A scientific ‘all-rounder’, South Australian, Reg Sprigg (b.1919 – d.1994) was a geologist and early environmentalist whose many credits include the discovery of the world’s oldest fossils in South Australia’s, Flinders Ranges and the first person in Australia to make… Read More ›
rebreather diving
Inky and Pinky: Puppy Love
1965 was, ‘The Year of Living Dangerously’. Operating in and out of Singapore and the dockyard at Sembawang throughout 1965 – during ‘Konfrontasi’ with Indonesia – there were, before again falling into an on-going routine of ship’s bottom searches and… Read More ›
“Lest We Forget”
On the 25th August, 2000, in a ceremony as dignified as the deeds of those that it honoured, the Royal Australian Navy paid tribute to the Clearance Diving Branch with the dedication of a permanent memorial to those Clearance Divers,… Read More ›
The ‘Polly-Gaff’ Gas Analyser
Technology has enjoyed considerable advances since the Polly-Gaff’ Gas Analyser was first announced – almost thirty years ago, in the May 1997 pages of Scuba Diver Magazine —————– The inherent problem with gas analysers is their frailty. While primary diving… Read More ›
‘Margaret’ and Me
In the early ‘seventies the heavy demand for divers to work on the North Sea gas and oil platforms exceeded supply. Wages were high. So was the diver mortality rate. Confronted by a harsh environment and difficulties not previously encountered… Read More ›
The Cell Door Saga
On Tuesday, 13th April, 1999, John Lippmann, the late, Bob Ramsay, Grahame Weir and myself settled down in the former Billiard Room at Raffles Hotel, Singapore, for a quiet little drink as a prelude to the start of the following… Read More ›