Underwater
History & Time Line
People
have been going under water holding their breath since man first entered the
water. In the past 2300 years though we
have started making advances in our ability to explore and understand the
underwater world. Here is a list of
some significant milestones that have been achieved with guts, determination
and ingenuity.
4500 BC - Coastal cultures such as those found in Greece,
Mesopotamia, China, and probably many other parts of the world, engage in
diving as a form of food-gathering, commerce, or warfare.
1000 BC - The
writings of Homer mention Greek sponge fishermen who plummet to depths of
almost 30 meters (100 feet) by holding a heavy rock. They knew little about the
physical dangers of diving. To try and compensate for the increasing pressure
on their ears, they poured oil into their ear canals and took a mouthful before
descent. Once on the bottom, they spit out the oil, cut as many sponges free
from the bottom as their breath would allow, and were then hauled back to the
surface by a tether.
500 BC - A diver named
Scyllias and his daughter Cyana are commissioned by the Persian King Xerxes as
treasure divers during one of the numerous wars between the Persians and the
Greeks.
414 BC - The
first account of diving used in warfare is found in the narration of the siege
of Syracuse by the Greeks, written by the historian Thucydides. He tells of
Greek divers who submerged to remove underwater obstacles from the harbor in
order to ensure the safety of their ships.
360 BC - Aristotle mentions the use of a sort of air-supply diving bell
in his Problemata: "...in order that these fishers of sponges may be
supplied with a facility of respiration, a kettle is let down to them, not
filled with water, but with air, which constantly assists the submerged man; it
is forcibly kept upright in its descent, in order that it may be sent down at
an equal level all around, to prevent the air from escaping and the water from
entering...."
332 BC - Alexander the Great, in his famous siege of Tyre
(Lebanon), uses demolition divers to remove underwater obstacles from the
harbor. It is reported that Alexander himself made several dives in a crude
bell to observe the work in progress.
100 BC -
Salvage diving operations around the major
shipping ports of the eastern Mediterranean are so well organized that a scale
of payment for salvage work is established by law, acknowledging the fact that
effort and risk increase with depth.
77AD - Plinius
the Elder mentions the use of air hoses by divers.
100 AD - Divers probably began using snorkels made of hollow reeds
200 AD- Peruvian vase shows diver wearing goggles and holding fish.
1300 - Persian divers were using
underwater eye-goggles, made from
the polished shells or tortoises
1500s: Leonardo
da Vinci designs the first known scuba. His drawings of a
self-contained underwater breathing apparatus appear in his Codex Atlanticus.
Da Vinci's design combines air supply and buoyancy control in a single system,
and foreshadows later diving suits. There is no evidence that he ever built his
device. He seems, instead, to have abandoned scuba in favor of refining the
diving bell.
1519 - Ferdinand Magellan and his fleet
depart Portugal on March 20, to begin a daring voyage of discovery. The fleet
would become the first sail around the world. Magellan does not live to see
their accomplishment. He dies on the Island of Mactan in the Philippines in
1521 from the poison arrows of the local natives.
1535 - Guglielmo de Loreno developed what is considered
to be a true diving bell. Guglielmo de Lorena is one of the first to use a
diving bell to complete a one-hour dive.
1578 - The first submarine design was drafted by William
Borne but never got past the drawing stage. Borne's submarine design was based
on ballast tanks which could be filled to submerge and evacuated to surface -
these same principles are in use by today's submarines.
1620 - Cornelis
Drebbel, a Dutchman, conceived and built an oared submersible (the first
successful submarine). Cornelis had designed a wooden submersible vehicle
encased in leather. It was able to carry 12 rowers and a total of 20 men.
Amazingly enough, the vessel could dive to the depth of 20 meters and travel 10
km. He conducted several series of trips below the surface of the Thames River
which lasted many hours. This early submarine was the first to address the
problem of oxygen replenishment while submerged. In constructing his submarine, Drebbel incorporated some of the
ideas of William Bourne, a British mathematician and naval writer who had
outlined a practical submergible vessel in 1578. Drebbel's experimental boat
was made of wood covered by tight-fitting sheets of greased leather. Oars that
protruded through the boat's sides propelled it through the water. The vessel
traveled at an average depth of 4 m (13 ft) during its run from Greenwich to
Westminster. Two tubes, kept above the water by floats, supplied air to the
submersed vessel, which carried a dozen rowers plus several passengers
1622 - A Spanish treasure fleet on its way home is scattered
and largely destroyed by a hurricane near the Florida Keys. The Spaniards will
salvage a small part of the treasure with a custom-built diving bell, but most
of it stays on the bottom.
1650 - Von
Guericke developed the first
effective air pump.
1667 - Robert Boyle observed a gas bubble in the eye of viper that had
been compressed and then decompressed. This was the first recorded observation
of decompression sickness or "the bends." This law (Boyles Law) is
very important for divers.
1669 -George Sinclair, a professor at Glasgow University,
writes a treatise describing the theory and techniques for using diving bells.
1680 - Italian physician Giovanni
Borelli imagines a closed circuit "rebreather."
His drawings show a giant bag using chemical components. to regenerate exhaled
air. This, he suggests, should allow the air to be breathed again by a submerged
diver. Borelli also draws rather bizarre, claw-like feet on his diver. This
leads one historian to stretch things a bit and credit Borelli as the inventor
of swim fins. Others recognize Borelli as the first to envision the scuba diver
as a free-swimming "frogman."
1681- A French priest named Abbe Jean de Hautefeuille
writes The Art of Breathing Underwater, explaining for the first time why,
"It is not possible for man to breathe air at normal atmospheric pressure
when he is himself underwater at depth."
1685 - Based on Sinclair's theories, Sir William Phipps
uses a bell to recover nearly a million dollars' worth of treasure from the
wreck of the Spanish galleon La Nuestra Senora de Almiranta in the West Indies.
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Halley's
diving bell, late 17th century. Weighted barrels of air replenished the
bell's atmosphere. (U.S. Navy Diving Manual) |
1691 - Edmund Halley (of Halley's
Comet fame) patented a diving bell which was connected
by a pipe to weighted
barrels of air that could be replenished from the surface.
1715 - John Lethbridge built a "diving engine",
an underwater oak cylinder that was surface-supplied with compressed air. Water
was kept out of the suit by means of greased leather cuffs, which sealed around
the operator's arms. Using a diving bell he salvages numerous treasures from
ship wrecks off the coasts of Great Britain and South Africa.
1771 - A Frenchman named Freminet produces a crude brass
diving helmet with eye holes. Air is supplied by a bellows into a small air
reservoir, then pumped down to the diver.
1776 – David Brusnell built
the first authenticated attack by military submarine - American Turtle vs. HMS
Eagle, New York harbor.
1786 - John and William Braithwaite develop an improved
version of Freminet's helmet, as does a German named Klingert in 1787.
1788 - John Smeaton
nn American, incorporates several improvements to the diving bell, including: a
bell made from cast iron; the first efficient hand-operated pump to sustain the
air supply via a hose; an air reservoir system and nonreturn valves to keep air
from being sucked back up the hoses when the pump stops. This is the first
truly modern diving bell.
1797 - First Diving Suit German mechanic Karl Heinrich
Klingert creats a device which is the first to be called a "diving suit”.
It consists of a jacket and trousers made of waterproof leather, a helmet with
a porthole, and a metal front. It is linked to a turret with an air reservoir.
The reservoir cannot replenish itself, so the suit has a limited dive time
duration.
1798 – Robert Fulton
built the submarine Nautilus which incorporated two forms of power for
propulsion - a sail while on the surface and a hand-cranked screw while
submerged. Robert Fulton used the
principles that were used in developing the Turtle to make the Nautilus. The Nautilus had a streamlined shape to
reduce water resistance and it also had ballast tanks to raise and lower the
craft. It also had diving planes which could be adjusted to determine the
vessels angle of ascent of descent. The vessel was 21-24.5 ft long and carried
a crew of 4. The only armament on board the Nautilus was an explosive mechanism
called a torpedo. Basically, if was a box of dynamite. Some people have stated
that the Nautilus could stay under sea for 24 hours at a depth of 8 meters
while others say it could stay submerged only up to 6 hours. Fulton also was the first to experiment
with compressed air for the replenishment of oxygen while under the sea.
However, when he tried to get government support money he did not receive any
so the whole project was dropped.
(READ: "The History of American Deep Submersible Operations,"
by Will Forman, Best Pub. Company.)
1808 - Friedrich von Drieberg develops his
"Triton" apparatus. The system uses an air reservoir worn by the diver
but requires that the tank be supplied by surface hoses. The diver obtains air
from the backpack reservoir through a valve operated by nodding his head.
1823 - Charles Anthony Deane patented a "smoke
helmet" for fire fighters. This helmet was used for diving, too. The
helmet fitted over the head and was held on with weights. Air was supplied from
the surface.
1825 - An Englishman, William James, develops a system
that several historians consider to be the first true scuba. It employs tanks
of compressed air and a full diving dress with a helmet. Limits on useful depth
and duration keep it from widespread adoption by commercial divers.
1825 - Charles Condert, an American, develops a
compressed air reservoir consisting of copper tubing bent into a horseshoe and
worn around the diver's body. The system includes a valve to inflate the
diver's suit
1828 - Englishmen Charles & John Deane, based on earlier work in
1823 developing a "smoke helmet," devise a similar helmet with a
diving suit. However the suit was not attached to the helmet so a diver could
not bend over or invert without risk of flooding the helmet and drowning. Never
the less, the diving system is used in salvage work, including the successful
removal of canon from the British warship HMS Royal George in 1834-35. This
108-gun fighting ship sank in 65 feet of water at Spithead anchorage in 1783.
1835 - John Bethel gets patent for a closed dress diving
apparatus
1835 - John Fraser gets patent for a closed dress diving
apparatus
1836 - William Bush gets a patent for a closed dress
diving apparatus.
1836 - Charles Deane publishes the first "how
to" diving manual.
1837 - Augustus Siebe
sealed the Deane brothers' diving helmet to a watertight, air-containing rubber
suit.
1840 - The British Navy orders the Siebe Closed Dress for work on the
recovery of canon from the Royal George and subsequent blasting to clear the
anchorage (first use of underwater explosives). The Admiralty hails the Siebe
diving equipment as a significant improvement in diving equipment for the time.
Subsequently, the "Siebe Improved Diving Dress" is adopted as the
standard diving dress by the Royal Engineers.
1843 - The
first diving school was established by the Royal
Navy.
1844 - A. Schrader’s Son Inc. diving equipment company founded in Brooklyn,
NY
1855 - Seeteufel (Sea Devil) also named
"Chimäre" by the Russians, built in the Leuchtenberg`schen shipyard,
St.Petersburg, by Wilhelm
Bauer. It was designed to go to a
depth of 150 feet. It was 16.32 meters long, 3.45 meters wide, 3.92 meters
high, and made at least 134 test dives.
It had a four men crew and a similar tread wheel system as on the
Brandtaucher. On October 2, 1856 a
valve was left open and the submarine sank.
1863 - Alligator, was the first submarine purchased by the
U.S. Navy, to mine Confederate harbors. She sank in April. Alligator included
two crude air purifiers, a chemical-based system for producing oxygen and a
bellow to force air through lime.
1864 - the Hunley rammed into the USS Housatonic in
Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. A torpedo on the Hunley's spar exploded and
sank both of the vessels. This was the first submarine that made a successful
attack on a warship, during the civil war
1865 - Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouse patented
an apparatus for underwater breathing. It consisted of a horizontal steel tank
of compressed air on a diver's back, connected to a valve arranged to a
mouth-piece. With this apparatus the
diver was tethered to the surface by a hose that pumped fresh air into the low
pressure tank, but he was able to disconnect the tether and dive with just the
tank on his back for a few minutes.
1869 - Jules Verne popularizes the concept of scuba in
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. His central character, Captain Nemo, specifically
cites the Rouquayrol/Denayrouze system and theorizes about the inevitable next
step - severing the diver's reliance on surface-supplied air.
1870-1883: New York's Brooklyn Bridge is built, but many of the workmen pay
a high price. Emerging after extended hours in high-pressure caissons (dry
construction compartments sunk into the riverbed) they become crippled by
"caisson disease." Because of the cramped and frozen joints caused by
the affliction, reporters dub it "the bends."
1873 - Benoît Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze built a
new piece of equipment, a Rigid Diving Suits with a perfected air supply, and a total
weight of 85 kilos.
1878 - English merchant seaman,
Henry Fleuss, develops the first workable, self- contained diving rig that uses
compressed oxygen. This prototype of closed-circuit scuba utilizes rope soaked
in caustic potash to absorb carbon dioxide so that the exhaled gas can be
re-breathed.
1878 - Paul Bert published La Pression Barometrique, a
book length work containing his physiologic studies of pressure changes.
1887 - El Peral -
Designed by Isaac Peral. The first
electric submarine that fired torpedos.
The torpedos had a range of 400 meters @ 24knots
1892 - Frenchman Louis Boutan
develops a variant of the closed-circuit system. The Boutan scuba can be used
for up to three hours at shallow depths.
1893 - Louis Boutan invented the first underwater camera. He later
publishes a handbook for underwater photography, La Photographie Sous-Marine.
1904 - The Fulton by John
Holland, (considered by some to be the father of the modern submarine) (the
prototype for the type 7 design ie., type 7-P) was sold to Russia, 1905 Russia
purchased license to build 5 submarines of type 7-P "The
Fulton". it is rumored that the
five were built.
1908 - John Scott
Haldane, Arthur E. Boycott and Guybon C. Damant, publish their landmark
paper on decompression sickness. "The Prevention of Compressed-Air
Illness" lays the foundation for staged decompression. Decompression
tables based on this research are eventually adopted by the British Navy and
later the United States Navy, saving many divers from the bends..
1910 - J.S. Haldane develops a procedure to prevent
decompression illness (caisson disease) and publishes the first five dive
tables.
1911- Draeger of
Germany introduces an oxygen re-breather.
1912 - The U.S. Navy tested tables published by Haldane,
Boycott and Damant.
1915 - An
early film of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea marks the first commercial use of
underwater cinematography. Cast and crew use modified Fleuss/Davis rebreathers
and "Oxylite," a compound that generates oxygen through a chemical
reaction. (Oxylite explodes if it gets wet, a trait that tends to limit its
popularity as a scuba component.)
1917 - Draeger produces a true scuba system that combines
tanks containing a mixture of compressed air and oxygen (oxygen-enriched air)
with rebreathing technology. It is sold for use at depths to 40 meters (130
feet).
1917 - The U.S. Bureau of Construction & Repair
introduced the Mark V Diving Helmet. It was used for most salvage work during
World War II. The Mark V Diving Helmet
became the standard U.S. Navy Diving equipment.
1918 - The Ogushi Peerless Respirator passes field tests
at 324 feet (99 meters). The Japanese device combines modified false-lung style
closed-circuit rebreather technology with a compressed air reserve. It supplies
air to the diver through a manually controlled on/off valve.
1919 - C. J. Cooke develops a mixture of helium and
oxygen (heliox) for use as a breathing gas by divers. The mixture enables
divers to avoid nitrogen narcosis while diluting oxygen to non-toxic
concentrations. It allows commercial divers to extend their useful working depth
well beyond previous limits.
1921 – Harry Houdini (yes the famous escape artist) patents a "diver's
suit" that permits divers to
quickly escape out of the suit while still submerged and swim to safely
1923 - The first underwater color photographs were taken
by W. H. Longley.
1923 – The"Neufeldt-Kuhnke"
diving was used in the early twentieth century to work in deep waters: its
shell actually resists pressure up to a depth of 160 meters (590 feet), the
breathing system is managed in a closed circuit, a telephone lets the diver
stay in contact with the surface, and the grips serving as hands are mobile
enough to accomplishment exacting tasks.
1924 – The first helium-oxygen experimental dives were
conducted by U.S. Navy and Bureau of Mines.
1925 - A very
successful self-contained underwater
breathing unit is introduced by Yves Le Prieur.
1928 - Invention of the Davis
Submersible Decompression Chamber (SDC) diving bell
1929 - Lieutenant C.B."Swede" Momsen, a submariner and diver,
develops and proves the escape lung that bears his name. It was given its first
operational test when 26 officers and men successfully surfaced from an
intentionally bottomed submarine.
1930 - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution In Cape Cod,
Massachusetts, is founded. Woods Hole would become one of the world's leading
oceanographic research institutions.
1930s - Guy Gilpatric pioneered the use of rubber goggles
with glass lenses for skin diving. By the mid-1930s, face masks, fins, and snorkels
were in common use. Fins were patented by Louis de Corlieu in 1933 .
1930 - William
Beebe descended 1,426 feet (435 meters) in a bathysphere attached to a
barge by a steel cable to the mother ship.
1933 - Jack
Prodanovich, Ben Stone, and Glen Orr (later joined by Jack Corbley, Bill
Batzloff and Wally Potts) start a skin diving club in San Diego - the Bottom
Scratchers. This pioneering group, the first of its kind, helps define the
sport and creates its own folk legends. (In an era preceding the availability
of swim fins, would-be members are required to dive to 30 feet (9 meters.) They
have to capture three abalone on one dive, grab a five-foot horned shark by its
tail, and bring up a "good-sized" lobster) Those who pass the test
include underwater filmmaker Lamar Boren and Jim Stewart, a diving officer at
Scripps Institute.
1933 - Yves Le Prieur modified the Rouquayrol-Denayrouse
invention by combining a demand valve with a high pressure air tank to give the
diver complete freedom from hoses and lines.
1933 - Louis Ce Corlieu patents the first swim fins in
France and later in the US.
1934 - William Beebe
and Otis Barton descended 3,028 feet (923 meters) in a
bathysphere. The record holds for 14
years.
1935 - Louis de Corlieu designs a broadbladed fin to be
worn on the feet by swimmers. The fins make a big splash among free-swimming
"goggle" divers. With their help, skin divers and their sport really
start going places!
1937 - Hans Hass developed the horizonal motion underwater, using the
rebreather.
1937 - The
American Diving Equipment and Salvage Company (now known as DESCO) develops a
self-contained mixed-gas rebreather. It uses a compressed mixture of helium and
oxygen in combination with a fully sealed diving suit. Using the new system,
DESCO diver Max Nohl sets a new world depth record of 420 feet (128 meters).
1937 - Georges Comheines creates a scuba system by
combining the Rouquayrol/Denayrouze valve with le Prieur's system of compressed
air tanks. This breakthrough finally brings to reality the scuba device
anticipated by Jules Verne in 1869. Comheines and a group of friends
demonstrate the device in a "human aquarium" exhibit at the Paris International
Exposition.
1938 - The Compleat Goggler by Guy Gilpatric is released.
This book becomes a popular inspiration for skin divers.
1939 - The McCann-Erickson Rescue Chamber, actually developed by Momsen, is
proven when the USS Squalus, carrying a crew of 59, sank in 243 fsw. Under the
direction of Lieutenant Commander Swede Momsen, the rescue chamber made four
trips and safely brought 33 men to the surface.
1939-1940s: Owen Churchill helps popularize skin diving, making
it a hot sporting craze among cool cats living in coastal areas of the United
States.
1940 - Owen Churchill first produces swim fins. Initially less than a
thousand pairs are sold, but in later years production increases substantially
as thousands are sold to Allied forces.
1941-1944 - During World War II, Italian divers
used closed circuit scuba equipment to place explosives under British naval and
merchant marine ships.
1942-43 - Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan acques-Yves
Cousteau and Emile Gagnan design and test the first Aqua-Lung. This device is a
vast improvement on earlier SCUBA devices and will completely change the sport
diving community over the next decade. Early testers of the first prototypes
included Philippe Tailliez, Frédéric Dumas, Simone Cousteau, Philippe Cousteau,
and Jean-Michel Cousteau. The Aqua Lung
was born.
1942-43 - In the Pearl Harbor salvage operations, navy
divers spent about 16,000 hours under-water performing some 4,000 dives.
Contract civilian divers contributed another 4,000 diving hours to the effort.
1943 - Cousteau, Frederic Dumas and Philippe Tailliez, make over 500 dives
with the Aqua Lung, gradually increasing the depths on each dive. This is the
first workable, open-circuit demand-type scuba regulator. In October Dumas
reaches 210 feet in the Mediterranean Sea.
1946 - Cousteau's Aqua Lung was marketed
commercially in France. (Great Britain 1950, Canada 1951, USA 1952).
1946 - Mar-Vel Underwater Equipment was founded and would
become an early source for skin and scuba diving equipment as well as the
commercial equipment that they specialize in.
1947 - Dumas made a record dive with the Aqua Lung to 307
feet (94 meters) in the Mediterranean Sea.
1948 - A British Navy diver sets and open-sea record of 540 feet
1948 - Otis Barton descended in a modified bathysphere to a depth of
4500 feet (1372), off the coast of California.
1948 - Rene's Sporting Goods in Westwood, CA imports some
of the new Aqua-Lungs to the U.S. Rene Bussoz, a relative of Cousteau, sold
these first Aqua-Lungs and word began to spread within the diving community.
While it is certain that some very influential early divers owned and used this
first few Aqua-Lungs imported it is a sad fact that more individuals claim to
have bought them from Rene than he had stock to fulfill. Careful research was
done by Zale Parry and Al Tillman on this matter and their results will appear
in Scuba America: The History of Sport Diving in America.
1950s - August
Picard with son Jacques pioneered a new
type of vessel called the bathyscaphe. It was completely self-contained and
designed to go deeper than any bathysphere.
1950s - The distinctive red and
white "diver down" flag to warn boaters to stay clear or slow down
to avoid injuring nearby divers is
introduced This is in dispute as
I found one place it was said in 1956 Ted
Nixon cam up with it. You decide and
let me know.
1950 - The International Underwater Spearfishing
Association was founded. The primary person responsible in the United States
was Ralph Davis. The first U.S. National Underwater Spearfishing Championships
were also held that year.
1950 – Cousteau acquires the Calypso,
She was originally built to serve as a
minesweeper for the British, to clear explosives from ports and harbors.
Christened J-826, she was lowered into the water on March 21, 1942
1951 - The Reserve Valve, later commonly known as
"J" valve was developed.
1951 - Deepest Ocean
Point Found The British ship Challenger
II bounces sound waves off the ocean bottom and locates what appears to be the
sea's deepest point. Nearly seven miles down, it is subsequently named the
Challenger Deep. Located off the coast of the Marianas Islands in the Pacific
ocean, the site is known today as the Marianas Trench. If you could put Mount
Everest on the ocean floor in the Marianas Trench, its summit would lie about a
mile below the ocean sirface.
1951 - Hans Hass
published "Diving as Adventure"
1951 - The first
issue of Skin Diver Magazine appeared in December. Skin Diver Magazine was formed by Chuck
Blakeslee and Jim Auxier. The magazine became the central source for
information on the industry. Chuck and Jim were both avid divers and put much
of the magazine's profits toward improving the sport. Among the projects they
funded or created over the years were the first sport diving museum, The
National Diving Patrol, NAUI, The International Underwater Film Festivals, the
Hannes Keller dive, and many other early projects and events.
1952 – NAUTILUS.SSN
571 Her keel was laid by President
Harry S. Truman at the Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, Connecticut on June
14. This brings Jules Verne’s vision of
the submarine in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea that can stay down for
indefinite periods of time to reality.
1952 – Through the use of
echo soundings, Marie Tharp discovers that the Mid-Atlantic Ridge conceals a
long rift valley, which turns out to be part of a hidden volcanic mountain
range that extends the entire length of the Atlantic ocean.
1952 - Silent World was released by Jacques-Yves
Cousteau, Frédéric Dumas, and James Dugan. Silent World tells the story of the
invention and underwater adventures of the early Aqua-Lung and becomes one of
the most influential books in bringing new people to the sport of SCUBA diving.
Many skin divers decide to buy an Aqua-Lung based on this book.
1953 – The first SCUBA club in the United States (2nd
in the world) , The Sea Sabres
SCUBA Club is started by a group of engineers working for Rockwell
International on the Sabre jet. http://www.seasabres.com
1953 - Dr. Hugh Bradner
develops and introduces the so-called "wet suit" made of neoprene.
1953 - Popular Science
gives directions on how to make your own scuba equipment using surplus military
parts.
1953 - "Underwater Safety" containing important
basics on diving safety, was published by E. R. Cross.
1954 - The National Cooperation in Aquatics published the
"Science of Skin and Scuba Diving" and it becomes the main textbook
for diver education.
1954 - The television program Kingdom of the Sea starring
Zale Parry is aired in the US. That same year Parry broke the depth record by
diving to 64 meter near Catalina, CA. Her record attracted many female to scuba
diving.
1954 - Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, and Peter
Lorre star in Walt Disney's popular remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It
wins Academy Awards for art direction and special effects.
1954 - Georges S. Houot and Pierre-Henri Willm used a bathyscaphe to exceed Barton's 1948
diving record, reaching a depth of 13,287 feet (4050 meters).
1954 - The first formal instructor certification program was
created by Al Tillman and Bev Morgan.
The Los Angeles County program quickly becomes the template for all
programs that were to follow.
1954 - The Science of Skin and Scuba Diving is published
by the Council for National Cooperation in Aquatics. This becomes the
cornerstone textbook for diver education.
1954 - The television program Kingdom of the Sea starring
Zale Parry is aired. Parry becomes a national celebrity, especially within the
diving industry. That same year Parry also broke the depth record by diving to
209 feet near Catalina, CA - only stopping because she hit bottom. After the
show and the record dive she becomes a hero to women around the world and many
new female divers join the sport.
1954 - Al Tillman and Bev Morgan develop the first public
skin and scuba diver education program in the United States. The Los Angeles
County program quickly becomes the template for all programs that were to
follow.
1955 - The first formal instructor certification program
was created by Al Tillman and Bev Morgan.
1955 - Sam Davison, Jr., introduces the
"Dial-A-Breath," a double-hose, double-diaphragm regulator, complete
with a built-in low-pressure reserve and variable breathing resistance. It
helps touch off a competitive frenzy, as other manufacturers seek special
features to distinguish their own lines of equipment. Davison goes on to build
his own equipment manufacturing company, Dacor.
1956 - A group of scientists at the University of
California are researching thermodynamic principles as applied to the
protective properties of Arctic long johns. Instead of perfecting polar
underwear, they invent a new type of outerwear for divers. The fabric: a
neoprene foam manufactured by Rubatex as automobile insulation. The concept:
replace a physical barrier (the supposedly watertight diving suit) with a more
user-friendly thermal barrier. That means that the wearer gets wet but stays
warm anyway. The product becomes known, logically enough, as the wetsuit. Early
production models are 1/8-inch thick, made by EDCO, and marketed by the Beaver
company of La Jolla, California.
1957 - The first segment
of Sea Hunt aired on television, starring Lloyd Bridges as Mike Hunt,
underwater adventurer.
1957-62 Genesis Project experiments conducted as the
pre-cursor of navy saturation diving
1957 - Al Tillman and Zale Parry organize the first International Underwater
Film Festival. Subsequent festivals were held in various cities around the
world.
1958 - Sherwood Manufacturing announce the piston regulator.
1958 - USS Nautilus successfully passes under the North Pole First Submarine
ever to cross over the top of the world
1958 - Sea Hunt airs and becomes the driving force in
bringing in unprecedented numbers of new divers to the sport. The show stars
Lloyd Bridges as Mike Nelson and is produced by veteran producer Ivan Tors.
Famous divers including Zale Parry, Lamar Boren, and Al Tillman work in front
of or behind the cameras on the show.
1959 - YMCA began the first nationally
organized course for scuba certification
1959 - The Underwater Society of America was formed.
1960 - Jacques Picard and Don Walsh descended to 35,820
feet (10,918 meters) in the bathyscaphe Trieste.
1960 - Dick Birch opens the four-room Small Hope Bay on Andros Cay in The
Bahamas the earliest known dedicated dive resort. Small Hope Bay offers a
remote location sheltered by the Andros Barrier Reef, less than 200 miles from
Miami. Now with 20 rooms, it is still in business.
1960 - Al Tillman (Founder of the Los Angeles County
Underwater Unit) and Neal Hess (Columist and Director of the of the National
Diving Patrol for Skin Diver Magazine), with help from Garry Howland and John
Jones, create the National
Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) and hold its first instructor
certification course in Houston during the Underwater Society of America
Convention. Tillman adapts the Los Angeles County course to be taught to individuals
from any diving venue and NAUI incorporates as a non-profit agency. NAUI
becomes the first international certification agency. Early financing and
administrative assistance for the agency came from Skin Diver Magazine.
1960 - Diving pioneer Connie Limbaugh drowns while diving in a cave in France. Limbaugh, the first chief diving officer at Scripps Institute, is among the most admired divers in the world and a leading marine scientist. His death saddens everyone in the industry and makes divers everywhere feel vulnerable.
1961:- Maurice Fenzy patents a device invented by the
underwater research group of the French navy. The device includes an inflatable
bag with a small attached cylinder of compressed air. It rapidly becomes the
first commercially successful buoyancy compensator. Within a few years, divers
throughout Europe, and a few well-traveled Americans, are wearing
"Fenzys."
1961 - Ed Replogle invents a "sonic alarm" that
automatically warns its user (and everyone else in the vicinity) of low air
pressure. The device, manufactured by Sherwood and sold by Healthways, signals
that safety remains a major concern in the recreational diving industry.
1961 - The National Association of Skin Diving Schools
(NASDS) was founded by John Gaffney.
1962 - US Navy Seal Teams 1 and 2 formed
1962 - Beginning
in 1962 several experiments were conducted whereby people lived in underwater
habitats.
1963 - In the "Man in
the Sea" project Ed Link spends 24 hours at 61 meter (200 feet.)
1963 - Dick Bonin and Gustav dalla Valle found Scubapro.
Gustav later becomes internationally famous as one of the primier wine
producers in the world.
1964 - SEALAB I, began in July 1964. This was a scheduled three week
stay for four divers, Barth, Manning, Anderson and Thompson, at a depth of 193
feet (69 meters.)
1965 - SEALAB II
August 28, 1965, three teams of divers spent 10 -16 days each at a depth of 205
feet (65 meters) in the La Jolla canyon off Scripps Institute of Oceanography in California
1965 - CONSHELF III
began in September 1965 when the habitat reached the bottom off Cap
Ferrat at a depth of 328 feet (100 meters) A six-man team spent 22 days on
the bottom
1965: Thunderball, starring Sean Connery, glamorizes and
updates the image of scuba with waves of diving extras and starlets galore.
Agent 007 saves the world but gives diving retailers fits as customers demand
to buy scuba gear "just like James Bond's." The special visual
effects win an Academy Award.
1966 - The
Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) was founded by John Cronin
and Ralph Ericson..
1968 - John J. Gruener and R. Neal Watson dove to 437
feet (133 meters) breathing compressed air.
1970s - Important advances relating to scuba safety that
began in the 1960s became widely implemented in the 1970s, such as certification
cards to indicate a minimum level of training, change from J-valve reserve systems to non-reserve K
valves, and adoption of the BC and single hose regulators as essential pieces
of diving equipment.
1970 - Bob Clark founded Scuba Schools International (SSI).
1977 - NOAA
Established The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is established.
This U.S. Government agency is responsible for all U.S. weather and climate
forecasting, monitoring and archiving of ocean and atmospheric data, management
of marine fisheries and mammals, mapping and charting of all U.S. waters,
coastal zone management, and research and development in all of these areas.
1971 - Scubapro introduces the Stabilization Jacket.
1972 - First Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) for the Navy becomes
operational
1975 – JAWS The movie filled theaters with people, but
emptied the seas of people. Stephen Spielberg's bodacious beast makes a bunch
of bucks for novelist Peter Benchley but takes a big bite out of the diving
business. Shark-o-phobia, ending 15 consecutive years of industry growth.
Aftershocks echo in 1977 with The Deep and in 1978 and 1983 with. Jaws 2 and
Jaws 3.
1977 - Hydrothermal Vents Discovered Scientists aboard
the deep sea submersible, Alvin, discover and document incredible deep sea
hydrothermal vents in the eastern Pacific ocean. Scalding hot water pouring
from these vents enriches the water with nutrients and provides food for
bacteria and a host of other organisms. This discovery rocks the scientific
community because, for the first time, an ecosystem was found that thrives
without the energy of the Sun. Instead of relying on sunlight and
photosynthesis, these ecosystems rely on chemicals energy through a process
known as chemosysnthesis.
1977 - The first DEMA
trade show is held.
1979 - Sylvia
Earle walked unassisted on the sea floor: at a record depth of 1,250 feet below
the surface. She wore a special pressured suit, and was carried by a vessel
down to the 1,250-foot depth off the island of Oahu. At the bottom, she detached from the vessel and explored the depths
for two and a half hours with only a communication line connecting her to the
submersible, and nothing at all connecting her to the world above. She
describes this adventure in her book Exploring the Deep Frontier.
1980 - The Nautilus, the worlds first nuclear powered ship was
decommissioned on March 3, after a career spanning 25 years and almost half a
million miles steamed She now is based at Groton, Connecticut and is a nation
historical monument open to the public.
1980 - Divers Alert Network “DAN” was founded at Duke University as a
non-profit organization to promote safe diving.
1981 - Record 2250 foot (685 meters)-dive was made in a Duke Medical
Center chamber.
1983 - The Orca Edge, the first commercially available
dive computer, was introduced.
1985 - Mel Fisher's team finds the main body of the 1622
wreck Atocha, along with its fabled $400 million in gold, silver, emeralds, and
priceless historic artifacts. The event marks the ultimate fulfillment of the
treasure hunter's fantasy. Publicity given Fisher's find (not to mention the
lawsuits that follow) helps fuel America's reviving fascination with
recreational diving.
1985 - The wreck of the Titanic was
found by Dr. Ballard, turning him into an instant celebrity.
1989 – Sheck Exley, March of
1989, using Trimix, descended to a world record depth of 881 feet inside the
cave at Rio Mante, returning to the
surface after 14 hours of decompression with no harmful effects. Only
commercial divers, working from diving bells which supplied their breathing
mixture through umbilical tubes and provided shelter for days or weeks of
decompression (a level of support not possible in a cave) had ever been deeper.
1990s - An estimated 500,000 new scuba divers are
certified yearly in the U.S., new scuba magazines form and scuba travel is big
business. There is an increase of diving by non-professionals who use advanced
technology, including mixed gases, full face masks, underwater voice
communication, propulsion systems, and so on.
1993 – Sheck Exley and his team
continued their explorations of deep caves and springs. In August, Exley
reached 863 feet in Bushmansgat,
South Africa.
1993 - September Ann Kristovich, team physician,
descended to 541 feet into Pit 6350, north of Tampico, Mexico, a new cave depth
record for women
1994 - On April 6, Jim Bowden and Sheck Exley
entered the water at Pit 6350. After months of meticulous calculations and
planning, their descent would be over within a few moments. In 11 minutes,
Bowden had reached a new record depth of 925 feet, and turned upward to begin 8
1/2 hours of decompression at shallower depths. Sadly as Sheck tried to go deeper he had a fatal accident.
1994 - Bret
Gilliam and Mitch Skaggs formed Technical Diving International (TDI)
1997 - Navy diving and salvage assets are used in the recovery of TWA 800
1998 - Scuba Diving International (SDI) was created.
1999 - Chuck Driver and John Bennett descend to 200 meter
(656 feet.) The deepest oceanic dive ever completed. The same year Barte Vestor
set a challenging 225 meter (738 feet) mark.
2000 - Record of 664 ft (202.5m) on SCUBA set in March by
Belgian Ben Reymenants at Dahab in Egypt.
2000 – Record 833ft (254m) SCUBA open-water dive in the
Philippines in August in which 41-year-old Briton John Bennett set a
world record depth
2001 - John Bennett
John Bennett reaches 1000ft (308m) depth British technical diver John Bennett
has smashed his own world depth record and become the first man to dive below
1000ft on scuba. He completed a dive of
308m at Puerto Galera in the Phillipines on Tuesday 6 November using
open-circuit equipment and mixed gas. With decompression, the dive took more
than nine and a half hours. He experienced a problem with one of his ears on
the ascent, but is said to be fit and well and ready to go diving again in a
few days I'm sorry to say, that as of
12.45 Monday the 15th of March, 2004, while doing a salvage dive, John Bennett
went missing. His buddy on the dive said they were both at 147ft or 45m on
top of the ship, water temp 7c or 43f visibility one to two meters no current.
2002 - London Marathon
runner clad in a deep sea diving suit - finally finished the course.
Lloyd Scott hopes his time of five days, eight hours, 29 minutes and 46 seconds
will win him a place in the record books - for the slowest ever marathon
2002 - The last issue of Skin
Diver Magazine appeared in November.
2002 - Dr. Wheeler North passed away on December 20, 200. He was 80
years old. He was a pioneer and leading expert in kelp forest research. He
helped find many of the uses for kelp and the safest methods of harvesting
kelp. Over 220 products are made from harvested kelp.
2003 - The Co
Founder of PADI, John J.
Cronin passes away July 15.
2003 - Tanya Streeter in July, smashes women’s single breath hold
record of 312 feet (95 meter) by going all the way down to 400
feet on one breath (122 meters.).
2003 – New Depth record on SCUBA December 21 Mark Ellyatt, British diving instructor, has set a new world record of 1,026.9 feet in Thailand for the deepest scuba dive, besting the previous mark by 16.4ft..It took 12 minutes to find his way into the depths off the resort island of Phuket in southern Thailand - but he needed six hours and 40 minutes to return safely to the surface, according to the Phuket Gazette.
2004 - Albert Alvin Tillman,
76, co-founder of NAUI and the Los Angeles County instructor program passed
away January 16 in Seattle.
What I hope I have created here a list of the most important
events. I acquired the events by
searching other peoples time lines, searching for historical records and
reading current events. To make my list
more informative than the other time lines out there, I have gone and inserted
links to all of the important events that I could find ( and I am still looking!)
Please email me if any links are not
working, you know of links I should include or of any events that you think
that I should post on this list. I am striving to make this the most complete
Diving History Times Line on the net.
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Last Updated March 29, 2004