The Magazine for Underwater Professionals
Sep/Oct 2014
ILLUSTRATED GLOSSARY & FROM OUR ARCHIVES
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO)
The MMO exists to make a “significant contribution to sustainable development in the marine area”. Under its current legislation, it does not consider it necessary to require licences for ships’ anchors up to ten tons. However, to lay a small mooring, a licence must be applied for, at significant cost, and a waiting period of three months will be required whilst the MMO considers the implications, and then the licence will almost certainly be granted. Hmmmm.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES . . .
100 years ago
In June 1914 a French Navy diver tried to recover a torpedo which had partly buried itself in the sandy seabed off Cherbourg. Unfortunately, the propeller started up as he worked on it and cut through his airline. The good news is that the torpedo began to rise so the diver grabbed hold of it and was carried safely to the surface!
150 years ago
In 1864 a diver named Waters was making good money cleaning the bottoms of Yankee monitors anchored at Port Royal, Baltimore. He worked from a spar lashed athwart ship below the vessels and scraped away the growth of oysters, shells and seagrass. He remained underwater five to six hours at a time. It was estimated that he removed 250 bushels of growth from the Montauk alone (one bushel = eight gallons).
