Developed by the Royal Navy during WWII, the X-craft were midget submarines manned by a crew of four – one of whom was the designated diver. Because of their limited range, the smaller X-Craft would be towed by a ‘mother’… Read More ›
History
Bruco And The Door-Stop
Designed by Australian, Ted Eldred, the ‘Porpoise’ became the world’s first single-hose, open-circuit regulator. A major disadvantage of the early models was the lack of a mechanism to purge water from the second-stage chamber should it become dislodged from the… Read More ›
The ‘K-Force’
A comparative latecomer to the idea of using combat divers and swimmers in an offensive role, the nucleus of what was to become Germany’s KampfSchwimmerKompanie, (the ‘K-force’) were sent to Italy in 1943 to learn from, and train in,… Read More ›
“The Silent Enemy”
Lionel “Buster” Crabb achieved fame for his wartime exploits in Gibraltar as a member of the Royal Navy’s, ‘Underwater Working Party’ – a team of volunteer divers that could be speedily deployed to search ships hulls for explosive devices. (Named… Read More ›
A Breath-Taking Experience
The 1996 Tek.Asia Conference – supported by its own magazine, ‘tec asia’, distributed to subscribers of Asian Diver Magazine – re-introduced rebreathers to the Asian market. While interest in rebreathers and their capabilities was high, only three machines were realistically… Read More ›
Where There’s Smoke there’s ‘Salvus’.
An early self-contained oxygen rebreather that, in the early part of the 20th century, was originally intended for land-based use in underground mines and other confined spaces containing poisonous atmospheres (including being used during WWI to protect machine gunners serving… Read More ›
