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Bob Barth, the author of Sea Dwellers; The Humor, Drama and Tragedy of the US Navy SEALAB Programs, is a diver's diver. And this is very much a diver's book. You can almost smell the compressor oil and hear the hissing gases as you immerse yourself in the gripping anecdotes. If anyone wanted to plumb the depths of a diver's psyche, then the pages of this book would provide plenty of answers. 
The Sealab project was on a par with the Apollo missions of the 1960s. The project was a real part of that magic decade. I can remember being absolutely enthralled at every snippet of news that emerged from the project at the time.I was then in the privileged position of working as a Royal Navy scientist in the field of deep diving research. I met and worked with several of the key Sealab personnel who visited our laboratory or worked there as exchange officers. These included George Bond, Bob Borneman, Jim Bladh and Jim Vorosmarti, all serious professionals. I even managed to share a car with Scott Carpenter on one occasion. I felt almost as though I was part of the team (anyone can dream). Bob Barth was the Chief Diver throughout the three Sealab missions. So who better to tell the diver's story? The beauty of the book is that it is not the official story, it is not the contrived public relations version, it is the real-world, front-end account, warts and all. The author relates a seemingly endless number of juicy anecdotes about the tasks and antics he and his various teamsters carried out. He takes you through the development of saturation diving and habitat diving, step by step, as each step was being learned - the hard way. Many of his stories concern the bodily abuse he and his fellow divers had to suffer in the name of physiological research. He also relates many tales of how the medics suffered in their turn as he retaliated with a sense of humour that walked a narrow line between a belly-laugh and a court martial. The book ends with tragedy. The last chapter is devoted to the circumstances surrounding the sad death of Aquanaut Berry L Cannon. It was a lottery who was destined to die. Either Barth himself or Cannon was to pick up the rebreather that proved to be the killer. Fate chose Cannon. The untimely death of Aquanaut Cannon led to the demise of the entire Sealab programme. Many believe that this was a flawed decision. Famed for his outspokenness, Bob Barth unequivocally states: "To abandon SEALAB is something I will never understand or forgive". This book was a delight to read. It records a monolithic milestone in the history of deep diving - no less than the birth of saturation diving. Informative - and essential! 
Produced by IMCA for mixed gas diving supervisors, The Diving Supervisor's Manual is a superbly informative book. In addition to the unavoidable sections on diving physics and physiology (which include useful self-test questions), there are extensive and highly detailed sections on diving procedures, gas handling, chambers and habitats, and in particular an important section on safety and methods.Finally, there is a section on the twelve IMCA certification schemes. This manual will undoubtedly be a great asset to the future training and operations of mixed gas diving supervisors. It will help provide a level playing field for those in the training system by offering a tangible standard to build on and to aim for. The production of such a book represents an awesome amount of work, and Paul Williams and his colleagues at IMCA who helped put it together deserve great praise. This first edition will have been the most difficult to produce. Subsequent editions will undoubtedly see some honing, elaboration, and hopefully be accompanied by more diagrams and illustrations. But this will be comparatively easy, now that the substantial groundwork has been done. Since this is a manual, I would hope that each copy will get heavy use by a number of people. However, bearing in mind the rigours of offshore working conditions, I suspect that the wire binding and soft covers format may fall short of the necessary long-term robustness. Disappear My other concern with a wire binding is the way such books disappear as soon as they are placed on a shelf, because there is no spine to identify their subject. In this case, the binding does not do justice to such a prestige book and its invaluable contents. I hope that a more practical binding is provided in the fullness of time. That said, the success of the manual is guaranteed - for no self-respecting supervisor will dare be without one, and no trainee supervisor is likely to succeed without one. |
© 2000 Underwater World Publications Ltd.