At the conclusion of WWI hostilities, the German High Seas Fleet was interned at the Royal Navy’s northern base at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. On learning of the proposal to give the vessels to the victorious… Read More ›
deep wreck diving
“Oxygen Pete”
Inspired by the successful 1941 attacks – carried out by Italian divers riding ‘chariots’ armed with detachable explosive warheads – on the British battleships, ‘H.M.S.Queen Elizabeth’ and ‘H.M.S.Valiant’, in Alexandria Harbour, the Royal Navy began to devote greater resources to… Read More ›
The Submarine Refreshment Bar
One section of Sir Robert H Davis’ classic work, ‘Deep Diving and Submarine Operations’ is devoted to Divers’ Yarns. One such story concerns a diving operation to salvage the cargo of a sunken merchant vessel. Wearing standard diving dress, a… Read More ›
The Conshelf 1 Experiment
“Under water man shall walk, Shall ride, shall sleep, shall talk”: Prediction by Mother Shipton; 16th century prophetess Increasing the efficiency of working divers, Dr George Bond’s concept of saturation diving (a concept in which divers would live and work… Read More ›
Hydrogen in the Mix
In the early part of the 20th century, American physicist and chemist, Professor Elihu Thomson – the person credited with putting the eventual use of helium on the diving menu – had originally proposed the use of hydrogen as a… Read More ›
The Search for X5
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 ›