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 ›
SSI
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 ›
“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 ›
Pot Luck
Some fifty-years ago, we were out in the North Sea working on a production platform built alongside the drill platform, the two being connected by a narrow catwalk between the drill deck and production deck of the two platforms, at… Read More ›
Finding ‘AFFRAY’
On 16th April, 1951 HMS/M AFFRAY, disappeared while on a training exercise in the English Channel. Failing to make her scheduled radio report, the search for the sunken submarine continued for over three months in an area rich in wrecks…. Read More ›
Raising A Navy
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 ›