The 31st May – as well as being the anniversary of the WWI Battle of Jutland – also marks the anniversary of the 1942 WWII attack on Sydney Harbour by three Japanese Midget Submarines. A little over 23-metres in length… Read More ›
History
“Fins ain’t wot they used to be.”
Although a seemingly simple device, fins are a comparatively modern invention made possible by the introduction of vulcanised rubber. In 1929 the inventor, a Frenchman by the name of Louis de Corlieu, produced a prototype fin made from this material… Read More ›
The Submersible Decompression Chamber
Designed by Robert Davis – the M.D. of Siebe, Gorman & Co. who was later knighted for his services to diving – and submitted for testing by the British Admiralty in 1929, the Submersible Decompression Chamber (SDC) provided welcome relief… Read More ›
Imagination: A Diver’s Worst Enemy?
A section of Sir Robert H Davis’ classic work, ‘Deep Diving and Submarine Operations’ is devoted to Divers’ Yarns. Highlighting the fact that an active imagination can often prove to be a diver’s worst enemy, one of the stories tells… Read More ›
‘Don’t Forget The Diver’
Veteran radio broadcaster, Alistair Cooke’s weekly, ‘Letter From America’, was listened to by audiences from around the world for more than fifty years, before his death on 30th March 2004, His last broadcast for 1996 focussed on the usual media… Read More ›
“To Hidden Depths”
In 1945, Captain Philippe Tailliez (later becoming a leading pioneer in self-contained diving exploration in cave and open ocean) was appointed Commander of the French Navy’s newly-formed, Undersea Research Group, whose members included Jacques Cousteau and Frederic Dumas. Earlier, in… Read More ›