decompression treatment for the bends.

The woman, who is not being named, was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital early yesterday.

She underwent almost five hours in the hospital's decompression chamber before being transferred to a general ward where she was kept for observation overnight.

The woman was a crew member on board the sail training ship Empire State which called at Bermuda on Thursday from New York City.

On Sunday, a group of 40 people from the ship went diving before going back on board and setting sail from St. George's in the afternoon.

By about 9.30 p.m. the ship called Harbour Radio and reported that a crew member was showing signs of the bends and had a headache and pains in the joints.

The ship turned back and reached Bermuda just after 2 a.m. yesterday. The woman was taken off the ship and treated in the hospital's decompression chamber.

She was the only one in the diving party that suffered any symptoms of the bends -- a build up of nitrogen in the blood causing minute bubbles to form.

It is not known where she was diving.

The Empire State left Bermuda again yesterday en route for Philadelphia.

DIVING SEA SHIP SHI