Cover of Wardle’s book, ‘Dive Navy’

Harry Wardle – later becoming the Royal Navy’s Deputy Superintendent of Diving, but, in 1947,  the Officer in Charge of the Royal Navy Diving School – recalls his meeting with Cousteau and the R.N.’s first – brief – flirtation with the open circuit Aqualung.

“In the summer of 1947, I was requested to visit the Imperial Hotel, in Torquay, to meet a man called Cousteau who had a new diving set – Morty Drummond, ex-Royal Navy, has since persuaded me that it must have been Jacques Cousteau himself.

“I tried his new device, the Aqualung, and was most impressed by its simplicity.  As a strong swimmer, its scope for sports diving was obvious and I wrote a glowing report to Commander Shelford.  Some months later Jimmy Hodges, a wartime officer, came down to Devonport to try out an underwater camera with an Aqualung.

Unfortunately, the bottles were devoid of air since, at that time, we had no means of charging the bottles, so we could not use the set.

“I believe Commander Shelford had done a swap with Cousteau …  Aqua lungs for Rebreathing sets.”

(Commander Shelford – later overseeing Royal Navy Petty Officer Bollard’s 1948 Deep Diving record – was, at that time, the Royal Navy’s Superintendent Of Diving.)

—ENDS—

Categories: History

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