiper, who probably think I forgot about this story.
The first rule about writing a blog post is not to repeat what you said in a previous blog post. Therefore, I'm just going to give you a link to the last blog post about Sea Swirl diving.
seaswirl the sea explorer tumblr
At one point, I thought that would be the whole extent of the blog post—luckily for you, my dear readers, I have more wisdom to impart.
EDIT: not the least of which is that MSPiper suggested the title. If it wasn't for his suggestion, this thing might still be called Untitled Sea Swirl Fic.
In standard diving dress (hard hat suits), you did get in through the neck-hole. That probably made it very difficult for a diver to get dressed on his own . . . but it probably didn't matter. After all, they weren't designed for a recreational diver who wants to go out by himself for a few hours. Granted, I'm sure there were people who did—people who had some manner of gasoline-driven air pump, and who stayed close to shore or hoped that the boat didn't drift off while they were below—but that would be the exception rather than the rule.
Once more modern suits were developed, they were still difficult to get into: while I have no personal experience, I can imagine that putting on a skin-tight rubber suit isn't a fun task. A lot of divers stole their wife's pantyhose, and wore them underneath their suits. I'd imagine the first guy on a crew to do it got lots of laughs and jeers, until everyone else saw how easily he slipped into and out of the suit.
I took a bit of liberty with the wagon in ice service. I'd imagine that stone boats or sledges were more commonly used in ice service. 
source
You wouldn't have to lift the ice as far, and it would be more practical on snow and ice than a wheeled wagon. My old art professor went on about things being visually interesting, though, and a submerged wagon is more appealing than a sledge.
it's not a wagon, but the point's the same. If you want to see it for yourself, go here.
Incidentally, one of the lakes near where I live is said to have not only a wagon, but a team of horses at the bottom. As the story goes, the water is so cold, they're perfectly preserved.
I doubt that's true . . . but it was a great story to tell a kid.
In case you were wondering, in the days before commercial refrigeration, people carved chunks of ice off lakes in the wintertime, and used them throughout the year to keep things cold. It's why iceboxes are called that—they literally were a box with a compartment for ice. If you'd like to know more about the ice trade, here's a link to the Wikipedia article.
Tail extensions for horses are a real thing.
You can order them here!
They're also canon, and we know that Fluttershy wears them. The Foal Free Press said so.
lol that old car is really small. Can you imagine? That was probably the result of one of the first car accidents (let alone sinkings) that ever happened.
A shame the Foal Free Press was right...though the evidence of Fluttershys extensions have yet to be seen (we know Rarity has false eyelashes)
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I get the feeling that it's some kind of industrial tug. I have no evidence that's the case, but that's what it looks like to me. Or maybe it's an early prototype of a Shriner's car.
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It would be interesting to see FS in an episode with a short tail. She might look like this:
2.bp.blogspot.com/-fqldQfiq8fE/U6td60A0pAI/AAAAAAAB0m4/0XOwChGCjkE/s1600/fluttershys_new_haircut_by_hirurux-d5ivtnp.png.jpg
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Or at the very least, seeing her washing the thing, it must need to come off for that at some point?
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I really don't know very much about tail extensions/hairpieces. Of course on an IRL horse, you'd want to take it off when the horse isn't being shown . . . but in a world where the ponies attend to their own grooming, I'm less certain. I'd think it would be much like a wig, I guess. Since I've been genetically blessed with gorgeous flowing locks, I have no experience with hairpieces of any type.