Author Archives

Diving since 1961 – with a background in military, commercial, recreational and technical diving – David Strike has dived extensively throughout the Asia Pacific region, has authored several hundred articles about diving, is the recipient of the ADEX ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for contributions to Technical Diving, a Fellow of the Explorers Club of New York, and the former owner and organiser of the biennial OZTeK Technical Diving Conference and a regular speaker and presenter at regional and international diving events. He is presently engaged in producing a series of diving-related books.

• P.L.U.T.O. Pups

  By Strike on September 3, 2024

  

  Operation PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean) was to supply petrol from storage tanks in southern England to the advancing Allied armies in France in the weeks and months following D-Day during the latter stages of WWII. Constructing flexible yet… Read More ›

• Taking Solace From The Quantum

  By Strike on June 6, 2024

  

  uAccording to one of my many dismal school reports, and, in part, thanks to a Physics teacher’s comments, I, “lacked an imagination”. That particular physics teacher could have truthfully also added that I always appeared to be bored by the… Read More ›

• A Load of ‘Old Cobblers’.

  By Strike on June 1, 2024

  It was almost dusk on one of those perfect days in late Summer.  Krabmann, our host, eased his bulk out of the sturdy Planters chair and set about freshening our drinks, pausing occasionally to listen to the muffled sounds of… Read More ›

• Raising the ‘Vasa’

  By Strike on May 1, 2024

  

  Launched in 1627, the Swedish warship, ‘Vasa’, capsized and sank in Stockholm harbour in 1628 while setting out on her maiden voyage. Although most of her cannons were recovered in 1664, the warship remained largely undisturbed until its rediscovery in… Read More ›

• “Hazardous And Arduous Service” – Part 2

  By Strike on February 4, 2024

  

  X-Craft   Developed by the Royal Navy, in 1942 during WWII, as a more potent undersea weapon than the ‘Chariots’, the X-craft were midget submarines manned by a crew of four – one of whom was the designated diver. Embodying… Read More ›

• “Hazardous And Arduous Service” – Part 1

  By Strike on February 4, 2024

  

  Inspired by the successful WWII attack by six Italian divers riding three manned torpedoes on the British battleships, HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth, then – in December, 1941 – at anchor in Alexandria Harbour, the British Prime Minister, Winston… Read More ›